Among her coworkers within the Texas Rangers entrance workplace, there are two issues that make Paige Zizka stand out: the brilliant pink blazer she wears on the sphere, and her copious use of the phrase “howdy.”

An intern within the promotions division at Arlington’s Globe Life Field, Zizka is one in every of a handful of Aggies serving to handle the World Series-bound crew — and he or she needs to everybody to comprehend it.

“I answer every email, every text message, every phone call with ‘Howdy.’ That’s the biggest thing I’ve taken from A&M … and I brought that to the Rangers,” she stated. “I don’t care how important the email is, I don’t care if we’re on the biggest world stage, I will always say ‘howdy.’”

A sports activities administration senior and long-time scholar employee for Texas A&M Athletics, Zizka has been with the Rangers since March, managing fan engagement alternatives comparable to prize giveaways and the Jr. Rangers Kids Club and serving to coordinate on-field actions just like the nationwide anthem and first pitch.

“Anything and everything that goes on during that game that isn’t the actual playing or coaching, that’s what we’re in charge of,” Zizka stated. “Most recently for the postseason, I directed giant flags coming out onto the field, an honor guard coming out to center field, and I’m standing right there in the middle, running all of it.”

Now, because the Rangers head to their first World Series look since 2011, Zizka is on the brink of end her internship on a serious excessive observe, serving to placed on one of many largest occasions in all of sports activities. She nonetheless remembers how she felt on Monday, when her crew defeated the Astros to safe their spot within the championship.

“I was sitting in my living room in College Station when we won the ALCS. My roommate’s boyfriend is a big Rangers fan, and the rest of my roommates are Astros fans, so we were all on the edge of our seats,” she recollects. “After the game, I ran out into the street, we did a champagne shower, and I said, ‘OK, let’s get to work.’”

Catching Curveballs

Despite her newfound enthusiasm for professional baseball, Zizka says she’s at all times been a soccer fan at coronary heart. Growing up in Katy, Texas, she grew to become considering an athletics profession after masking sports activities for her scholar information crew, following the varsity’s soccer squad all the best way to the state semi-finals.

She already had her sights set on A&M, the place she deliberate to main in enterprise. But after an thrilling season supporting her crew from the sidelines, she determined to check sports activities administration as an alternative.

“A&M has one of the best sports management programs in the U.S., so I was like, ‘OK, this is the perfect place for me,’” Zizka stated. As quickly as she acquired to campus, she started working, taking a job with the athletic services crew, serving to with repairs and operations at Kyle Field and different Aggie sports activities venues. An athlete in her personal proper, Zizka additionally joined the A&M biking crew, which she led to a national championship simply final yr.

On prime of all that, she nonetheless discovered time to finish internships and construct relationships with a community of sports activities managers throughout the state.

After an opportunity interplay on social media with a senior member of the Rangers’ administration, Zizka ended up sending over her resume, touchdown a gig with the crew quickly after. Since then, she’s been touring forwards and backwards from College Station to Arlington, profiting from the surprising alternative.

Eight months later, as Zizka wraps up her internship and prepares for the following chapter of her profession, she hopes she will set an instance for youthful college students, exhibiting aspiring sports activities administration majors simply how a lot they will do with the diploma.

For now, Zizka is targeted on doing every thing she will to help her crew, because the Rangers try to choose up their first-ever World Series title. The complete group can be below quite a lot of eyes and quite a lot of strain — however Zizka says that’s precisely what drew her to this profession within the first place.

“Last night I drove straight from College Station to the stadium, and seeing ‘World Series’ painted on the field, there’s no other feeling like it,” she stated. “I love this kind of stuff. I love the big moments, the high stakes. Everything I’ve done in my past — pressure washing Kyle Field, folding tablecloths, all the little stuff — this makes it all worth it.”