Michael Covil, an alumni from the class of 2022, spent the majority of his time at Winthrop being involved and a fan of the athletic department at Winthrop.
One of the reasons that Covil decided to attend Winthrop was because of the amazing reputation of the school’s athletic department.
“Part of the reason I even ended up at Winthrop at all is because I knew how good the basketball program was and wanted to be a part of something like that,” Covil said. “Lucky for me people were really supportive, and I was able to make a few connections in athletics before I even stepped on campus.”
After managing a sports social media account for his high school, Byrnes High School, he began running the Winthrop Live page where he reported about the different sports at Winthrop.
“Winthrop Live was just a project but it gave me the opportunity to do a lot of things,” Covil said.
On this account, Covil would post updates and graphics concerning the different sporting events on campus. One of his favorite things about managing the Winthrop Live social media account was being treated like he was a part of the media team and having access to different events.
“I was treated as media essentially, so I always had a free ticket reserved to any road games I made it to, especially for basketball games where it was hard to get a ticket,” Covil said. “But access goes back to interacting with the players and coaches too. They all seemed to enjoy Winthrop Live and would always be willing to support the page, pass along info, let me sit in at practice, and when you post so much about a team, you become good friends with those you are posting about.”
Aside from managing Winthrop Live, watching and attending the Winthrop basketball games was always one of Covil’s favorite things to do.
“We had some great teams and some huge games,” Covil said. “Getting to play on national TV and compete for championships always made it easy to be super involved and I still am even though I’ve graduated.”
For one of the soccer games that Covil attended, he brought a lot of flags and drums for the student section.
“Soccer was fun too because you could do so many more things as a fan,” Covil said. “The NCAA did not have any restrictions on student section noisemakers like indoor sports, so I got to do the whole soccer culture thing with drums and flags. It was super fun even if the results didn’t always go our way.”
While at Winthrop, Covil was also offered an opportunity to intern with the Winthrop athletic department.
“The job was with the broadcast crew, setting up and running cameras and graphics for our ESPN+ broadcasts and they even had me down to do commentary for one game before it got canceled,” Covil said. “But since I was already technically interning too, I got to help run the official social accounts and help with game setup, music and scoreboard, basically anything they needed help with.”
Additionally, while working in this internship position, Covil had the opportunity to work on a professional level with other coaches at the university.
“My internship gave me contact with coaches, a little more insider access and access to Photoshop that I kind of taught myself,” Covil said. “Doing it in college along with an internship put it on a little bit more of a professional level from what I would post and how I would have to keep up with it day to day, so it inspired me to maybe take up a career in sport social media and sport creative. It’s an industry I’m still trying to/hoping to break into.”
Since Covil has graduated, he has remained involved with Winthrop athletics by attending different sporting events and staying up to date with athletes who have transferred or graduated from the university.
He hopes to sometime soon be about to use his degree in sports management and minor in history to work for a creative team for a big athletic program.
“I’d love to turn my previous experience into a job with a big college program or even professional team,” Covil said. “The big programs actually have full creative teams with folks who have worked in sports in all kinds of ways, and I think that’s really cool.”
“Getting involved is the best thing you can do in college, and you do not need to be a superstar athlete to be a huge part of the sports scene,” Covil said. “Winthrop has some great teams and some great athletes, and they really welcome the support. I’m thankful for everything I got to be a part of.”
