Internship Series | Students explore careers in the sports industry with the Nashua Silver Knights

Our Internship Series highlights where our students interned this summer, what they learned, and how their experiences fit into the unique professional journeys they are building at Nichols College. Since real-world preparation is central to our mission, all Nichols students complete an internship before graduation to connect theory with practice. In this final installment of the Q&A series, we hear from one more student about his summer experience.

This summer, five Nichols sport management majors found themselves working for the same organization: the Nashua Silver Knights, a summer collegiate baseball team in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL). Peyton Blackinton ’29 and Anthony Costello ’27 worked in game-day operations, Riley Dionne ’27 in sales and James Geehan ’26 as a live statistics analyst. First-year student Cate Marvin ’30 also worked in game-day operations with the Silver Knights, completing her internship just before entering Nichols. For some, connections made through Nichols, whether in the classroom or at the College’s career fair, helped lead them to the organization, which is led by General Manager and Nichols alumnus Cam Cook ’18. A former Silver Knights player and member of the team’s Hall of Fame, Cook transitioned from the field to the front office before becoming general manager.

For Geehan, a business analytics major with minors in communication and sport management, the internship offered a chance to apply his interest in data to baseball. As the Silver Knights’ live statistics analyst, he prepared statistics for broadcasters, scored games and analyzed player performance while getting a closer look at a potential career in sports analytics.

In this Q&A, Geehan discusses his summer with the Silver Knights, how his Nichols coursework prepared him for the role and what he learned about pursuing a career in sports analytics.

1. Tell us about your major and what career path you are exploring.

My major is business analytics, and I am currently pursuing a career in either spatial analysis consulting or sports analytics and metrics.

2. Where did you complete your internship, and why did you take this internship on—what were your goals?

I completed my internship with the Nashua Silver Knights at Holman Stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire, where I was the live statistics analyst. This experience was all about how to analyze the game of baseball. I chose this internship because I wanted a potential entry point into a career in sports analytics. My goal was to learn how to effectively use analytical thinking skills in a sports environment.

3. What did a typical day look like for you during this experience?

A typical day for me started with arriving at the ballpark about two hours before the first pitch. My first task was to assist the ballpark operations staff with whatever they needed. Once everything was ready for fans to come into the stadium, I started working on building statistics packets for our broadcasters. These could include team vs. team statistics, statistics from a particular stretch of games (depending on whether the team was on a winning or losing streak), or season-long metrics that helped our broadcasters provide analysis during the livestream.

Once that was all set and the game was about to get underway, I entered the lineups and positions into PrestoSports and started scoring the game. When the game was over, I let our social media manager know who the player of the game was and gave her the player’s stat line and any highlight plays. Finally, I helped clean the stadium as much as possible before returning home, then started everything again the next day.

4. How did your school coursework prepare you for this role?

Learning how to effectively use AI and coding applications provided me with the necessary tools to complete my tasks efficiently and expanded what I could do. Learning how to create dashboards using Power BI in class has strengthened my presentations, which will be helpful for presenting to coaches about player performance. Using Excel to create spreadsheets with player information and analyzing that information using Python code through Google Colab were also key parts of creating efficiency in my work. I learned these methods through my major’s coursework.

5. How has your internship experience shaped your future goals after graduation?

I have always wanted to work in sports to some extent. Ever since I watched the film “Moneyball,” given my love for math, I’ve known the direction I’d like my career to go in, one that combines my passion for numbers and sports.

The field of sports analytics is tough to get into, but not impossible. This internship can help me achieve this goal not only from an experience standpoint but also because it taught me several things. One of the biggest things I learned from this experience is to never stop learning and adapting to your environment. Another is to always think outside the box and be creative because the world of data analytics is vast, and there are so many ways to present information and influence decisions.

6. What advice do you have for other Nichols students looking for an internship?

Apply to whatever interests you because doing something in a field you enjoy is essential to reaching your full potential and doing your best work. If you go into an internship search just to get an internship, rather than looking for something that interests you, it can make the days feel endless, and you won’t get the full experience that is crucial to your learning. Gaining experience is important, but so is learning those universal skills throughout the process, so it’s ideal if it’s something you can stay engaged in for many hours each day.

(Pictured in story photo, from left: Riley Dionne ’27, James Geehan ’26, Peyton Blackinton ’29 and Cate Marvin ’30 at Holman Stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire, over the summer.)