00;00;02;05 - 00;00;23;06
Joe Carr
Hello and welcome to the Providence College Podcast. My name is Joe Carr. Our guest today is Sean Dufresne, a PC senior from Yonkers, New York. Like generations of PC students before him, Sean has made w dom the college's radio station. Part of his experience here. But when it comes to sports play by play, Sean and others have taken it to another level.

00;00;23;17 - 00;00;32;06
Joe Carr
Broadcasting games this year featuring six different sports and including, safe to say, more students than ever before. Sean, welcome to the PC podcast.

00;00;32;08 - 00;00;33;09
Sean Dufresne
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

00;00;33;16 - 00;00;50;05
Joe Carr
This is really interesting to me because as you and I have talked about, that was part of my PC experience starting in 1979 when Dom was in the basement of Joseph Hall. It's so much fun, though, to see how far it's come, and especially in this context where we talk about play by play. So six different sports this year.

00;00;50;17 - 00;00;53;24
Joe Carr
Give us a rundown in games, how many students involved and etc..

00;00;53;25 - 00;01;10;29
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, of course. So actually I did the whole wrap up tweet on Twitter a couple days ago. I was running through Mixer trying to get a full sense of everything we did and it was 48 total broadcasts this year. Like you mentioned, it was six different teams we did. We, of course, brought back the men's basketball men's hockey broadcasts, which have always been going on.

00;01;10;29 - 00;01;31;02
Sean Dufresne
We brought back women's basketball, which we had not done since before the pandemic, and we also introduced broadcast to the men's and women's soccer teams, which was a blast. Found a couple of kids that were really interested in soccer that were like, okay, maybe, maybe I'll give this a try. Jumped on a broadcast with a few of them that of course, they're big fans of the Premier League, so they felt like that could translate and they did a great job.

00;01;31;02 - 00;01;38;22
Sean Dufresne
I got a lot of people interested through that and I believe the total was 18 different students representing all four great years and all of them did a great job.

00;01;38;29 - 00;01;43;00
Joe Carr
So men's and women's soccer, basketball and hockey, that's the six sports.

00;01;43;01 - 00;01;43;18
Sean Dufresne
Yep, that's right.

00;01;44;01 - 00;01;51;01
Joe Carr
Any chance of jumping into softball or lacrosse this spring? You might stretch it out to seven. Or do you think that that'll be the end of it at six?

00;01;51;01 - 00;02;10;21
Sean Dufresne
So we want to I think the big thing with the cross, I reached out to Jen Ryerson, who's one of the associate athletic directors here, and I think the case with lacrosse is there tends to be more family members there for those games compared to soccer. So they like to use the press box for them. They're not the press box, but, you know, the the box seating, which we totally understand.

00;02;10;22 - 00;02;21;20
Sean Dufresne
Of course, that's the priority and softball. I have to ask again about that. I know I got to crash their doubleheader against Butler a couple of days ago and just the vibes, they were great. So it would be great if we'd call a few of those.

00;02;21;26 - 00;02;37;10
Joe Carr
Oh, that sounds terrific and like a great idea. As good to you mentioned Jen. Jen, Arthur Parkes, Mike Billings. These are the staff members who handle media relations for athletics and certainly they're involved in this. You couldn't, it seems to me, accomplish this without a lot of help from them.

00;02;37;16 - 00;02;52;16
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, they were great throughout the whole process. Right before first week of classes, I shot an email to Arthur Parks basically saying, Hey, this might be a stretch, but do you think we'd be able to call some soccer games this year? And right away I got a reply from him just saying, Yeah, let me know what you want to call and I can see if I can make that work.

00;02;53;01 - 00;03;13;29
Sean Dufresne
Then linked me to Jen. She basically brought me up to the box. She said, What do you need? We can get you an Ethernet cable. We can we can figure this out and hit the ground running from there. I mean, within a week and a half of being back, we called the men's soccer game against you are I that was our very first broadcast of the year had over 20 listeners on that which for the first broadcast in the new year felt pretty good.

00;03;13;29 - 00;03;28;25
Sean Dufresne
You know a lot of people seeing that we're doing soccer for the first time. So it created some early buzz which fell to stand at the very least with soccer throughout the year. And of course, Mike Billings, like you mentioned, has always been great, loves the student representation up on the bridge at Schneider Arena and has always had us in a great spot up there.

