Women in Sports Wednesday: With Nina Baloun

by: Madison Hedding ​

Nina Baloun 
Director of Football Operations at East Carolina University 
Social Handle: @NinaBaloun 

​​"I tell people: 'put my resume next to anyone else's and delete my name. Compare my resume to everyone else's, and I want you to hire me because I've earned my job and not based off of anything else.'"

What's your story? 

"I feel like I was such an oddball. I was in grad school at the University of Toledo and needed a job." Nina Baloun had no idea the depth the world of sports had to offer. Searching for a job, and with a mindset of hoping to apply to as few positions possible and still get hired, used for the first job posting through a local website she was on. Nina emailed the contact for the job and was told that she was the perfect hire with her being a grad student with night classes. Yet, Nina had no idea this was a position in athletics. 

Nina was told that she would help out at the front desk, answer phone calls, fill mailers; all the very straight forward assistant type of gig, but somehow missed the whole 'athletics' part of it. "I was like right on, the pay was decent, and the hours were flexible. But then on my first day, my new boss told me to meet her at the football stadium, and I was so confused as to why." It wasn't until she got there where she realized what kind of thing she had just gotten herself into. "Oh, this is like, football." 

As the summer progressed, Nina found joy in what she was doing. She had always been a football fan but never once thought, "I want to work in football." Until she got done with school, she had planned on doing this just as a job as she didn't see much of a future in it. 

During that next season, there was a staff change. When the new staff came in, they told her, "you're a grad student, you're responsible, so yeah, we're moving you to recruit." Nina started loving working in recruiting and never looked back. 

She graduated from the University of Toledo with her Masters of Art in Mental Health Counseling and another Masters of Art in Criminal Justice; then; with this job, she realized yes she had a degree, but she knew if this didn't work out, she could always fall back on that. "A few tests and certifications here and there, and I'd be back in the game. But I bet on football, and I bet on seeing football as the future I wanted." 

Nina couldn't pass up the opportunity and ended up staying on and working as an unpaid whenever-the-program-had-some-extra-money-then-I-was-paid intern. "I came from the world where now and then someone would float me the money to pay rent, but I wasn't paid much at all. But that's where my work ethic came from. I never did it for the money; I did it because I loved what I do."

At any stage, Nina could have walked away and to a career that paid very well. But, I never questioned it. 

In 2013, the coach who brought me into recruiting had an opening at his new school at the University of Illinois. He asked her to move up to Champaign and gave her the Assistant Recruiting Coordinator position title and a little bit more money. "I was sold; I didn't even care. I wanted to break into the profession. I worked through a couple of different head coaches, and then I was allowed to help out here in there in the operations department." 

At that time, staff sizes were small, so everyone was a few people down in their respective departments; so, Nina took the initiative to use every second she had there to the best of her ability. She realized that she would get stuck if she didn't take what she had learned and moved on. So, Nina interviewed at the University of Houston for the Director of On-Campus Recruiting position. 

Nina took the plunge and moved to Houston. Within a few months of working there, the department had an opening as the Director of Internal Football Operations and wanted to hire in-house. Naturally, Nina said, "absolutely, and it was the best thing I have ever done in my life." 

She grew so much professionally in her position. After her second season, the team went 8-4, and everyone got fire. "I was crushed. We just won 8 games; what's going on?" But she didn't let that stop her. 

With her innate drive to continually be working, Nina couldn't stand not being employed. "I was unemployed for four days, and it seemed like forever." She looks back and wishes she enjoyed it for a little longer, but then again, don't we all think that with time-off when you work in sports. 

"I met my current head coach at a convention; I had a friend at ECU who was helping them fill the open operations role at ECU." Nina shares that the friend didn't even know she had been fired, but knew she was a go-getter and always wanted to work harder than anyone else in the room and naturally recommended her for the open position. 

