COVID-19 is Testing the Creativity of College Seniors

A young man sits down in the stands of a local high school football game. He grabs his notebook and pencil to take notes and watches the two teams warm up. During the game, he scribbles down stats and plays awaiting to broadcast his updates to KMA Radio station. This is how Caelan Debban, a senior sports broadcasting major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, spends his Friday nights during the pandemic.

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When COVID-19 hit, it put a stop to almost every sporting event that was scheduled. For sports broadcasting students, work experience is dire for trying to find a job after graduation, and because of the pandemic, there were no games to broadcast, report on, or learn from. With graduation quickly approaching, Debban has been finding new ways to set himself apart from his classmates during these times.

“We are going to have to enter the workforce with a lot less experience than the people before us, so we are going to need to get really creative with what we do,” says Debban.

Debban’s classmate, Aaron Housenga, says that Debban is inspiring him and his classmates to continue to build their skills and resumes despite there not being any events.

“He’s been practicing by watching past football games on mute and calling them as if he is there live and giving his little spin on the broadcasts,” says Housenga.

Debban has a new podcast in the works with some classmates that will discuss games that are going on. Francis Forte, one of the members of the podcast describes it as “a place where we can discuss any and all sports while gaining more experience being on the air.” Even though they aren’t allowed into any games at the moment, they can still do recap reports and predictions for future games.

Along with his portfolio-building work, Debban works at Play it Again Sports, is a College of Journalism and Mass Communications ambassador, and works at the athletic department as the sports information director for the swim and dive team. At the athletic department, Debban travels with the team to competitions, controls media relations, and writes articles for the team. As of now, Debban’s work with the athletic department is limited since there are no swim and dive meets or practices to cover.

Despite not being able to have an internship over the summer, Debban is still confident in his abilities and experiences going into the workforce. “Talking on the radio isn’t necessarily hard, it just takes a lot of repetition and practice,” says Debban. With his job as a sports reporter at KMA Radio, he gets hands-on experience reporting on games and calling on the radio.

“Even though a lot of college football was postponed, I still have been able to attend and learn from the high school games that I call with KMA,” says Debban.

“I knew ever since I was little that I wanted to work in sports,” says Debban. As he grew up with his mother who worked at KMA Radio station, he became familiar with being in the studio and talking on the radio at a young age. Debban shared that he has a real passion for broadcasting that can be seen through the efforts he’s made to continue to learn during the COVID-19 era.

As every college senior is struggling with gaining experience before they graduate due to the pandemic, Debban hasn’t let his missed opportunities discourage him from learning and practicing his reporting. It just takes dedication and a little creativity to not let a pandemic get in the way of learning.