BOTKINS — The 2024 Super Bowl is now a memory in sports trivia. But for a Botkins resident, the memory is more than trivia, he got to be part of the event.

Jameson Meyer, son of Brett and Michele Meyer, of Botkins, is a sophomore at Bowling Green State University, where he is majoring in sports management.

“At Bowling Green we have an organization called Sports Management Alliance that tours facilities and looks at real world opportunities in sports. For this trip there was a selection process where I had to interview within a pool of nearly 100 other students and then get accepted to go onto this trip,” said Meyer.

During his time at the Super Bowl, he was busy with various responsibilities.

“While there for a week we had multiple roles with what we were working. The first day there we worked at what is called the Super Bowl experience. This experience is for fans and consisted of the huge Mandalay Bay convention center set up with different football games and alot of other cool NFL items,” said Meyer. “My job while working here was to help set up and run a football obstacle course that involved kids and fans running through football type drills and diving onto a cushioned mat to end the course. I helped encourage kids and made sure everyone knew what to do when it came to running the course and going through it.”

On the day of the Super Bowl, Meyer was outside the stadium.

“On game day we worked a tailgate area right outside the stadium for ESPN and NBC executives. Tickets for this event plus a super bowl ticket ranged anywhere from $20,000 – $40,000 so we were informed to be very helpful and on our best behavior since these were important people,” said Meyer. “At this event I was in charge of greeting the visitors and doing anything to enhance their experience. This ranged from showing them to the nearest food stand to telling them ‘thanks for coming and enjoy the game’.”

In addition to Meyer, other Bowling Green students and two professors also went on the weeklong trip.

While he was in Las Vegas, he was able to touch base with Botkins students.

“I did not have to do a report on my experiences, but was able to Zoom the Botkins Elementary kids while in Vegas to share what I was seeing and doing,” said Meyer.

He understands the importance of the experience and how it might impact his career choice in the future.

“Whatever I choose to do in the future, this experience will help me learn how to manage people no matter their background or where they are from. While in Vegas we had the opportunity to work and meet with people from all over the world. Doing this helped my communication skills and my ability to work with others in a different environment for a huge cause. This also helped us be able to network and maybe open up job opportunities in the future,” said Meyer.

The group was able to see the sights of Las Vegas while they were there.

“Since we were on the strip working we were able to see a lot of Vegas from a distance. However, one night we were able to go on the strip which allowed us to see almost all of Vegas along with many celebrities. Getting the Vegas experience was very cool to see and not totally as crazy as it is portrayed to be yet very fun with lots to do,” he said.

“The scenery that I really enjoyed however was the desert in Vegas. We stayed in a town called Boulder City which is about 30 minutes from the strip so we were able to see a lot of the views that Nevada has to offer. A couple days we had some free time and the opportunity to go hiking in the mountains and down to the base of the Hoover Dam and Mead lake. Hiking and seeing these views was one of the coolest experiences to me due to the fact there is nothing similar to it here in Ohio,” said Meyer.