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Ex-Grizzly, SOU star makes prose at OSU By Greg Stiles The persistence Michelle Westerberg exhibited on the basketball court and softball diamond has landed the former Ashland High and Southern Oregon University star an attractive day job. Westerberg is a member of the Oregon State�s sports information staff, in charge of women�s soccer, basketball and softball. "I had a hard time letting go when I wasn�t playing any more," says the 24-year-old Westerberg. "But I�m traveling around with teams and watching a lot of games." When Westerberg left SOU with a degree in communications and journalism in 1998, there was no deluge of sports information offers or, for that matter, prospects. She sent letters and bided her time coaching Ashland�s freshman girls basketball team the next winter. An interview with the West Coast Athletic Conference in San Bruno, Calif., produced no job, but a lead. She pursued work at the University of Portland but came up empty. Undeterred, Westerberg headed north to Spokane, Wash., where she signed on with Gonzaga University as a graduate assistant in the sports information department. The post provided only a stipend and free tuition towards a master�s degree in athletic administration. It didn�t exactly pay all the bills, but it was a good time to be at Gonzaga. The Zags� men�s basketball team made it all the way to Sweet 16 last year. "It was nice and sunny for the first round in Tucson," Westerberg recalls. "But the next week at Albuquerque was rainy and cold." Her task was to retrieve players for postgame interviews. Back in Spokane, her duties included handling publicity for volleyball, women�s basketball and men�s and women�s tennis. She was midway through her master�s program when she heard about the Oregon State job. She went to work Oct. 1. "It was a Pac-10 school and it was closer to home," Westerberg says. "There are definite advantages." Like getting a real paycheck. It wasn�t long before Westerberg was handling the women�s basketball duties her new boss handled a year earlier. "She was very confident, and I knew she had a lot of good recommendations coming in," OSU sports information director Hal Cowan. "In addition to writing, you need to know all of the different computer packages we use. You need to know a little bit of everything we do and have a lot of people skills." Westerberg arrived just in time to ride the wave of euphoria created by Oregon State�s football team. "Everybody is involved in football, organizing interviews, writing releases and working in the press box on Saturdays," she says. I�d go get quotes from players (in the interview room) and bring them back up to be typed." But when the Beavers demolished Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, Westerberg was back at Corvallis. "I was the only one in the office that didn�t get to go to the Fiesta Bowl," Westerberg says. "The women�s basketball team had a home game that weekend." Although softball season began more than a month ago, basketball will occupy her for a few more weeks � perhaps into the National Invitation Tournament. Besides the day-to-day game reports and the steady flow of weekly releases, there are always statistical summaries and media requests to handle. Summers are spent preparing media guides for the upcoming year. "Just managing my time is a big deal," Westerberg concedes. "I thought I was busy when I played sports in college and was trying to balance it with schoolwork. Now, I�m so busy all the time setting up interviews and writing releases. There never seems to be enough time." Ultimately, Westerberg hopes to spend even more time watching basketball. "I don�t think I want to be the head person at a small school � they have to do everything," she says. "I don�t think I want to head up a department at a large school, because that usually entails football as the main thing. "I guess my dream job would be the women�s basketball SID at Stanford, or something in the WNBA or NBA." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4483, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.