Katrina Ryan '01 VOLLEYBALL
At Colby-Sawyer, Katrina majored in Sports Management with a minor is Business. She was a four year member of the volleyball team. As an outside hitter, Katrina helped the 1999 squad to its first Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship earning the program’s first bid to the NCAA Tournament.
After CSC, she went to graduate school at Ohio University for 2 years. While at OU, she worked as an intern with the New England Patriots. After graduation she moved to Raleigh to work with the Carolina Hurricanes. She started out in premium services as a coordinator working with suite clients and transitioned to catering manager 4 years later where she has been in her current role for 6 years.
Currently, Katrina is the Director of Catering at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina which is home to the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and North Carolina State University Men’s Basketball team. Her main responsibilities are to handle all events with private catering needs, overseeing all team and backstage catering, operation of the restaurant and all private catering that takes place in their meeting space during times when the full arena is not in use. “My goal was to become a special event planner and I have gained valuable knowledge working within our food & beverage department as the director of catering. The largest event that we’ve had here at PNC Arena that I have been a part of was the 2011 NHL All Star Game – I don’t think I had ever worked so much in my life during that time! In eight days I worked 110 hours, all for All Star Weekend!”
1. Please share a few of your favorite memories about your time at Colby-Sawyer.
At CSC my favorite memories include my time spent on the volleyball team and making it to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history, dance club, being able to hang out outside on the quad when it was nice out, Mountain Day, and skiing at Mount Sunapee.
2. How did your Colby-Sawyer education prepare you for the world after graduation?
After graduation I chose to go to graduate school at Ohio University and join the dual degree MBA/Master of Sports Administration program. The ESS-Sports Management program was a very well rounded program that prepared me for education at the next level. Since I also chose to minor in Business while at CSC, the classes I took and the professors I had helped prepare me for the MBA program because of their level of quality. I enjoyed the small class sizes at CSC because it allowed me the individual attention if I needed it. I didn’t want to be a number while in college; I wanted to be a person who the professors knew. While Ohio University is considerably larger than CSC, my graduation program was also fairly small which afforded me an easy transition.
3. What lessons did you learn as a Charger athlete that have benefitted you as a professional? As a person?
I think as an athlete one learns many skills that can be applied to a professional career, which also help make you a well-rounded person. In athletics one learns to be outgoing, persistent, strong, driven, and how to be a leader. All those characteristics are important when seeking a role in management. As a director, I am responsible for 3 full time staff and 60 part time staff and we are all a team, much like my volleyball teammates and I were all a team. As the director I am basically the captain who needs to keep their team motivated and give them guidance into the correct direction the work needs to go. I can say it’s definitely not easy at times, but my determination to succeed keeps me going.
4. What Colby-Sawyer coach, professor, administrator, or classmate had the most influence on your time at CSC? Why that person? What was their impact?
For me, I don’t think I could just pick one person that had the most influence on me. I had many experiences across various areas, but the three that standout were David Blair (who taught most of the sports management classes), Coach George Martin (who was the volleyball coach at the time), and Beth Crockford (business classes). They were three individuals I had a large amount of contact with and the three who stand out most in my mind as they were all positive influences in areas that still play a large role in my life today. I currently work in sports business and I’m still playing volleyball as much as I can – the weather in North Carolina is great to play beach volleyball for at least 9 months out of the year.
5. What advice would you give to a freshman athlete entering Colby-Sawyer?
As a freshman in college you are transitioning to living on your own without your parents and learning to be responsible. I think it’s very important to focus during your season so you can stay focused in the classroom and on the field/court. You need to work hard to balance homework and the time spent at practice and games. What worked for me is that I scheduled all my classes during volleyball season to be done by 3pm at the latest every day, sometimes I was done by 1pm or 2pm, which gave me time to do homework before practice. It also meant that when leaving for away games, I wasn’t missing any classes. You have to keep a schedule and plan ahead. Then also look at taking extra credits when your sport is not in season. During the fall I took 15 credits, but in the spring I took 18. By the time I got to last semester senior year I only had to take 12 credits and it was nice to have the extra time, especially since I was doing an internship at Mount Sunapee, it gave me extra time to spend there.
6. What advice would you give to a senior athlete preparing for life after graduation from Colby-Sawyer?
To a senior athlete preparing for life after graduation – unfortunately all of us can’t continue to be athletes for the rest of our lives, but we can stay active on adult intramural sports leagues and by giving back to the sports and coaching kids at a young age. If you have the time to do it, then go for it! Transitioning into a full time job after college does take some time, especially if you work in an industry like I do where you just don’t work 9-5 hours. Once you get adjusted don’t forget to stay active and give back if you can.
Thanks so much!
