Women In Sport Wednesday with Hannah Carson

By: Madison Hedding

Women In Sports Wednesday 
A one-on-one in-depth series sharing the stories of women in sports, shedding light on issues
and challenges that women in sports face, and how to navigate those to be successful in this
industry.
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Who: Hannah Carson (picture attached) 
Title: Assistant Director of Marketing at Xavier 
Social Handles: Twitter: @hannycarson | Insta: @hannycarson

“I am so thankful that I am confident in myself and where I’m at now. But I wish I had that mindset sooner so I would have been confident enough to have said something and stood up for myself in situations. But because I had to learn that, I grew in ways that I never thought was possible; and not only did I better myself as a human but as a female in the sports industry.” 

What’s your story? 

“I started loving sports even before I was born.” Hannah Carson was destined to navigate the road less traveled and to find her footing in a career in sports. Her dad named her after Hannah Storm, the sports journalist, and he was also a big advocate for women in sports. Naturally, she took on that role, and slowly but surely found her calling in the sports world. 

Her earliest memories of being involved in sports are the ones where her dad took her to Xavier basketball games and Cincinnati Bengals football games. “I grew up naturally becoming a sports fan before I even knew what working in sports was because I was attending all of these sporting events with my dad.” When middle school and high school hit, Hannah’s entire life revolved around sports, basketball, and volleyball. AAU, club, varsity, you name it, she was playing it. She knew she needed to have games stick around in her life in some capacity, but didn’t have any idea of how to get a job in the industry. 

When she graduated from high school, she was considering pursuing a basketball career in college. Hannah got offers at DII and DIII levels, but she didn’t want to go that route. As one who had such a raw love and emotion for the game, Hannah decided it was going to be better to try to play intramurals or walk on a club team, and still get that college-like experience. 
Heading into college, Hannah took the turn and went to Ohio University as an undecided major. She knew they had a sports management program but wasn’t entirely sold yet on pursuing it again. When Freshman year Hannah made her way to college and realized she needed a job but didn’t want to work in the dining hall, she turned to work as a referee for intramurals. “I started working as an official, and then worked my way up to a program assistant, to a supervisor, and then into club sports as a student director.” 

With her time spent heavily involved in that job, Hannah realized she could turn this into a career in sports. The light finally was turned on in her head, and pushed her to start taking sports management classes and showed her that working in sports was definitely what she wanted to do. 

Coming home for the summer, Hannah had an internship with the Cincinnati Reds in group ticket sales. She knew she didn’t want to work in ticketing but was set on having some internship under her belt going into her sophomore year. “I took the first internship I got that summer. I needed to do something in sports.” She also worked that same summer for the Western/Southern Tennis Open ticket office. “I realized working in ticketing was fun, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do forever. I knew I was going to find my place in sports; I wasn’t sure where that was going to be just yet.” 

“I started reaching out to local colleges in the area the following summer. I reached out to anyone that I could find an email for and worked in the athletic marketing and communications departments. I asked if they had any opportunities for a student who had some experience working in sports.” Hannah didn’t know what they did exactly, but they knew it was going to be broad enough to find something interesting in it, hopefully. At the time, she declared her major at Ohio University in Communications and figured it might be a good fit. 

Out of all of the colleges, Hannah reached out to; the Xavier Athletic Marketing Department was the only school to reply. They needed a summer intern, and with Hannah’s moldable experience and hardworking personality, they had no choice but to give her an opportunity. “I followed the marketing department around all summer and took in everything I could. I guess they liked me enough and asked me to come back for the following summer!” When she graduated, Hannah felt like she didn’t have enough experience at the time to even apply to jobs in sports. So she decided going back to school was the right move for her. 
“I was thinking about getting my masters, so I decided to come home to Cincinnati and attend Xavier.” Doing what she did the last time to get a job, she reached out to the marketing department at Xavier again and asked about a Graduate Assistant position. With her experience in the department and boldness to ask for an opportunity, yet they still said yes and brought Hannah back onto the team. 

“I was 24/7, going to work, going to class, then coming back to work. I crunched the numbers, and during my time as a GA, I probably only made about $2 an hour, but it was so worth it.” After she completed her masters, she took a summer off to look for a full-time job in sports. She was searching around the area, but nothing was panning out. But Hannah had to go through a five-month waiting period before she found a position working for iHeartMedia in their promotions department. It was marketing in a sense, but it wasn’t sports, and Hannah knew her heart was in the sports world. 

It’s crazy how the world works. During Hannah’s time in waiting, some position changes within the marketing department left an assistant director of marketing position available for hire. Hannah got the call and was told to stop looking for jobs and come back home to where she belonged; at Xavier. She is now entering her third season as a full-time Musketeer, and she wouldn’t have changed a thing. 

Share some struggles/challenges you have had to overcome that you face as a woman working in sports? 