00;03;29;09 - 00;03;34;10
Joe Carr
Which sport carried the have his heaviest load would have been men's hockey was at the most games.

00;03;34;21 - 00;03;49;24
Sean Dufresne
Yeah I would say I would say so. And definitely the sport that I took part in the most because that's I've been on calls for that all for years here at Providence. I, with the help of Thomas Cinderella, my freshman year, I know he's been on this podcast as well. A few years ago he was able to get me up there for a few intermission reports.

00;03;50;13 - 00;04;14;28
Sean Dufresne
My freshman year was great. Right before COVID, I was able to do that and then my sophomore year with Kyle Meyer, my senior broadcast partner, we were calling a game from a Feinstein classroom because we couldn't get into any of the arenas that year, unfortunately. But yeah, this year I would say travel wise too. During the winter break, my my friend Leo and I were able to get to the West Point rink and call that game and they were very appreciative that some away team media wanted to come in.

00;04;15;09 - 00;04;17;14
Sean Dufresne
And yeah, it's it was truly a remarkable year.

00;04;17;18 - 00;04;21;20
Joe Carr
And then the Hockey East playoffs right? That's right. Tell us about that experience.

00;04;21;24 - 00;04;38;11
Sean Dufresne
Yeah so with the women's side of things, we actually got to call their quarterfinal game against Maine. That was right here at Schneider Arena. Great experience that I actually was able to call a good chunk of their regular season games, too. And they you know, had the field been a little bit bigger for the national tournament, I do think they would have had a good chance to get in.

00;04;38;11 - 00;04;54;12
Sean Dufresne
But in terms of the men's play offs, it got a little dicey with the spring break. You know, a couple of friends and I went down to Florida for a week, so I was kind of banking on those those wins in the playoffs for the team. But they made it happen. We were able to get the TD Garden with the help of John Smith, with Dom as well as Mike Billings.

00;04;54;18 - 00;04;57;08
Sean Dufresne
And yeah, truly just an unforgettable experience.

00;04;57;15 - 00;05;12;24
Joe Carr
Not unusual for student athletes playing men's basketball or men's ice hockey in particular. To have media coverage like this. In most their games are on television, for that matter. But what about the other sports? How do the student athletes and their coaches react to the idea of having having their games broadcast?

00;05;12;24 - 00;05;31;11
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, well, for starters, I know a handful of soccer athletes. We're shooting at them saying like, Oh, this is great. Like, it's great to see you guys go. And Lucas Burns, I know the one of the goaltenders for the men's team was very appreciative of it, actually. Sam Bevin, another forward on the team, moved into my drag room for the this semester, so I was telling him that I was like, Oh, that was you.

00;05;31;11 - 00;05;46;04
Sean Dufresne
And it was is a pretty funny moment there. But yeah, it is great to see that they, they recognize that we're there and that we, you know, kind of bring that fan energy into the broadcast. But, you know, we're still very you know, we'd like to think we're knowledgeable enough of the game to have a, you know, a listenable call.

00;05;46;04 - 00;05;50;12
Sean Dufresne
And yeah, I mean, it's it's truly been great to see the appreciation from them.

00;05;50;25 - 00;05;57;20
Joe Carr
What kinds of progress do you feel like you've made personally as a play by play announcer over the course of these experiences?

00;05;58;01 - 00;06;15;20
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, well, I like to go back and listen to my so my early stuff, especially my sophomore year remote broadcast. I mean, I feel like you can hear that I'm terrified, even though, you know, it's the most no pressure situation, you know, it's just me and a buddy and a Feinstein classroom, like I mentioned. But yeah, I think a lot of it was just repetition.

00;06;15;20 - 00;06;38;22
Sean Dufresne
I think especially junior year, Liam Tormey was the Dome sports director last year he was involved with an internship I know with ABC, also was doing some work with the Cal, so that opened up a lot of the hockey games for me to do. So I feel like that repetition as a junior really helped my confidence because this year I developed a pretty good routine show up about 45 minutes before I get the game notes study.

00;06;38;22 - 00;06;41;07
Sean Dufresne
Those, highlight a couple of things and then just hit the ground running.

00;06;41;20 - 00;06;50;04
Joe Carr
When you and others made the decision to expand, did you have any difficulty finding people to fill these slots or is there more interest than there is capacity?

