Pictured from left to right: Mike Dellosa, Matt Pauli, Sarah Gnoddie, Nick

The College’s “Selling and Sales Management” and “Sport Marketing” classes teamed with the Indians to help promote ticket sales, while Mount Union’s Office of Student Involvement and Leadership held a canned food drive contest. The student contributing the most canned goods earned a chance to throw out the first pitch at the game. The canned food was distributed to an Alliance area food pantry.

The Office of Student Involvement and Leadership also held an “American Idol” singing contest, the winner of which will have an opportunity to sing the national anthem at an Indians game next spring.

Dr. Jim Kadlecek, assistant professor of sport management and business marketing at the College, set up the project for his classes to gain hands-on experience. Jim McManus, an account executive with the Indians and Mount Union alumnus, was involved in the project by coordinating in-class training sessions and role-playing opportunities to teach the sales process to the students.

The students would then make contact with a controlled and approved list of organizations and friends by using the sales process they learned in class. The students promoted the tickets and then McManus followed up and made the sale if the client agreed to buy the tickets from the Mount Union student.

“The project was designed to provide a practical learning experience for the students,” said Kadlecek. “Our students got tremendous experience and insight into the sales process.”

The training process gave the students only two weeks to promote the ticket sales. However, the outcome was a pleasant surprise.

“I thought the project went pretty well,” said McManus. “We sold more tickets than I thought we would.”

An incentive of the project was an opportunity to be on the field at the game. The top two student sellers received two game tickets and field passes. Senior Matt Pauli of Alliance and junior Sarah Gnoddie of Bedford were awarded the top sellers.

“At first the project was intimidating,” said Pauli. “Anytime you have a project where you apply the tools and theories you are currently learning in class, it becomes a real challenge. Fortunately, I was one of the top sellers and got to be on the field before the game. It is not something you get to do very often, and being five feet from Omar Vizquel, the Indians' shortstop, was really fun.”

Sarah had another motivation to become the project’s top seller. Her seven-year-old cousin Nick is a huge Indians fan.

“I really wanted to take Nick,” explained Gnoddie. “That was my real motivation. He had so much fun. He got to see some of the players, and he actually got to meet and sit on Omar’s (Vizquel) lap. I was so happy for him.”

The winner of the canned food drive/first pitch contest was sophomore Mike Dellosa from Uniontown.

“I wasn’t nervous until I got to the pitching mound,” said Dellosa. “Once I looked across the field and saw the players watching, the butterflies kicked in. I did get the ball over the plate however. It was pretty exciting out there.”