From the baseball fields of Elon to working for the New York Yankees and sports media giant Overtime, Alex Day ‘16 has had a riveting and exciting career post-Elon.
Alex Day ’16 found Elon almost coincidental. During one trip to North Carolina for a high school baseball tournament, Day decided to take a tour around Elon’s campus.
Instantly, he made Elon his top choice due to the beauty of the campus and his strong interest in the School of Communications. Once Day arrived at Elon, he became involved in multiple student organizations, playing for and coaching the club baseball team and working for Elon Phoenix Weekly and Elon Local News (now known as ENN), as well as majoring in broadcast journalism.
Day does admit to a few bumps in his transition post-graduation.
“I was the only one in my friend group without a job at graduation, but that changed later that summer when I got hired to be a production assistant for Duke’s Blue Devil Network in Durham,” Day said.
It was his foot in the door and he was able to create digital content with the basketball, football, baseball, volleyball and field hockey teams on a daily basis.
“It was an Elon alum, Nolan Elingburg ‘11 G’12, who hired me, and I’m still grateful for the opportunity he gave me,” Day said.
Day went on to work at Duke for nine months before ultimately landing his dream job working for the New York Yankees. He ended up working there for over three years, winning two New York Emmys during his tenure.
However, Day’s stint at the Yankees ended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I got furloughed in August 2020. It was expected, but definitely a bummer, and I had a hard time finding a new job during COVID.”
But Day used this time to create a new opportunity for himself.
“I pivoted. Most of my reels were from Elon, so I decided to put my production skills to good use and start creating my own content for a page I called ‘No Huddle Sports.’ After months of limited traction, everything changed in January 2021,” Day said.
He put out a series of videos on TikTok giving rapid-fire sports takes, and it took off. Over the next several months, he continued putting out content every single day, rapidly building a following mostly on TikTok. Later that summer, the sports media startup Overtime reached out about him being a sports content creator on their site.
“And I’ve been at OT for over two years now,” Day said.
Since working at Overtime, Day has done a variety of projects. While he was originally hired to do sports betting, Day took a different approach looking to highlight the fan experience.
“Whether it’s celebrating the highs of winning, to voicing frustration with the general manager, to just having the conversations two people would have about their favorite team at a bar, I’ve tried to capture that over my past two years at Overtime,” he said.
Day has also captured the fan experience, including “man on the street” interviews with fans, interviews with athletes and celebrities, game-day vlogs, player storytelling and more. Since beginning at Overtime, Day’s role has evolved into not just making social content but also studio hosting and play-by-play broadcasts for “Overtime Elite” on Amazon Video.
When asked about his favorite projects at Overtime so far, Day says, “I always love interviewing fans because there’s a level of unfiltered dialogue that you can rarely get with athletes, but it’s been incredible getting to banter with some top athletes too. Ones that stick out to me are Jayson Tatum, Rob Gronkowski, DK Metcalf, CC Sabathia, JJ Watt, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Micah Parsons.”
Along with some favorite stories and interviews, Day said that one of the most rewarding parts of his journey so far has been that his current career has come out of a professional and personal crossroads.
Not only has personal dedication and determination helped Day succeed, but he also said that many of the experiences at Elon have helped him reach his goals in his current role.
“Three things come to my mind. One was a project in Rich Landesberg’s class to just go and find a story. I remember walking into a tattoo shop in Burlington with my friend Brianna McClelland saying, ‘Here goes nothing,’ and it being a huge success. That taught me to be curious and to always keep your eyes and ears open,” Day said.
“Two was doing a semester abroad. It’s easy to interact with the same people every day on campus, but talking to strangers from different cultures is something I do every day today. Lastly, is being a player-coach on the club baseball team. Being a leader amongst your peers isn’t just pressure, but it’s difficult. It’s not fun having tough conversations with friends when something goes wrong. That experience helped me maybe more than any other in the workplace,” he added.
For students interested in sports or social media creator roles, Day highlights the importance of storytelling.
“Whether it’s your story or telling other people’s stories, be engaging and concise. When I create a video, I think, ‘Is this entertaining or educational?’ If it’s not one of those two, the success rate goes down. Lastly, be persistent and consistent. I told myself I’d put out one video a day Monday-Friday when I got furloughed. I stuck with that even when I wasn’t finding any success. You have to stick with it.”
Overall, Day has had a variety of job experiences post-Elon. All of which were cultivated by an Elon education, experiences and relationships that highlight the legacy of Elon graduates. Day is an example to current students to pursue their dreams with the Elon community cheering them on.