00;06;51;05 - 00;07;12;28
Sean Dufresne
It wasn't too difficult. I think I initially thought it would be difficult because I in September I put out a announcement basically saying if there's any students interested, feel free to come. I hosted a big talk and Feinstein's trying to rally the troops, get some support going, and I would say about six people showed up. So I was a little I was a little down at first thinking, oh, man, like, you know, this is this was my big goal this year, right.

00;07;12;29 - 00;07;30;15
Sean Dufresne
To try and lay the groundwork for some students to, you know, follow suit after I graduate. And I was met with a flurry of emails from a bunch of students after that saying, oh, hey, sorry I couldn't make it. But, you know, this is still something I want to do. And I think that ability for them to be thrown right into it, you know, there wasn't really a wait list per se.

00;07;30;16 - 00;07;49;05
Sean Dufresne
It was like, okay, I can I would have a big like Excel spreadsheet. And I'd say, okay, I'll put you on, you know, the women's soccer game against Butler or I'll put you on the women's hockey game against you, whatever it might be. And just after one broadcast, a lot of the reception from them was okay, Like definitely some some bumps in the road by, but I really enjoyed it.

00;07;49;05 - 00;08;04;00
Sean Dufresne
I want to keep doing it. And that, you know, that just kind of build. They would tell their friends. They were like, Oh, hey, can I feature so-and-so on the next game? I see there's a there's an open slot on the spreadsheet. I'm like, Yeah, of course. And it was really great to see just as the season went along, I think as a group, we collectively improved.

00;08;04;04 - 00;08;17;09
Joe Carr
You mentioned, I use the phrase laying the groundwork, and that's an interesting concept. You are graduating, so you will be here to to see it or engineer it. But what do you think? What do you see in the future for this? Will it likely grow beyond here?

00;08;17;22 - 00;08;27;16
Sean Dufresne
Well, that's definitely the hope, I think, coming out of COVID, it you know, of course, I don't want to discredit the past work of the previous sports directors in my position because they all did a fantastic job.

00;08;27;16 - 00;08;28;21
Joe Carr
Thank you. Since I'm one of them.

00;08;28;21 - 00;08;43;18
Sean Dufresne
Yeah. No. Might as well throw you in there as well. Yeah, but yeah, I think a lot of it was, you know, it's been, at least for me personally, it was almost two full years of not being able to call a game from inside of an arena. So, you know, that was always lingering in my mind. I couldn't imagine.

00;08;43;18 - 00;09;01;15
Sean Dufresne
You know, it hasn't even been talked about, at least among students, you know, it hasn't been advertised in any of the team's social media, is whatever it might be. So, you know, I had this sense of, jeez, like, I have to at the very least make people know we're there again and, you know, start from there. And, you know, I think we've we finished there.

00;09;01;15 - 00;09;22;07
Sean Dufresne
You know, there's there's people now that are willing to listen to our broadcast routinely. We'll get some DMS on our Instagram and Twitter, basically saying like, that was awesome. Like, I love the energy you guys brought. And yeah, I'm hoping I'm trying to assemble a team now of people that I can trust will continue to preach this message of, you know, it's a very easy way to get a nice seat in the arena, test it out.

00;09;22;07 - 00;09;24;29
Sean Dufresne
If you like it, then you can you can kind of ride that wave throughout the whole year.

00;09;25;10 - 00;09;36;17
Joe Carr
So dome remains where it's always been on the dial, 91.3. But you also have streaming now, too. So that expands, at least for the radio station, generally coverage dramatically. Obviously.

00;09;36;17 - 00;09;54;19
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, absolutely. And I think what's nice about the radio and I think what has made people love that in the community is because, you know, I think the charm is that no one's being paid to do any of that stuff. You have all these kids here with strong opinions on certain sports teams, whether it's the teams here or, you know, professional teams, you know, that makes it worthwhile to tune in.

00;09;54;19 - 00;10;08;26
Sean Dufresne
And I think that, you know, that same charm is kind of brought to the student broadcasting where, you know, obviously none of us are getting paid to do that. We just love the game. We we love the team and we want to see the team do well. So we bring that sustained energy throughout the season. And I think it makes us a fun listen.

00;10;09;04 - 00;10;19;11
Joe Carr
In addition to play by play, you have a number of sports oriented talk shows too, including one that you do called Offsides on Hockey. And tell us a little more about what that menu of programing looks like.

