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Within the next two weeks, Sport Marketing students at Saint Mary’s University will be pitching their ideas for new sports licensed product lines.

They’re more than a little nervous.

That’s probably because instead of presenting to classmates and faculty, these students will be pitching to top executives at WinCraft, a national leader in retail licensed and promotional products, located right in Winona.

Also invited to review and judge the presentations are representatives from nationally recognized properties within the sport industry as guests of WinCraft.

There’s more on the line than just a good grade.

They’re calling it the WinBowl, and John Killen, President and CEO of WinCraft, and Zak Mayo, assistant professor of business at Saint Mary’s, are hoping it’s an annual competition for Saint Mary’s students who will face new challenges each year. This year’s WinBowl is focused on esports.

Mayo explains that the WinBowl competition is a collaborative semester-long project between WinCraft and Saint Mary’s Sport Marketing class. After signing nondisclosure agreements, WinCraft provides students with the background, support, space, and access they need, as well as logos, price points, and intellectual property. Students then form small groups, analyze data, conduct market research, and provide consultative feedback to WinCraft based on a current business venture. At the conclusion of the semester, student groups are pit against each other for the best pitch to WinCraft.

“The students work on a real-time strategic initiative for a world-class organization,” Mayo said. “It’s going to be pressure filled, and the students will likely be very nervous, but it is going to be beneficial,” he said. “The students are going to have the opportunity to really rise to the occasion and hit the ball out of the park. This is an amazing opportunity for our students. We’re grateful to WinCraft for partnering with us.”

Isabel Bettag, a sophomore accounting and sport management major from Maple Park, Ill., said there’s a high level of secrecy among the teams, who are taking the competition seriously.

Though she can’t disclose her team’s ideas, she’s pretty convinced they’ll win.

The most exciting part for Bettag has been investigating the fast-growing, up-and-coming business area of esports, as well as the knowledge that their work is truly guiding and benefiting WinCraft. “I like the first-hand experience. This is something I look for in every class I take. I love to see how what I’m doing is going to apply to what I will do in the future. We’ve been given an opportunity to practice real-world work, but in a supportive setting.”

Supportive yes, but still pressure filled. “We want to nail every detail,” she said. “We want to leave them with a good impression of Saint Mary’s and ourselves, and we don’t want to let WinCraft down. It’s not just about a grade, it’s about their future and ours. It’s amazing to get that exposure just from taking a class.”

Bettag, who plays basketball for the Cardinals, would eventually like to work for a sports team, but she said it’s been eye-opening to learn more about other potential career options at WinCraft, a business she didn’t know anything about before the project began.

“Being able to apply what I’m learning to future classes and eventually to my career is going to be a game changer,” she said. “This experience is going to put me a step ahead of everyone else.”

Steven Reamer, a junior sport management major from Mendota Heights, Minn., disagrees with Bettag. He’s pretty sure his team is cinched to come in first.

“I definitely think our team is going to win. We have great products to choose from,” he said.

Although high school and college students are the target market for esports, Reamer said that because he’s not a gamer, he’s had to step up his research. And, as esports is a relatively new market, finding credible data was a challenge.

“Fortunately, we had a lot of tools at our disposal and great people behind us helping us every step,” he said. “WinCraft has been generous enough to invite us to present to their clients and involve us in starting a whole new line. It’s cool to be involved right from the start. They have faith in us. They don’t treat us like students; they treat us like part of the WinCraft team.”

One member of the WinCraft team working closely with students is Saint Mary’s 2012 alumnus and Strategic Account Manager Robert Gas.

Gas, along with colleagues John Killen Jr. and Liz Sagar are acting as liaisons between WinCraft and the student teams, meeting regularly with students, monitoring their progress, and making sure everything is in line with who WinCraft is targeting as the end consumer for the merchandise.

Gas said the students are bringing a unique perspective to the table for an area that is very new to the world and to the sport industry. “They’re finding some very impactful research which can only be described as impressive,” he said.

Regardless of their career path or interests, he said students will benefit from the experience.

“It gives students great exposure to the vast opportunities at WinCraft or within the sport industry and is a great résumé builder,” he added. “This experience prepares them for the business world, and that’s something Saint Mary’s has historically done very well, especially in the Business Department.”

Gas remembers being a Sport Management major at Saint Mary’s. “Back then, there were a lot of real-life examples that prepared me for the business world to have the success that I’ve had,” he said. “But these opportunities to pick the brains of industry professionals are invaluable. Saint Mary’s Business Department continues to provide a first class experience for their students. These students are far ahead of where I feel a lot of college alumni are before they hit the ground running in the business world.”

