Let’s rewind back a couple of years. I was a freshman moving into the fabled Flippen-Perrin dorm here on campus. Like most freshman, I was both excited and nervous for starting the next chapter of my life here at OBU, and as I moving into my room on the third floor, I had the first chance to meet my suitemate and very good friend, Josh Fink.
Josh and I shared a lot of great memories and experiences our freshman year. We stayed up late playing video games, talking about school, and great deal of sports, as most guys do.
Since his humble beginnings as freshman from Forney, Texas, Josh has come a long way here with his time at OBU by becoming the sports information director for all things athletic here on campus. In July of 2011 Josh received a phone call from athletic director David Sharp asking whether or not he was interested in the position.
“It was an opportunity that I felt couldn’t be passed up,” Josh said, “and I attribute the offer to the fact that I was a student-worker for the sports information department and spent most of my time in the office writing player bios and learning the statistic programs.”
He gladly accepted the offer and has been the head of sports information for the past two years. His responsibilities include managing the OBU athletic website, game day setup for home games, statistic keeping, writing press releases and collaborating with the coaches to meet any requests that they may have.
It’s safe to say that being a full-time student can be pretty demanding, but for Josh, it’s only half the battle. Juggling school work as well as his sports job can be pretty demanding. Josh said “there are some weeks when I am literally just trying to keep my head above water because of the amount of work, but I have learned to balance it quite nicely most weeks.” What’s interesting is the amount of work he does outside of the actual sporting events. Having to keep player bios updated, working with the NCAA directly and collaborating with other schools in the Great American Conference can take anywhere from 30 to 60 hours a week, on top of school work.
When asked about his life after “The Bubble”, Josh said that he can use his skills that he’s learned in almost any field he would want.
“The most important skill that I’ve learned is time management under extreme circumstances,” he said. “There are may times that we will have home games back-to-back nights, and I have to be there several hours before to set up equipment, then once the game is over I take it all down and head either to my office or apartment to study for a huge test I’ll have the next day.”
During his time at Ouachita, Josh has been given a huge responsibility with high expectations, and has managed to balance between being the sports information director, full-time student, and captain of the semi-famous intramural team “The Rebel Alliance.” If you happen to see him walking around campus, or at a sporting event (where you can always find him), go shake his hand and tell him how great of a job he does, he deserves it.
