Summer is a time of change at Pittsburg State with a campus-wide reorganization, staff and professors retiring or moving on to new opportunities.
And new faces on campus, although Jacob Lenard is hardly new at Pittsburg State.
The December 2012 Pitt State grad was hired the following month by KOAM-TV as a multimedia journalist.
He would become a sports reporter at the station two years later and be promoted to Sports Director in 2015.
Earlier this year, Pittsburg State Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Jim Johnson announced that Lenard has been hired as Associate Athletic Director for Fan Engagement. KRPS's
Fred Fletcher-Fierro recently spoke with Lenard and first asked what it’s like to go from being a student to then covering sports at PSU and now to working at his alma mater.
“Yeah, it feels like it feels like home. You know, I've been. I come to campus and run at the stadium most days, so you know, it always felt like home since I came here and went to school here.
So, it really doesn't feel any different to me because I've become so used to the place.
And you know, I've always kind of felt like I was going to end up back here. So, it feels like I'm kind of right where I'm supposed to be.”
Living and watching local news in the Four States, and smaller markets across the US you grow accustomed to news anchors and reporters, moving on to larger markets.
Jacob says that he had that impression when he was first starting out, but the longer he stayed at KOAM his view of life and what’s important changed.
“It's funny how you know your plans change. When I went into TV and got into television and, you know, I kind of had the idea that I was going to do what everybody else does in television.
You know you stay a place a couple of years and then you know, you move to a bigger market and a bigger job and then you from there you do the same thing.
You know what? I found out pretty quickly working at KOAM was that this is such a special small market local sports scene here, like people really care and really listen to what you're saying.
And so I mean, after a couple of years at KOAM, am I, you know, I realized that what I was doing mattered to people and was important to people around here.
That was more important to me than moving to a bigger market, so you know I stuck around here.
You know, I knew people listening. I knew people cared about what I was doing. So you know, it's my plan to stay here around the area and and stay here. But you know, so when I started my career, no, I didn't have any. I didn't plan on being, you know, back in college athletics, but, you know, as you know, my career kind of progressed and I had my son.
You know your plans kind of change when when you have kids and he's starting to get to the age where he's playing baseball and basketball and and soccer and and that's kind of the main reason why I'm making the switch now is.
Yeah, it doesn't feel right to be out covering other people's kids, playing sports when my own sons somewhere else playing sports. And so, it's important for me to be. There for him. Because I really only got one shot be there for him.”
There is no shortage of national sports coverage. Being a southeast Kansas native, Jacob knows the importance of local teams, high schools, and colleges, and their traditions and he worked endlessly at KOAM to bring those stories to life.
“You know, it didn't take long for that to become clear. Working at KOAM, you know, just the feedback you hear from the people. And when I started my goal was to be visible to, to not just be on TV, but to be out in the communities.
And I think that's really paid off in, in the eight years that have been sports director in the 10 years that have been at the station, you know we we've we interviewed people for for sports jobs and you know, it is really hard to convey how much people actually care and how big local sports and how important local sports it's gets.
It's really not that way all across the country, this area we have some of the greatest high school traditions through sports. We have some of the greatest college traditions, you know, between our two schools. You know, we have, you know, nationally, nationally ranked teams all the time.
Nationally ranked athletes, people breaking records. All the time. And so, it is a small market and it's hard to explain how a small market can be so invested in local sports, but until you've lived it until you've been here, you know it's hard.
You know, the first thing people say, you know when we have them come to town and visit our station, they go, ‘there's Gorillas in everybody's yard,’ you know, storefronts are painted, you know, with the with the split face.
I'm like, yeah, I'm. I've been trying to tell you like it really matters. And, you know, at Pittsburgh State specifically, you know, the university is the community, and the community is the university. It feels tighter than anywhere that I've ever seen or ever been.”
Covering sports, not only in the Four States but also nationally, like the Royals 2015 run to the World Series, and the Chiefs winning Super Bowls in 2020 and again this year.
Jacob says advice from a co-worker helped him better understand what covering local sports means to viewers.
