Indians Announce 2019 Intern Class

INDIANAPOLIS - The Indianapolis Indians today announced the hiring of 15 seasonal assistants for the 2019 season. Former Tribe interns have earned full-time positions with many professional franchises, including the Boston Bruins, Chicago Cubs, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Rams, Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers and Tennessee Titans, among others. Indy's 2019 intern class will fill roles in business operations, baseball communications, field operations, marketing, merchandise, partnership activation, stadium operations and ticket sales.

Grace Beam - Tickets
School: Ohio University
Hometown: Westfield, Ind.
Grace is currently a sophomore majoring in management & strategic leadership and minoring in both Spanish and sports administration. Since July 2017, she has been the assistant head student equipment manager for Ohio University football. Last summer she served as the head of social media for the Licking County Settlers baseball team. She has also worked at Target in Carmel, Ind. since Oct. 2015 and volunteered at Northview Church in Westfield, Ind. each of the last three summers.
Jourdan Blackburn - Tickets
School: Anderson University
Hometown: Mooresville, Ind.
Jourdan graduated this past December with her degree in sports marketing and a minor in event planning and management. She first worked in guest relations for the Tribe in 2017 and was a premium services and events game day intern last season. Toward the end of the 2018 season, she began working with the Indy Fuel as a game operations and events intern. She has helped with in-game promotions and community outreach events, in addition to contacting potential sponsors for promotional nights with the Fuel.
Michael Craft - Business Operations
School: Indiana University
Hometown: Indianapolis, Ind.
Michael graduated from the Kelley School of Business at IU in June 2018 with a triple major in management, human resource management and international business. He is currently pursuing his master's online in business administration from the University of Southern Indiana. He broke into the sports industry in April 2016 as a game day promotions intern/Tribe Team member with - you guessed it, the Indianapolis Indians - and served in that role for two seasons. He has also worked as a football and basketball operations intern with Exclusive Sports Group, LLC in Indianapolis, creating presentations and recruiting materials that helped in the multimillion-dollar signings of Colts tight end Jack Doyle, former Colts cornerback Darius Butler and University of Missouri Head Basketball Coach Cuonzo Martin. Most recently, Michael has represented Sun King Brewing at community events as part of their events staff.
Katie Gaubert - Partnership Activation
School: University of Kentucky
Hometown: Glenview, Ill.
Katie graduated this past December with a B.A. in integrated strategic communication and a minor in psychology. She has worked exclusively in sports since Feb. 2017, beginning with the Lexington Legends in the South Atlantic League. There, she was a community relations intern and helped manage donation requests and coordinated community appearances, among other duties. Then in Aug. 2017 she joined the University of Kentucky Athletic Department, where she worked as a marketing intern for three semesters. Last summer, she held two internships in Chicago - one in community relations with the Northwestern University Athletic Department and another in media relations with the WNBA's Chicago Sky.
Jacob Gregory - Stadium Operations
School: Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
Hometown: Dalton, Ohio
Jacob joins the Indians after graduating from Slippery Rock with a B.S. in interdisciplinary studies - concentration in sport management - in August 2018. During his time at Slippery Rock, he worked with former Indians baseball communications assistant, Ben Matos, in the athletic communications office. Most recently, he's continued his work with Ripken Baseball at Pigeon Forge. He started as a baseball operations intern there in June 2017, became lead intern in May 2018 and eventually reached full-time as operations assistant this past August. Jacob has experience as a scoreboard operator for baseball, and if needed and available, would likely fill that role admirably in the press box. Per Ben Matos' insider scouting report, Jacob loves the Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Darion Howard - Tickets
School: University of Indianapolis
Hometown: Indianapolis, Ind.
Darion graduated from UIndy in May 2018 with his bachelor's in sports management and a minor in business administration. He also played football for the Greyhounds. Darion first began working in sports as a junior promotions assistant for 4 Champs Boxing in 2014 and in Dec. 2016, was a fan fest volunteer for the B1G Football Championship. His volunteer efforts included coordinating the interactive QB Challenge and 40-yard dash booths for over 1,000 fans. The following December, Darion joined Pacers Sports and Entertainment as a game operations intern and oversaw the execution plans for over 50 mascot-related shows and appearances.
Kevin Johnson - Field Operations (intern)
School: Delaware Valley University
Hometown: Springtown, Pa.
Kevin is currently a junior majoring in turf management while playing baseball at Delaware Valley University. Last summer, he worked as a grounds crew intern under the tutelage of former Indy Indians Director of Field Ops, Mike Boekholder, with the Philadelphia Phillies. Kevin's grounds crew experience has also come on the golf course; he raked bunkers for the 2018 BMW Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pa. and mowed greens and watered fairways, among other grounds duties, as a seasonal grounds intern for the Saucon Valley Country Club in Center Valley, Pa. He will be with the Indians from May through August.