The Divine nine has taken the title as the First Generation Initiative’s sixth graduating class at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

The group of scholars waited on this opportunity for 8 “indescribable” years, says current Scholar, Frydha Cordova. Cordova continues to express, “We have developed a unique bonding experience over the years. It just feels surreal parting ways after May.”

The divine scholars’ family tree was planted in 2011 when each scholar was selected to participate in the Countdown to College (C2C) academic boot camp. The class of 2019 is the second class to successfully complete C2C and First Generation Initiative (FGI).

FGI “has given me a family that I love and will miss dearly as graduation is approaching soon,” said Aldonte Guess. FGI has become the scholars’ second home during this major transition in their lives. They have created memories to last them a lifetime. “We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, and most importantly, we have grown to be great leaders, mentors, friends, students, and professionals,” says Tatiana Jones.

Each of the scholars would like to thank the entire staff and donors for contributing to their success.  Some made it their mission to leave a personal thank you to the amazing staff (Alisa, Octavia, and Anne) for their hard work, “To Anne, Alisa, and Octavia; thank you. Thank you for believing in me, for encouraging me and correcting me when needed. It has been an honor to have you all as the “three fairy Godmothers of FGI” for my classmates,” said Guess.

Guess would also like to leave a personal message for his classmates, “I say thank you as well, for believing in me, for being my family and for putting up with me. Do not ever think you cannot make a difference in this world. You do matter, and your voices will be heard. Keep going, keep growing and fighting for peace in our world. I believe in you and love you all now and always.”

By: Jakira Robinson ’19

Karina (Rajtar) Wiatros ’10 admits she had no idea what she wanted to do when she grew up.

“With some kids, you can when they’re little that they’re meant to be a teacher or a doctor,” she said. “I was not one of those kids because everything was so interesting to me.”

Even as she chose her undergraduate major of journalism at Saint Mary’s University, she was always questioning her decision, always open to other areas of study. “Every class had me thinking, ‘Maybe I should have majored in that,’ ” she said.

Her interest in so many different topics has served her well in her current position as a senior account executive at Maccabee Public Relations in Minneapolis and will surely help in her future position as account supervisor for Inprela Communications, also in Minneapolis.

“I tell people going into public relations is the best way to continue to get to learn things,” she said. With clients who specialize in everything from health savings accounts to technical services to residential real estate, Wiatros says there are always new things to learn. “I love the variety, getting to learn about completely different industries.

“I don’t have the patience to sit and do a puzzle, but it feels like a puzzle coming up with a strategy for each client — deciding when it makes sense to pitch a story or do a video versus writing blog posts and determining how we can use content across channels. There’s a lot of strategizing, coming up with PR campaigns and determining what the best tactics are for any given goal, whether it’s white papers or media relations,” she added. “I do a lot of research.”

Wiatros returned to her alma mater this spring to share advice with communication students.

“It’s important to get involved in activities, right from your freshman year,” she said. “I still think it was one of the best things for me. I learned responsibility and how to collaborate and work with different groups. Working with people in so many different clubs is a lot like working with different clients.”

Additionally, she credits serving as the editor of “The Cardinal,” Saint Mary’s student newspaper, for preparing her the most for her career. “I learned how to be a leader and do all that writing and design, while putting out fires,” she said. “I’ll never forget the time the paper didn’t save and I had to put it all back together in one day. The fact I was able to pull that off still amazes me.”

She also admits she may have overdone it just a bit with her involvement in: Student Senate, Student Activities Committee, the PR/Business Club, Together Encountering Christ (TEC) retreats, Volunteer Mentors, Habitat for Humanity, lacrosse, phonathon, Senior Class Gift Committee, Taylor Richmond Benefit Dance committee, and more. Regardless, she did learn about time management and how to juggle multiple projects. These days, she also multitasks as a wife to Jordan Wiatros and mother to 9-month-old son, Isaac.

After graduating from Saint Mary’s, Wiatros earned a Master of Business Communication degree from the University of Saint Thomas.

She arrived at Maccabee after serving as account manager for the Minneapolis agency Tad Ware & Company. Before that, she was marketing manager for children’s book publisher ABDO, a marketing communications assistant with the non-profit Nacel Open Door, and a marketing communications specialist for the Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota.

Wiatros said she’s grateful she never wavered from her journalism degree. “It helps me be more direct in my communications and gives me insight into what the media is looking for, which makes me stronger at writing successful pitches,” she said. “The things I learned in classes definitely apply because my classes were so heavily based on writing, and I use that every day. When I was in school, social media wasn’t the powerhouse it is now. And analytics is now huge and so necessary in this business. I am also impressed with how the department has adjusted the classes since I graduated and kept up with the times.”