Elena Knoll

I've been in the sports industry since around November 2024, nearly two years now, and I've been in my current position since January of this year. My entire career has been in this field - when I was still in school, I was playing soccer collegiately at the University of Southern Mississippi. I tore my ACL, which really redirected my career path. I was a biology major at the time, but I realized that wasn't going to keep me in sports, and I really wanted to stay in sports. So I decided to change my major into business and try to go into the front office, the professional side of sports, since I could no longer play. That led me into internships and eventually deciding that this is where I want to be - I want to be the GM of a sports team one day. Right now, I'm working both remote and in person, depending on game days, for an FPHL hockey team. On game days, I show up about 4 hours early for operations. I make graphics, manage social media for the team, coordinate with players, handle merchandise, promotions like chuckapucks, and work with the social media coordinator to get everything posted. I also pick up food for the team pregame and really just make sure everybody on the operations end has what they need to make a successful game day for both the fans and the players. One of my most notable professional achievements has been working the Indy 500, which was a very large-scale, impressive event.