Anna Kayser - Baseball Communications
School: University of Iowa
Hometown: Waverly, Iowa
Anna is currently a senior at the University of Iowa, double majoring in journalism & mass communications and sport & recreation management. She is expected to graduate in December 2019. Anna's work experience has primarily come with The Daily Iowan, where she's ascended from metro reporter in 2016 to politics reporter in 2017 and eventually sports beat reporter and assistant sports editor in 2018. This past fall she was on the beat for the U of I football team and will cover the Hawkeyes at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Pittsburgh this March. She also began working at Scheels, a sporting goods store comparable to Dick's Sporting Goods, in April 2018. After scouring through Anna's Twitter profile, it can be easily determined she's a big St. Louis Cardinals fan.
Blake Luker - Tickets
School: University of Indianapolis
Hometown: New Palestine, Ind.
Blake earned his B.S. in sports management in May 2018 and will complete his master's in that same field this coming July from the University of Indianapolis. At UIndy, Blake was a three-time letterman in football and was Academic All-Conference in the Great Lakes Valley Conference all four years (2014-17). Blake began working in sports in Dec. 2016, when he was a College Gameday volunteer and B1G Football Championship volunteer in Indianapolis. He helped with fan activities leading up to kickoff and oversaw the Dr. Pepper field at the B1G Championship fan fest. Then in 2017, he organized and ran the annual Special Olympics State Youth Basketball Tournament before becoming a championships and alliances marketing extern with the NCAA, a role he held up through June 2018.
Austin Moormeier - Stadium Operations
School: Wright State University
Hometown: Eaton, Ohio
Austin earned his B.S. in marketing in April 2018 from Wright State University, home of the Raiders. He got his start in sports by working as a marketing intern within the WSU Athletic Department, a role that involved assisting in advertising campaigns for upcoming sporting events on campus, managing game day scripts and directing his own theme night for a WSU women's basketball game. Austin, like his older brother Alex, really enjoys the game of golf. Since graduation, he has worked as a pro shop manager at Beechwood Golf Course in Arcanum, Ohio.
Austin Morganti - Tickets
School: Mississippi State University
Hometown: Jackson, Tenn.
Austin graduated in Dec. 2017 with a B.S. in kinesiology and concentration in sport studies. His most recent work experience came as a sales associate/trainee with the Double-A Mississippi Braves, the former home of Indians merchandise manager, Patrick Westrick. While at Mississippi State, Austin was a member of the intramural sports grounds crew and was a facilities and event operations student worker at the Humphrey Coliseum (home of the MSU basketball teams).
Evan Piercy - Marketing
School: Elon University
Hometown: Newport News, Va.
Evan was a sport management major and business administration minor at Elon University (Elon, N.C.), where he graduated this past December. His first taste of working in sports came in 2017 as an intern with the Rookie-Advanced Burlington Royals in the Appalachian League. He parlayed that opportunity into becoming a marketing assistant for Elon Athletics in Sept. 2017, a role he held through graduation. Last summer, Evan was a marketing intern for the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters in the Northwoods League and eventually became a member of the Carolina Panthers' corporate hospitality team this past fall. Among his many achievements to date, Evan was able to participate in a month-long study abroad program in Jan. 2018 in the Dominican Republic, where he studied MLB Academies and the influence baseball has in the D.R.
Caitlyn Pinkerton - Merchandise
School: Lock Haven University
Hometown: Wampum, Pa.
Caitlyn is a senior majoring in sport administration and minoring in business administration. She will graduate in May 2019. At Lock Haven, Caitlyn has been a student worker in their athletic department since Aug. 2017. She has helped with event management responsibilities and has also been a scoreboard and clock operator for various athletic events. In the summer of 2017, she was a pet resort attendant for Countryside Pet Paradise in California, Md. She supervised between 20-30 dogs during playtimes and had individual runs with dogs in both the morning and afternoon.
Dean Sexton - Tickets
School: IUPUI
Hometown: Greenwood, Ind.
Dean is currently a senior at IUPUI and will graduate this May with his B.S. in sport management. He attended Ivy Tech Community College before transferring to IUPUI in 2015. Dean was a ticket seller for the Tribe last season, where he worked the box office on game days. He has also volunteered for the 2017 NFL Combine Fan Experience, the 2017 CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and the 2016 Indy Monumental Half Marathon.
Casey Werkheiser - Field Operations (seasonal assistant)
School: Limestone College
Hometown: Virginia Beach, Va.
Casey earned her bachelor's degree in sport management from Limestone College (Gaffney, S.C.) in May 2015. She starred in field hockey at Limestone and was a 2014 ECAC Division II All-Star and 2014 Synapse Division II All-American. Since graduating, Casey has served as a substitute teacher and assistant coach for junior varsity field hockey, soccer and basketball at Norfolk Academy. During the summer of 2017, she was a general intern for the Peninsula Pilots of the Coastal Plains League. Her responsibilities ranged from facility and game operations to ticket sales and marketing. Last year, she was a grounds crew intern with the Norfolk Tides and was just one of two full-time female grounds crew interns in Minor League Baseball. She will work with the field ops crew from March 1-Sept. 30.