00;10;19;11 - 00;10;40;06
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, of course. So offsides was something I started my freshman year with Kyle Meier over here in his name a lot through this. I met him orientation weekend, went into my freshman year with the idea of, okay, I would love to have a sports talk shows. I remember coming by the booth during my tour when I was a senior in high school and thinking, Yeah, that's that almost had this old right there, but started that show freshman year.

00;10;40;06 - 00;10;59;20
Sean Dufresne
It was about the Providence men's and women's hockey teams as well as the NHL. And we had a great time. It was just kind of an innocent little, you know, extracurricular freshman year that, of course, COVID hit and we wanted to keep doing it. So we turned it into a podcast, which something we're still doing today, albeit we've had a busy senior year, so we have been able to get on to that as much.

00;10;59;20 - 00;11;19;02
Sean Dufresne
But the show has always been, you know, something we've loved doing. It's eight semesters. I'm not sure how many other shows have been around all eight semesters, four in terms of people in my grade. But yeah, it started off just the two of us. Later on, we had coach Nate Lehman on. I believe that was junior year. Yeah, right before the the opening day against Army.

00;11;19;08 - 00;11;22;19
Sean Dufresne
And I had four guys on the men's and women's teams and they've all really appreciated it.

00;11;22;22 - 00;11;38;11
Joe Carr
Yeah, hockey people are great when it comes to that kind of thing. You know, having covered a lot of sports, I always in many ways have enjoyed hockey the most and that's because of the people and how much they tend to cooperate and and appreciate that kind of coverage. And it makes it makes a huge difference, doesn't it?

00;11;38;11 - 00;11;56;00
Joe Carr
Absolutely does. Kyle does a great job, too. We should give him a nod here. I listen to the show and have a, you know, great appreciation for the work that you guys have done together. It's it's really, really good. And so let's talk a little bit about about your background and what generated your interest in this kind of thing.

00;11;56;00 - 00;11;58;26
Joe Carr
Have you always been kind of interested in sports play by play?

00;11;59;10 - 00;12;11;28
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, well, it's funny enough and my parents will tell you this, when I was a little kid watching the NHL, you know, that's something that's always been on in our household for as long as I can remember. I used to for fun, mute the TV for the game and try and like, say what was going on on my own.

00;12;11;29 - 00;12;27;14
Sean Dufresne
They always loved that sometimes when I was playing like, you know, one of the NHL video games growing up, I would kind of commentate my own game and stuff like that. So I think the you know, the the mindset has always been there. And then of course, hockey in terms of actually playing the sport, I played it in high school.

00;12;27;14 - 00;12;48;07
Sean Dufresne
It got a little more serious, wanted to focus on that. But you know, it started off as a radio show interest when we got here. And then there was the Thomas Cinderella meeting, basically saying, Hey, if anybody wants to give this a shot, I tried to preach the same message he preach. You know, it's a no pressure thing, especially the you know, it's a professional setting, but not a lot of pressure is what I tried to say.

00;12;48;07 - 00;12;51;06
Sean Dufresne
And I've just really enjoyed that.

00;12;51;10 - 00;12;56;13
Joe Carr
Who are some of your favorite play by play announcers? Anybody you kind of model your your game after a little bit.

00;12;56;15 - 00;13;12;05
Sean Dufresne
Oh, yeah, of course. I mean I got to give a shout out to Kenny Albert and Sam Rosen. I was actually through some fortunate connections, able to interview both of them during the pandemic and they had a lot of awesome stories just about their come up. And, you know, people that they were inspired by to jump into play by play.

00;13;12;13 - 00;13;28;08
Sean Dufresne
And I like when there's guys that are, you know, like Sam Rosen, for instance, has been the Rangers guy for a long time, but he still keeps that kind of neutral mindset. You know, the away team scores, he's not going to have this deflated response because you know some some announcers appreciate good hockey. And that's what I tried to sound like.

00;13;28;17 - 00;13;39;03
Sean Dufresne
Of course I did more color with the men's team, but I did a lot of play by play for the women's team, and that was definitely a standard I tried to hold myself to where, you know, it doesn't matter what's going on. You want to have that that passion every time.

00;13;39;17 - 00;13;47;19
Joe Carr
What about some other sports, even, you know, NFL or Major League Baseball, things like that? Who catches your eye or your ear when you're taking in these games?

