She Broke Through the Sports World, This Is Her Now!
Being a woman in the sports industry is challenging. In this article, Mrs. Amanda Zimmer shows her struggles and triumphs of being a woman in the sports industry.
This is Amanda Zimmer who is currently the production manager at NBCSportsWashington.
By Michael Ramsay
January 31, 2024
There are many times in the sports industry where women are discriminated against, or not given the same chances as their male counterparts. Ms. Amanda Zimmer is the production manager at NBCSportsWashington. She grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and she shared her journey to get to the place that she’s currently at today. “My dad was a big sports fan growing up so he always had me watching sports even when I was young,” said Amanda Zimmer, and this allowed her to see that she “wanted to be on TV [and] wanted to be a reporter.” Amanda knew that what she wanted to pursue was out of the ordinary, but she really didn’t mind. When asked about the potential that Amanda had, her father said “The sky was the limit, I knew that if she wanted something, she would get it.” She knew what she wanted to do, and she pursued that will full force. There was something special, yet different about her when she was growing up. Girls aren’t usually looked at by society as, “sports fans”, however, she took that phrase and made it a part of who she was even at a young age. “I would be the only kid going to school, in like fourth grade, and taking the newspaper in with me and I was going through the sports section trying to find the sports,” Amanda remembers.
Throughout her schooling, she didn’t really see many women doing what she was doing. Her being from Kentucky, the only major sports team was the Kentucky Wildcats, other than that, there wasn’t much she could do in middle school or highschool pertaining to sports. She confirmed this by saying, “when I was growing up there weren't as many people to be honest with you, they were all men, in the sports world there weren't a lot of women that did anything more than sideline reporting.” This shows that Amanda didn’t have any “handouts” and everything that she got she had to work extra hard. These things made her into the person that she is today. She didn’t have the luxury of having things like ESPN, BleacherReport, etc. She said, “I didn't grow up watching ESPN the same way you guys did. I honestly didn't start watching ESPN really late, high school, college, Just because, again, being in Kentucky. We didn't have the professional teams so I didn't care as much about the professional teams around the country, I only cared about my teams.” In terms of the sports industry, ESPN runs everything pertaining to sports, so for her to not have access to it until late highschool/college, really put her at even more of a disadvantage. Even the girl friends that she had around her, didn’t even know about sports that much, “Yeah, I mean it was kind of interesting like, you know, a girl liking sports was like, Oh, so you're going to go be a cheerleader, and I was for a year, but girls didn't, you know, I can tell you even my friends growing up, none of them had any idea about sports, even today, 90% of them still have no idea.” I had the opportunity to talk to one of Amanda’s friends, and they explained to me that “even though we weren’t into sports, we supported her and stood by her.” It was almost as if she was the lone wolf in her journey to become a part of the sports world. Yes, her parents still supported her wholeheartedly, but they were in “[the fields of] science and marketing” so they didn’t fully understand what she was trying to do either.
As stated previously, Amanda’s dad was a big sports fan. When asked about how her father reacted to what she wanted to do for a living she said, “Yeah, my dad, my dad's cool and he's always supported me and everything I want to do and obviously he would’ve liked me to be following his footsteps of doing like science and math and all of a sudden, I can tell you I was terrible at all those and he saw my grades and he figured out pretty quickly I was not going to be a scientist of any kind.” She also knew that her dad had some reluctance because “he knew nothing about the industry, he didn't know anything about it and, and he sees it like mail, you know it's a very male dominated industry.” This is something that kept Amanda going, knowing that her dad is a big sports fan, and even though he’s in a different profession and may not completely understand hers, he still was going to support her no matter if it was science or sports.
Through all the hard work, and maybe even awkwardness, that Amanda had to experience during her schooling, she eventually got to where she is today. She is always willing to help those who are trying to get into the industry themselves, because she understands that hardwork it takes to get here. Her advice to others who want to get their foot in the door within sports would be “That anything that you learn in school can be applied to anything, so when I look at resumes and things like that, it doesn't have to be all sports resumes. If you show me that you worked in the control room and a news station, that still translates over to us, right. Just because everybody thinks that to work in sports, you have to only work in sports, you can work in anything. She also encourages kids to “try new things” because the sports industry has a wide variety of jobs and positions that can really suit any interest that you may have.
One thing that is important in the sports world is making connections with people. The industry is open to all, but it depends who you know. You can try to connect with someone via LinkedIn, email, etc. and you could get no response, or just a straight up “no”. From her personal experiences, she remembers times when she was rejected, but yet had to keep going. “Just gotta keep messaging people. It sounds crazy but like, trust me, when I was coming out of school, I physically sent like my resume with a pencil and like little GIFs and stuff into the mail to people and still never heard back from any of them. I emailed so many people on LinkedIn and stuff like that. I just never heard back, and I can tell you even with my job now like, I'll get asked to go reach out to PR people for guests and things like that. I get told no all the time. I get no response, all the time, and it sucks but you gotta keep going, there's a mixture of being persistent and annoying.” You can tell that everything she learned throughout her journey, she still uses to this day. It means a lot to her to help other people succeed because it wasn’t as easy for her to get into the same position. She later explains that even when she got her job that she is at currently, it was still hard. “Yeah, it's hard I mean I'll tell you like some being a woman and then you know, coming into a newsroom where I didn't know anybody. And I didn't have the biggest local sports knowledge when I started, like it's intimidating.” Even though it was intimidating for Amanda, she still is pushing through, and is now at a position where she is managing major people in the sports team that she works with.
Amanda Zimmer is the perfect example of how to overcome your obstacles and still come out strong. Whether you’re a man or woman, her story shows that anything that you set your mind to, you can do it. People might think it’s weird or different at first, but as long as you are enjoying what you’re doing, that’s all that matters.