Nina was given an interview with Coach Houston, and after he told her, he had a few others to interview, and the next step was to bring top candidates to campus. Well, that next day rolled around, and she got a text from him asking her to meet up with him. "It was so funny because I told him I had to go back to my hotel room and change because I was in athletic wear, and I mean you know athletic wear. Not professional, at all it's super casual." But he insisted it was fine, so she went. 

After talking more to Coach Houston and spending the morning with him, it ended with her accepting the position verbally. "It was a comedown and meet the staff on Monday, and then go back get your stuff from Texas and then move back up North. I was there for a week." But luckily, Nina was able to get all her things from Texas to North Carolina.
Nina is now going strong in her 12th season, working in football. Yet the most demanding season has been the one working in a pandemic, but she's making the most out of every second she has. Unfortunately, her counterpart earlier in the year got sick. Not having filed an open position in ops more first, Nina has absorbed a ton of work in a crazy time but is always working hard to keep things afloat. 

At the end of the day, when I talk to people, I tell them, "I don't know anything about football. I'm just here to make sure that the ship doesn't sink." One day, Nina watched a football game as a fan and couldn't tell you a single person on the roster. The next, she was working in collegiate football and making a career and life out of it. 

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

"When I first started in this industry, it was very much so, small staffed. Often, you would see the people working in recruiting or operations be coaches in waiting. You didn't have these 10-person support staff. To me, I started with 'how am I going to get to the end with a solid job without coaching.' It just didn't seem possible, and I wasn't going to coach football." Nina felt defeated. 

But she kept working until someone noticed that being a woman working in football wasn't a downfall; it was an advantage. She didn't know the ins and outs of football, how to recruit players and other things, but Nina found a way to make herself stand out with all the other work that she did. It was always about finding a way to stand out.

She doesn't see it as a challenge but more so thankful that she's always had to be creative with things in her job- it has made her work harder. "Its post-game, and coach is addressing the locker room, but then I have to go find a player for media or things like that where I can't be in places because I am a woman." But, through it all, she's found unique ways to make things work rather than letting them be a detriment to her job. 

Fortunately, Nina surrounds herself with a fantastic coach staff since the beginning that has never once batted an eye at her being a female in football. "They look at me and see me as a capable and hardworking adult that can get the job done."  

She is truly blessed to work with a coaching staff who has never looked at her as anything less. She refuses to let others see her like that. "I tell people: 'put my resume next to anyone else's and delete my name. Compare my resume to everyone else's, and I want you to hire me because I've earned my job and not based off of anything else.'" 

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 about navigating the struggles and challenges we face? 

"Never change who you are." If Nina came out to work and had to pretend to know how to run a play clock, it wouldn't end well. Take things as they're thrown at you, but don't change your game so that you can fit into someone else's; you'll never win.

Additionally, Nina is a firm believer in that "it's not about who you know; it's about who knows you." You have to be remembered in the right way in this industry, or else it won't work out. "How you act and who you are around others, virtually or in-person, directly reflects how you carry yourself and how you treat other people." If and when it comes back to someone hearing about a job, if they instantly remember you because of who you are, you're going to get that call you weren't expecting. Incredibly as so many search for jobs, it's beyond instrumental what others say about you, without ever being asked about you to begin with. 

Lastly, "help people when you can, because there was someone who helped you." You just had someone specific or multiple people pop into your head when you read that – and it's because it's so valid and so important to remember. That can't be stressed by Nina enough. We all were in their shoes one day wishing we had someone to help us, and if we were blessed to have been given help, that should be given back tenfold in return to those coming after us. "You have to help people because I didn't get to where I am today on my own." 

"Yes, I accidentally opened an application that happened to be for a position within athletics, and the rest was history. But through that, I had people advocate for me; I had people fight for me through thick and thin. And I hope one day I can give someone that same opportunity and believe in them as someone did with me." 

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 15mhedding@gmail.com. 

Support Women in Sports. ALWAYS. 
Madison Hedding