For business administration major Stuart Spiers ’18, continuing his dream of working in professional sports was a hard road traveled. Literally.
“I had a game the day of the interview with the [Atlanta] Hawks,” recalls Spiers, a relief pitcher on the Oglethorpe baseball team. “The game was up in Piedmont. After a two-hour interview I had to battle 5 o’clock traffic to drive to meet them. I got there in the 7th inning and had to pitch in the 8th.”
The Stormy Petrels got the win that day, and Spiers got the job.
For the past year, Spiers has juggled a full course load, hours each day on the diamond, and an internship with the Atlanta Hawks as a College Ambassador, a role in which he organizes events, promotes Hawks Pass and acts as a campus face for the NBA organization. How does he manage all this?
He self-identifies as a busy bee. “I like a challenge,” Spiers said.
The work has paid off. After graduation, Spiers will start a full-time position with the Hawks as a Membership Consultant.
In the past, Spiers had spent summers picking up internships, first with Outbound Engine, a marketing firm in Austin, Texas after his sophomore year, and then with minor league baseball team the Winston-Salem Dash in 2017. The Hawks position was his first time working while taking classes.“It definitely teaches you time management,” he said. Lucky for him, head coach Dan Giordano knows most of his players will continue in careers that don’t require cleats. “He understands there’s other things in life than baseball. He’s a big proponent of school coming first.”
Even with a job lined up, Spiers continues to flex his entrepreneurial spirit. Along with fellow teammate Andrew Mink ’19, he founded Moonshot Apparel in 2016. The baseball apparel line can often be seen on T-shirts and hats around Oglethorpe and can count about 30 professional baseball players on its list of endorsers. “We just kind of ran with it.”
“Probably our biggest name right now is Josh Bell who was runner-up for the major league’s Rookie of the Year this past year,” Spiers said.
The North Carolina native has made every minute count at Oglethorpe and is happy to be staying close by to start his career.
“I definitely want to be here,” Spiers said of his Georgia home. “Atlanta is moving in the right direction.”