00;13;47;28 - 00;14;07;15
Sean Dufresne
Gee, let's see, because I have you know, there was one time were all hockey for a long time. I'm trying to think I like Kevin Harlan with the NBA. He's another guy. I guess you could say the same thing with the you know, he's perfect. He's very neutral, I guess. Mike Breen That might be a little biased being from New York, but I know that he does some great work with the other national games as well as with the Knicks.

00;14;08;08 - 00;14;21;03
Sean Dufresne
Let's see what else here. I know a lot of people aren't Big Joe Buck fans, but I think what he's done with baseball has been fantastic. You know, I would I would always watch the postseason of sports, even if I didn't really know what was going on. And he certainly brought some good energy.

00;14;21;13 - 00;14;45;17
Joe Carr
I'm a huge Joe Buck fan and just finished his his memoir, which is terrific. It's very funny. He's got a great sense of humor. It's such an interesting life story, which makes it a lot of fun. Funny you should mention Mike Breen, get to this in kind of a roundabout way, but as you and I have talked about, when I was a WTO M in the early eighties, the only sport where we did play by play was hockey, and you kind of had to work your way to it.

00;14;45;17 - 00;15;14;06
Joe Carr
So when you became a junior, you're kind of the second guy sort of of color. We didn't really know enough to provide any real analysis and as a senior did play by play. So the guy in front of me was John Hennessy, class of 82, who became the voice of the New Jersey Devils. And so and John is the most talented, one of the most talented broadcasters I've ever been around, just made it look easy and what not to say and work hard at it, but incredibly talented and had a great career in sports, play by play.

00;15;14;16 - 00;15;40;19
Joe Carr
But behind me was Steve McDonald, who is still in Rhode Island, and he's the play by play voice of the Rhode Island football. You are a football and basketball programs, also known as Jim Schwartz on AM and FM radio in the morning. But early in his career, Steve became friendly with Mike Breen and through of course, of a variety of things he ended up with in the studio.

00;15;41;00 - 00;16;00;12
Joe Carr
One morning during the Imus show when Mike Breen was doing sports, invited him to come watch it. And Don Imus took a liking to Steve because of that. And eventually Steve became Mike Breen's vacation back up on the on the show. So it's just strange how these things all come back together. Yeah. Someday Steve will be on this podcast.

00;16;00;12 - 00;16;22;09
Joe Carr
I've been chasing him for years, but anybody who knows Steve knows that. Nailing him down to where to get somewhere in a specific time can sometimes be a challenge, but it goes back that far, and all those connections can kind of line up a little bit. So it's really it's fun to talk about and it's been a long and an interesting road, But PC has had a lot of people be successful in sports media.

00;16;22;20 - 00;16;33;28
Joe Carr
Thomas Zarella currently is a good example. Class of 2021, right? He's the play by play voice of the Yankees higher affiliate now the Hudson Valley Renegades. Somebody you keep in touch with.

00;16;34;18 - 00;16;43;03
Sean Dufresne
A little bit you know of course I want to you know, I don't want to be in the way of his work because, you know, he has done a great job. I know he was calling baseball in Montana for a little bit at one point in time.

00;16;43;05 - 00;16;44;10
Joe Carr
Mississippi, too, right?

00;16;44;10 - 00;17;05;00
Sean Dufresne
Biloxi, Exactly. And I did talk to him recently, actually, both him and Matt Saint Jean were kind of, you know, the when I was a freshman, just the two big broadcasters here. And, you know, my question for them was, gee, when you know, because we were calling the TD Garden semifinal game, I, I figured they would have known the last time Dome went there and that was the last time I spoke to them.

00;17;05;00 - 00;17;26;04
Sean Dufresne
They said it was 2018 when Providence was in the finals against Boston University. And yeah, I know it's it's always great to to reach out to those guys. Matt Saint Jean had very nice things to say about the work we've done this year. He quote, tweeted the kind of the wrap up tweet that I put on Twitter a few days ago, basically saying that he's really enjoyed seeing the club grow.

00;17;26;04 - 00;17;35;24
Sean Dufresne
And that meant a lot because, you know, the certainly has been a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes, not just for me, but, you know, so many students here that have, you know, really put in the time to show that they care about this.

00;17;35;26 - 00;17;44;22
Joe Carr
And that's been involved in some college basketball things on the video side, rather. I'm not exactly sure what he's doing now, but certainly worth paying attention to on Twitter during college basketball season.