“When I was thinking about this question, I split it into three different things. The way it was when I was in high school going into undergrad, when I was a GA, and where I’m at now.” Looking back, Hannah now sees that she didn’t realize the struggles she went through and didn’t even think twice about facing them; as to her, it seemed like something everyone in sports had to deal with.

“I am so thankful that I am confident in myself and where I’m at now. But I wish I had that mindset back in the day, so I would have been confident enough where I could have said something and stood up for myself in those situations. But because I had to learn that, I grew in ways that I never thought was possible; and not only did I better myself as a human but as a female in the sports industry.” 

Starting with her undergraduate career and working in intramural sports, Hannah automatically had the cards stacked against her being a female referee. Females don’t often officiate men’s intramural sports. Because of her position, she was assigned those teams and was consequently subjected to harassment every time she went to work. “They would always make comments, ‘how can she be the referee because she probably doesn’t even know the rules about football’ or ‘how would she know how to track the score for softball? She’s just a girl’.” To this day, Hannah still remembers the questioning of her character and experience. No wonder women who work in sports are continually questioning their ability to do their jobs because of UNNECESSARY comments from those who doubt us. 

But through that, Hannah realized that most of her negative experiences came from the classroom, which is a topic that is DEFINITELY not talked about at all in the sports industry. “It happened in both undergraduate and graduate classes. But it always occurred in the sport management classes I took, where I experienced yet again the UNNECESSARY harassment from my male counterparts.” Hannah was one of the few girls in her classes usually but was always outnumbered. But, she still felt that she had to defend herself and her thoughts or opinions. No matter if it was a debate or a classroom discussion, she was always told, “Hannah, you have to share the girl’s opinion on this” or “what’s the girl’s opinion on this.” No matter what she would say, one of the males in the class would always knock it down and find a way to make her wrong. 

Now to that point, not all instances were coddled by her professors and peers. Hannah remembers a situation distinctly wherein one of her classes was in discussion with a male peer, and he started being disrespectful towards her. Hannah’s professor then shouted that person out and said, “You better shut up because you’re probably going to be working for her one day.” It was then that Hannah realized how true that statement was; and her value in the industry. 

As Hannah is currently working at Xavier, she hasn’t dealt with that constant harassment due to the inclusive and empowering environment. “I feel like I’ve proven myself because I’ve put in the work; I’m confident in myself, and because of that, people start to respect you more. But that shouldn’t be the case for women to finally feel ‘equal’ after going through UNNECESSARY steps that men walk right into.” You shouldn’t even have to prove yourself, but sadly that it’s a reality. Even in the midst of that, Hannah firmly says, “I can’t say enough great things about the environment at Xavier and the empowerment of women in our department.”

 It is the small comments that add up and come to haunt us later in life. It’s the sarcastic remarks from your guy friends when you confidently speak up about something in sports; it’s the questioning of your sports knowledge by guys when you’re watching the game at the bar, or even the comments from those on the internet when you talk about sports; people ALWAYS assume because you are a woman in sports, you don’t know anything. Wow, that thinking SO far off. Women shouldn’t have to deal with the continuing culture of appropriating those UNNECESSARY and harassing comments—end of the story. 

What is the best advice you can give a woman who is either just getting her foot in the industry, or already working in sports to navigate the struggles and challenges we face? 

Hannah has three things that have always empowered her to continue even on the toughest of days; being positive no matter the situation, proving actions speak louder than words, and be confident in everything that you do.  
Hannah believes firstly that “attitude is everything, especially for women. You’re probably already in a situation where you’re being looked at closer or working harder than your male counterparts.” No matter the situation, women are always the underdog; but if we don’t keep our heads high and positive in every situation, we’re going to be thrown back in the dog house, and right back to where we started. Don’t let yourself go back there. 

Secondly, “if you’re going to back up your ideas or opinions with words, you’ve also got to be willing to back that up with work.” If you put in the work and know what you’re doing, you’ll shut them down. Mainly because they’ll know your right, let your work speak for yourself. 

 Lastly, “be confident in yourself- it’s the most important thing to remember.” Always be confident no matter who you are up against. If you let others walk all over you or silence you, you will never be able to prove yourself. Stand up, have confidence in who you are, and the job that you’re doing; that will take you further in life than anything. 
It’s taken Hannah a long time to be comfortable with it, but she’s finally confident enough to stick up for herself no matter the situation. The harassing comments don’t forget; the negative remarks on social media or rude, sarcastic jokes from friends or other males stick with us; it takes forever for us to forget. In reality, though, we don’t forget, and it holds with us. But use that to light a fire in you to be confident and speak your mind. The most unstoppable force in the world is when a woman finally realizes her worth in who she is and what she does. Please don’t stop until you find that fire and light it up for the whole world. 

If you are interested in sharing your story, struggles and words of encouragement for other women in sports, please send me a DM through social media (@MadisonHedding) or email me at 15mhedding@gmail.com.