Hi, I’m Drew Kaufman and I love sports. Growing up in a household with two parents in sports meant that it was always a part of my life. It just happened to become my favorite thing to play, watch, read about, etc…. I’ve played soccer since the age of 3, and basketball since the age of 5. I have emphatically rooted for Boston sports teams since I can remember starting to watch sports. I do so much related to sports each and every day, and I wanted to find a way to turn my passion into a project. I’ve also always tried to include my passion for sports in my learning and education. I did an honors project around fantasy football, which I love so much. As I head toward college, I’m also thinking about my next steps. I’m majoring in sports media at Indiana University, and with the sports industry being increasingly competitive, it was important to me to practice working in the business. 

For my senior project, I will be coaching and learning to coach sports at Chelsea Piers and also writing about current topics in the sports world. For those who don’t know, Chelsea Piers is a sports complex in the city and is where I’ve played sports for a long time. I worked there this past summer as a sports camp counselor and play there for my soccer team. Chelsea Piers is a second home for me. I will shadow some of the classes and will work my way into being more involved in running those classes. They will be youth soccer classes for 3-9-year-olds, the same classes I took as a kid at Chelsea Piers. I will help teach them the game and skills they will need to improve in soccer to get better. This will be on most days, a minimum of 5 hours of work. This will help me build the skills necessary to work in sports, whatever job that ends up being. When it comes to my writing, it will happen on days I’m not at Chelsea Piers. I’m very fortunate to have so much going on in the sports world as I do my senior project, giving me so much to write about. The NFL draft, NBA playoffs, MLB start, plus so much more all happens in the time frame of our senior project. These will be weekly reports, articles on specific players, and end-of-season reports. My writing will be in a folder that will be linked to my finished senior project.   When it comes to community service, I will be doing some planting uptown with a few of my classmates. In total, my project will not only help me enhance my ability to write, coach, study, and interact with sports, but it will also help me figure out what I want to do with my passion for sports. There are so many different jobs in the industry and the hard part is figuring out what to pursue. I believe this will help me make that decision when I come to it.