MORGANTOWN — The title sounds in all probability means too high-falutin … assistant athletic director in command of digital/artistic media.

Mostly, although, Ross Marra, a Bridgeport native and graduate of Bridgeport High, figures the job he simply took with West Virginia University is to give you new, totally different and entertaining methods of bringing the world into West Virginia athletics by video, images and social media.

His arrival signifies one other step into the branding effort that is happening all through the Big 12 below the philosophies put forth by its commissioner Brett Yormark because the league modifications its picture and focus to create a younger, hipper following of followers.

And so it was, as his first week on the job got here to an finish and he reached for a towel to dry off these ft he now had gotten moist, Marra was requested to elucidate how he sees his position in presenting and selling WVU athletics, particularly at a troublesome level of their historical past.

“I’m a sports person and a sports fan who learned creative media,” he mentioned. “It helps me understand the game and anticipate plays as far as shooting it. As the landscape of college athletics evolved over time, that brought in creativeness.”

No longer was the sport the one focus. Yes, ESPN and Fox and whichever of the thousand or so streaming networks can be dealing with the sport, was in command of getting the phrase out. Now WVU had management over it, too, by its web site and social media accounts and the method might be way more artistic than prior to now.

As lengthy as WVU has been concerned in athletics, as many tales as have been instructed, Marra can be on the lookout for new ones.

“There’s always stories to be told, powerful stories to be told,” he pressured.

The artwork of storytelling was evolving quickly.

“It’s undoubtedly protecting our departments on their toes. The gear evolves, social media evolves.

“It’s hard to always be in that creative mindset. It’s hard to be always thinking of new ways to cover the teams, but it’s so much fun to be there covering the games.”

Marra plans to attempt to discover new approaches to outdated tales.

“Over the past couple of years (at Wake Forest) I was in charge of cinematic game recaps,” he mentioned. “The way I view that is when you set out to do a cinematic game recap there’s so much game coverage from ESPN or whatever network you are playing on that you don’t go there. My sole focus and outlook on that is to showcase the angles the viewers aren’t going to see on TV; to tell the story from a completely different angle.”

That might be miking up gamers or coaches, new views, new views. He needs to have issues like a digital camera within the scholar part, views from behind the bench with a unique form of lens than the TV cameras have, locker room tales, interpersonal tales.

“You can tell them the story within the game with less focus on the final score,” he mentioned. “There are a number of tales that happen inside the recreation so far as totally different participant storylines and issues like what’s occurring within the gamers’ lives.

“It’s being always out there, always ready to capture different moments. You never know what you are going to use. We try to report on as much as we can,” he added.

His background as a WVU fan tells him the passionate fan base is an asset for him.

“That’s an extreme help. For 25 years of my life I have a part of that fan base. It’s fun to create for passionate fans. As someone who has been a part of it, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what WVU fans want to see; what they are most passionate about. Also the historic clips that resonate with fans.”

What Marra does is to not be confused with an unbiased reporting method. His job, he says, is extra to market WVU athletics than anything.

“Whatever it takes to showcase WVU and its athletes in its best light, that’s the business I’m in,” he mentioned.

But what he’s promoting is actual.

“You are selling the fan experience …. not just selling it but enhancing it for those in attendance and to share and convey that fan experience to those who weren’t in attendance; whether they be WVU fans across the globe or just general fans who want to become WVU fans.”

Marra was very a lot a typical Mountaineer fan as he grew up.

“For as long as I can remember, way young, I was a fan,” he mentioned. “I came to West Virginia football and basketball games. That’s just what you did. That was a way of life. That was my childhood. Everything revolved around WVU.”

That’s posters and T-shirts and hats.

“I remember coming to the men’s basketball game when they beat UCLA in the Coliseum. I remember both of the College GameDay visits, LSU and TCU. I remember squeezing 30 people into 11 seats at the LSU game.”

But there may be one recreation that stands out in his reminiscence.

“I went to the Oklahoma game at the Coliseum with my dad when it was Jevon Carter against Trae Young. That was the loudest I ever heard the Coliseum,” he mentioned.

Marra was born and raised in Bridgeport, went to Bridgeport High and was part of their 2014, 20015 and 2016 state championship groups as a left fielder.

Always he was, like almost everybody he knew, a rabid WVU fan.

He opted, although, to attend South Carolina.

“When I got out of high school, I knew I wanted to go south for college,” Marra defined of his leaving house to attend South Carolina. “That was always the plan and when I toured the school I fell in love with it and had a fantastic four years there.”

As Tony Caridi says, although, there’s all the time a West Virginia connection.

Marra obtained concerned with artistic media whereas he was there.

“I spent three years working with Frank Martin and Andy Assaley, who is now director of basketball operations at Clemson,” Marra mentioned. “They were both with Huggins at Cincinnati and Kansas State, as well.”

As a scholar and dealing with the athletic division and basketball workforce, it was a unique seat for Marra than being a WVU fan at house.

“It was a different feeling,” he admitted. “It’s a different perspective when you are part of the team and part of the university. That was the first time I got a taste of that.”

After South Carolina he moved on to work at Wake Forest.

“I went as males’s basketball producer off my work at South Carolina. I did that for one yr, then was given the chance to take over the artistic division there. The previous two years I used to be concerned in rising that division and constructing it into one of many premier artistic departments within the nation.

As large a Mountaineer fan as Marra was, he missed perhaps the best recreation of his lifetime when the Mountaineers went double extra time at Cleveland State to attain a 111-105 victory over the No. 5-ranked Demon Deacons.

“I walked into the office the first day and there was a 2004-05 Wake Forest basketball poster above my desk with all the guys’ signatures on it,” Marra mentioned. “Funny thing is, at home I have a basketball with all the West Virginia players signed on it.”

It was a pleasant method to be welcomed to his new job, particularly for the reason that recreation was the final collegiate recreation for Chris Paul, the Wake star who went to develop into one of many greats ever to play within the NBA, and it gave Marra a narrative he might inform to anybody who listened at Wake Forest.