“You know, I don't I I don't want to take up like so much of your time. But, you know, across the eight years, I mean, there's so many, you know, you would think that, you know, I've been to Chiefs games.
You know, I've been to chiefs Monday night games. I've been next to Tom Brady in the tunnel, and you know I've. Been like oh. My gosh, you know that? That's I've been to Royals World Series games.
Like, oh, that would probably be the coolest, but to me the coolest part is being there for the local kids, for some of their most special moments.
And so it's not even it's not even the Chiefs and the Royals and the and the big things that we've done, it's being there for, you know, kids one thousandth point or, you know, a buzzer beater that at that a local kid hit or, you know, like the Pitt State women going to the Elite 8 early in my career.
It’s just it's seeing the local kids. Have success and being there for those moments because you know something Dowe Quick, our main anchor, something that he told me, you know, early in my career that kind of stuck with me is you know something that we do on TV.
It may be like it just a quick 15 seconds and you know it may feel like insignificant to us when we're when we're saying this quick thing on TV but to somebody, tit's the most important 15 seconds we've ever put on KOAM-TV because it's about them.
It's about their kids.
And so, you know, being there for some of the special moments. The signings. The career milestones, you know, the wins, you know, the no hitters, the game winners, things like that for local kids. And I could say.
And, you know, name off a million things, but so many people, so many athletes, so many coaches have become special to me through personal relationships and being there for some special moments that it's, you know, it's not one specific thing.
It's just the fact that I've been able to be there and show off so many local kid's accomplishments that that's really special to me.”
In any workplace, mentors are important to help guide, answer questions and be there for support.
Especially in broadcasting where there is so much to learn and absorb after you graduate. Jacob attributes at least some of his success to two people he’s shared a news desk with for the past eight years.
Dowe Quick and Doug Heady are two names that I know people in southeast Kansas and the Four-State area know and I grew up in Southeast Kansas, as you mentioned earlier. So, like I grew up watching these guys on TV and to start part time at the station, I was like, OK, you, you can't screw this up.
Like that's Down Quick and Doug Heady, you know. You've watched them and then to start to work with him and to see why they are why they have the reputations that they do, like the hard work and the professionalism from both of those guys is incredible.
You know, kind of showing me how to be a professional and what it means to be good at this job, you know?
But those two guys. They've taught me a lot about, you know, being a good person and being a good Dad and some of that stuff means so much more to me than, you know, the stuff they taught me professionally.
They've taught me a lot professionally and growing up, watching them and sharing the desk with them for the last eight years and to think that maybe somewhere people go Dowe, Doug and Jacob say that even if it's three people, if there's somebody out there or a few people out there who who associate me with them and with those guys, and we'll kind of lump me in with with as those two guys as the new guys really does mean a lot to me.”
For Jacob to pivot to work at his alma mater is more like a half step.
He explains that many of the skills that he used as Sports Director will come in useful as Pittsburg State’s Associate Athletic Director for Fan Engagement.
“Well, this is actually, you know, something that you know I talked to Jim Johnson, the Athletic Director about and it's exciting because it's not like a total you know blank canvas.
There are things that need to be done, but you know, the thing that I'm excited about is that Jim is kind of giving me the, you know, the leeway to do the job as I see fit.
You know, I view my job basically as you know, to try to get as many people out to our events. As we can and then when they come out to make it a great atmosphere and something they want to, you know, tell their friends about and to keep coming back, you know, and and one of my main goals is to to tell our athletes stories here at Pittsburg State to to let people know in the community who they're actually rooting for and who they're showing up to support rather than just. “
You know, I'm going to show up because it's Pittsburg State. Like, I want to go to the game because I heard this story about one of our athletes. I want to go watch her.
I want to go watch him play. Yeah, I want to go watch that team because you know it's a group of underdogs, you know, I just want the people to know who they're showing up to root for.
And I think that can go a long way in, in getting people to show up, to come out and and to support our athletes, you know, creating a really good relationship between our athletes and fans and community.
More personally, rather than just, you know, knowing that you know them suit up for Pittsburg state.
Jacob Lenard starts at Pittsburg State on Monday June 19.