00;17;44;29 - 00;18;00;08
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, he's got he's very prominent on there. You know, even if even if you don't really know. Yeah. I think he's just more Big East. Not as much Providence oriented now, but he certainly he seems to be on the money with a lot of his scouting reports on players and predictions, whatever it may be.

00;18;00;16 - 00;18;13;24
Joe Carr
You mentioned your fan interest in growing up in Yonkers, New York. I find it interesting that you're a Philadelphia Fliers fan, so a tough season, but I just glanced before coming up here today. I've won four in a row here. You found something here? What's going on?

00;18;13;26 - 00;18;38;02
Sean Dufresne
Well, here's the thing. I would say most fliers fans aren't happy with this right now because you look at Connor Bedard being the the projected top pick in the the upcoming draft. I think they would prefer better chances at that than, you know, maybe maybe the 10th pick in the first round or something like that. But I'm at a point where if, if they're doing well, I, I'm happy to see that because you know, it has, you know, some people like to say that we're stuck in this endless cycle of mediocrity.

00;18;38;02 - 00;18;54;06
Sean Dufresne
But I mean, we have some enticing prize. I'm saying we like I'm I'm wearing I'm wearing their jersey right now or something. But yeah, I mean, they've got some great prospects, you know, in terms of the they've just had some tough luck with injuries, too. I think John Tortorella is a great coach for them to have during this phase that they're in.

00;18;54;06 - 00;19;04;19
Sean Dufresne
And yeah, I mean, who knows? I mean, they're not out of it yet. They're only like 12 points out of a wild card spot. Of course, that's easier said than done. But, you know, with nine games left, I mean, you know, who knows?

00;19;04;24 - 00;19;13;16
Joe Carr
Do you remember how you connected with with Philadelphia when you were young? How did you pick that out when you were surrounded by the Rangers Islanders and and other closer teams? Yeah.

00;19;13;16 - 00;19;29;26
Sean Dufresne
So it's a funny story because I and from what I remember in like kindergarten and first grade, I was a Rangers fan. Yeah. Like, I would have, you know, I would have the stickers on my notebooks or whatever. Maybe I'd have like the, you know, the hats and the and the jerseys or whatever. But they were not very good in the mid 2000.

00;19;30;01 - 00;19;48;02
Sean Dufresne
And I, I remember my dad, who has been a lifelong Fliers fan, he's from Montreal. But his story is that the first NHL game you went to was Canadiens fliers. And of course that was the Broad Street Bullies time. You know, the this bright orange team invades the league and start beating everybody up. So I think for him as a kid, that was an awesome thing to see.

00;19;48;02 - 00;20;09;10
Sean Dufresne
But yeah, I remember I believe it was like 2008. The fliers were in the playoffs. They had a nice run to the third round and I think my dad was like, Hey, you know, I'm going. I'm watching the fliers in the basement. I know, I know. You don't you don't really watch them. But you know, why don't why don't you just you know, when you watch the game with your dad here and then, I don't know, I just immediately fell in love with them that that series and that it's kind of been like that ever since.

00;20;09;10 - 00;20;19;28
Joe Carr
Picking up on your dad's favorite team is a totally legitimate answer to that question. So that that solves that puzzle in a very nice way. So it's good to have that to follow together. Yeah.

00;20;20;10 - 00;20;21;27
Sean Dufresne
And it spread to the rest of my family, too.

00;20;22;06 - 00;20;43;01
Joe Carr
Even even better. That sounds good to talk a little more about w dom today, kind of more broadly. So we kind of touched on this you have over the air and Internet. Tell us what's going on there with music formats, with participation, with opportunities for students to get involved in various ways. How popular is it right now among students?

00;20;43;02 - 00;21;04;07
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, I think it's as popular as it's ever been. I mean, I think the way the club has grown since my freshman year, it's been really great to see because I know at the very least this semester, I don't know if this has happened since I've been a student here, but for the first time in a while, every single Showtime slot was filled from, you know, the starts at 6 a.m. every day goes to 2 a.m. and Sunday to Saturday.

00;21;04;07 - 00;21;19;09
Sean Dufresne
It's like that. Everybody has a show. At that time, some might have dropped out sense that if they found out that they had a show at 6 a.m. on a Tuesday. But, you know, we had enough people sign up to the point where there was interest to full up a whole calendar, which I think has been great for the club.

