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Note: This story appeared in the Winter 2021 February edition of CoSIDA 360 Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.
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The People Are the Best Part
by Sarah Fetters – Vanderbilt University, Director of Football Communications
The people are the hardest part. The people also happen to be the best part.
From my time as a softball student-athlete at Wittenberg University to my current position overseeing Vanderbilt football communications, those lines have rung true.
While I can look back on any number of softball wins, academic honors or athletic awards during my years as a Tiger, the most impactful part of my collegiate career is the group text message some of my former teammates and I still use. The people, memories and friendships are better than any hit I ever had, and I own the program record.
It was my teammates who believed in and trusted me as an 18-year old, and still believe in and trust me as a 35-year old. From spending time with them, I knew I wanted to offer that same support to any student-athlete I was fortunate enough to work with in the future.
Sarah Fetters with Sarah Fuller after Fuller became the first woman to play in a Power 5 football game.
It’s not always easy, though. The truth is we as humans are all messy and flawed. But we offer one another companionship, love and appreciation.
So while we are all difficult in our own ways, we are worth every moment of investment and relationship building.
When I look back at my 12 years as a sports information professional, my career has been profoundly shaped by the people I’ve met. People who gave me my first job, allowed me to work my first football game, granted me my first full season working with football, challenged me and pushed me past what I thought my capacity was, just to discover I had more. But most of all, people who loved me, making me want to share and return their love.
As I journeyed through the last 18 months, going from Duke University to Western Michigan University to lead my own department and to Vanderbilt University to head up communications for the football program, I tried to carry those lessons, and the love, with me.
It’s about the people and building trust and relationships with them. It’s about helping tell the stories of our people and empowering them as best we can to tell their own stories.
At no point was that philosophy more on display than in late November, when Vandy prepared to suit up Sarah Fuller to kick. Sarah and I spent hours with our team on Zoom as we talked through what this moment might mean and look like and the dominoes that would begin to fall as soon as we made the announcement — the intense scrutiny it would bring to Sarah and the incredible hope and inspiration she would bring others with this action.
When we knew this event was going to happen, I had two priorities: Take care of Sarah Fuller, and take care of Vanderbilt.
As we look back, I’d like to think we accomplished both. But it wouldn’t have happened without trust and relationships. And love. Lots of love.
The people are the best part. Still.
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