OmahaNebraska.com Interview with Amy Hornocker at the College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
Thank you to Amy for the interview for this Omaha event.
Please tell me how you came to be here.
I grew up over in Des Moines. I went to school at Iowa State in Ames. I played sports in high school. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had an advisor that was kind of like we have a sports management program. So I worked in the football office there, and then, I actually came over here in 2005 and did my internship under Katherine and Carol here and then, stayed in touch when I graduated. And then, Katherine’s husband, Dan, started the Omaha Sports Commission. So, I came over and worked for him and was with the Sports Commission for 10 years. Had the chance to do three Swim Trials and about 30 other really cool sporting events, so and then, in 2017, they had a staff vacancy here, and they called me and I was just like at a point where I was ready to try basically what we always say “coming back home.” I came you back here and did the Marketing Committee outreach and then, had the opportunity to interview for this, the executive director position when Kathryn announced she was retiring.
What are some of your favorite things about the College World Series and about Omaha?
Okay, so basically, Omaha feels like home to me now, even though it was you know, it’s not where I’m from. It’s so similar, but everybody’s just .. the amount of support that we get for this event and the amount of people that come out and it’s kind of like what it means to the city and what the city aims to. It’s like it’s so cool to see and so some of my favorite parts about what I get to do here is like less about baseball and more about our what we do in the community with our grant program. We’ve given over $5 million to local baseball and softball fields and projects in the Greater Omaha community.
And then we have this Readers Become Leaders initiative with the NCAA that we work with Omaha Public Schools for third grade reading, once you can’t read a third grade, by the time you’re in fourth grade, you’re behind.
Is that a pivotal age group then?
Yeah, so that’s what the studies show is that if they are lacking by fourth grade, then they never catch up again. And so we do kick offs in the schools. We contribute a bunch of books to each kid and then incentives to read … and then they submit book reports. We had one girl I think she I think I’d have to the look 55 reports she did. She’s the winner. She’s the winner. So 15 of them with their parents will come to the one of the games. We have like five teachers that are from the winning classrooms. So that one’s fun. It’s so fun to go to the kickoffs and see them get excited about like their books and reading and it’s just a little way we can help there.
That’s something with a really great ripple effect.
Yeah, because you know, this one, we want to leave a legacy here. It’s great because the community pours their heart into it.
We put a donation program together this year for the first time with tickets that we’re we’re kind of testing this year. So when you go in to your mobile ticket account, you can transfer, sell, or donate. Like, if you can’t use your tickets or if you just want to donate, and we’re working with three organizations this year to see how it goes.
Vet Tix [https://www.vettix.org], which is a nationwide organization, so you can sign up. I think it’s first responders and military members and then you can sign up for access to these tickets. Then they go into the communities these events and find these people and it’s really turnkey. So we don’t really have to do much with that. And then we’re working with Boys Town and Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands. So because I feel like everybody from every corner of the city should get to enjoy it. So we’re going to try and build on that donation as we move forward. So that is really cool.
I think we already have seen some come through for Vet Tix and with Boys Town. It’s hard to find groups that can take a large quantity that like the last minute and be able to provide transportation, that kind of stuff. Those are some things we’ve got to kind of figure out but those are like some of my favorite things about the events and event and then obviously this time here when I look at the teams here.
We have our intern starting there’s some of my favorites because they change the dynamic of the office and we will have eight more getting here Monday. That will just work the two weeks and they come from all over the country. And so they apply and go through interviews and they they all become friends kind of it’s kind of fun to see them and help navigate this career path.
Did you ever think you’d be executive director..
No. [laughter] No, I’ve always been a behind the scenes person, like operations, and so I never thought that I would be here back here. Because I, you know, my first series, it was 1998 when I came with my high school baseball team. I was a manager.
I did not know that.
I was the manager of my high school team. In Iowa, we play summer baseball. So we were playing in a tournament in Sioux City. We came down here, well to Rosenblatt and did that the GA [General Admission] sat in the grass waiting to get in, and then, it just stuck with me. So, then, I did the internship so I never thought.. no…[laughter] .. I would be here.
Our leadership was and is phenomenal that the our board of directors that had the vision to bring this where it is today. There’s not another national championship that … They have some semi-permanent sites Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma, FCS football in Frisco, but nobody has an organization like this. The NCAA still runs those. They just have like kind of a semi-permanent city.
So they’ve really been smart and how they put this forward and then and how they’ve… during the COVID year, were able to keep us on staff, and then to see the vision of you know of moving it forward and letting me run with a creative and marketing person that we badly needed. There’s a hole that we didn’t have here. So, he’s got two social media interns that are doing cool things.
Is that something different or new you’ve been working on?
Yes, so we did not. So I was in a marketing role. And then we had another staff member and that wasn’t really our background and so we really were intentional about when Kathryn left to kind of restructured that that’s really the hole that was missing-was to promote this event year round and do it in these cool ways. I’m amazed all like, watch over these guys shoulders, because watching them put videos together and the hard work. They are crawling all over. They had the [National Champion] trophy at the zoo. So it’s really fun to watch it.
They took it to the zoo and it got to go in with the penguins and giraffes. Then they took it to the Gene Leahy Mall. And like Ryan was crawling around and so yeah, they took that roll. They’ve been taking around the city. Taking pictures everywhere. I think they went to Blackstone yesterday.
Thank you.
College World Series of Omaha, Inc.
808 N 13th St.
Omaha, NE 68102
(402) 554-4422
https://cwsomaha.com
You can find the schedule here for #CWS2023 :
2023 Baseball Schedule – College World Series (cwsomaha.com)
