Trine student places third in sports sales championship

Four Trine University seniors competed in the National Collegiate Sports Sales Championship (NCSSC) Fall Virtual Competition, with a record-breaking top three finish from Josh Maier.

The virtual competition, which serves as a seeding round for the in-person championship in January, consisted of a Ticket Sales Division and a Corporate Partnerships Division. Both divisions consist of an individual student playing the role of a salesperson making a pitch to a single buyer.

Students competing in the Ticket Sales Division assumed the role of a salesperson for the Atlanta Hawks basketball team. The student then had to role-play a conversation with a potential buyer and try to sell them Atlanta Hawks tickets.

Joining Maier, a sport management major from Fenton, Michigan, in the Ticket Sales Division was Chase Herrick, a sport management major from Brighton, Michigan, who placed 91^st. Maier placed in third, the highest finish for a Trine student in the fall competition. His third-place finish also marks the second consecutive year a Trine student has finished in the top five in the nation in the Ticket Sales Division.

Students competing in the Corporate Partnerships Division played the role of an account executive for the Atlanta Hawks corporate partnerships team. The student role-played a meeting with a representative from EventTech, a market leader in facial recognition technology, to discuss a potential corporate partnership between the companies.

Grace Dubec, a management major from Carmel, Indiana, and Max Hoogeveen, a sport management major from Dyer, Indiana, represented Trine in the Corporate Partnerships Division, placing 27^th and 69^th respectively.

The four students’ strong performances in the competition led Trine to place 14^th in the overall team rankings for both divisions.

“This was a great team effort from all our students, and I’m incredibly humbled to see Trine place in the Top 15 programs in the nation,” said Zander Atwood, Trine’s faculty sponsor of the event.

The four students will represent Trine again at the national in-person competition at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA, on Jan. 22-23, 2025.