00;21;19;28 - 00;21;30;08
Sean Dufresne
You know, there's all those plaques in the in the studio with, you know, winning an outstanding media organization. And I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of those words come around again in the next couple of years. Given this trend.

00;21;30;17 - 00;21;35;29
Joe Carr
Are there any deliberate connections with the SCTV student organization, with the video production?

00;21;36;06 - 00;21;54;16
Sean Dufresne
So there there tends to be at least in past years, there was I did want to collaborate with them a little bit this year, but it but I felt like my main goal was still to get the interest back in the broadcasting. I didn't want to, you know, do too much because I didn't want to lose the threat of what I was trying to do from from the get go.

00;21;54;24 - 00;22;10;24
Sean Dufresne
But I would definitely like to see some some more collaboration with them in the future because it would be great to I know, I know some sports shows with that video. I would occasionally go into the SCTV studio and, you know, be in front of the camera and kind of get the hang of that. And I think that's great for people that want to get involved with sports media.

00;22;10;27 - 00;22;16;23
Sean Dufresne
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that during my time here, but I think it's definitely something that can be taken advantage of.

00;22;17;00 - 00;22;29;19
Joe Carr
As you think about where you might go. And we'll talk more about your aspirations after you graduate. May made any thoughts about maybe adding some more of that video production or or on camera elements of this kind of work to your portfolio?

00;22;29;24 - 00;22;50;26
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, of course. It's kind of been an ongoing thing since my freshman year. I tried to teach myself Photoshop. I've I've been using the video editing software film aura to try and, you know, make little montages for the Instagram, whether it's for sports, are the Offsides podcast we have. And I think I'm at a point now where I'm a lot more confident in what I'm able to do.

00;22;50;26 - 00;23;04;24
Sean Dufresne
You know, I used to be very minimalist and basic when I was making freshman year, and I think the pandemic actually helped quite a bit because, you know, I had a point where class is done. Now it's four or five months, you know, hard to find work or anything. So I might as well just fool around on Photoshop.

00;23;04;24 - 00;23;18;20
Sean Dufresne
But yeah, I, I like the spot I'm in with that. I of course, there's a lot more to learn, especially with the Adobe Creative Cloud. There's a lot of software that I still need to work on familiarizing myself with, but I think I'm in a good spot to the point where I can get my foot in the door somewhere with that if I needed to.

00;23;18;27 - 00;23;40;00
Joe Carr
That's really interesting. We're all walking around every day carrying in our pockets an excellent camera. You know, we always really capture anything. And and by the way, the video software, the editing software is in there, too. So, so many opportunities for just creating stuff that people can can engage with. Let's talk about about the connection to the PC education part of the experience.

00;23;40;00 - 00;23;55;03
Joe Carr
Sean So when you think about the work that you've been able to do and that you aspire to do, which is in the communications realm, what are the things that you've gained in the classroom or other parts of the experience that you think help you in that endeavor?

00;23;55;17 - 00;24;13;01
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, well, I think a lot of what I've gained, at least from the communication side of things, has been in the last couple semesters because I declared my communication minor in the fall of my junior year. So it was, you know, three semesters to kind of get all that stuff done. And I was doing that in unison with the psych major, which I declared pretty late.

00;24;13;01 - 00;24;42;10
Sean Dufresne
So I had a lot on my plate junior year. But this year in particular, you know, learning about, you know, just print media, how that evolves into radio, then television and, you know, learning about media trends, things like that. I feel like it's made me a lot better equipped to, you know, let's say I do end up in maybe a sports marketing role or maybe, you know, some type of audience engagement role, perhaps, like I've been able to use those tools that were, you know, have self-taught health, have taught through classes that, you know, I've been able to make some content for it.

00;24;42;10 - 00;24;47;07
Sean Dufresne
So I'm pretty happy with where I'm at. And I think I can credit a lot of that to the communication department.

00;24;47;12 - 00;25;05;13
Joe Carr
You know, we've always thought and I think this is inarguable, that the liberal arts bases through their writing requirements, the communications skills that come from the general PC education, helping just about any form of vocation, but certainly in communications related ones.

00;25;05;20 - 00;25;19;24
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, absolutely. And I think just, you know, the curriculum that Providence has, I think it builds a lot of character because it's obviously not easy. You know, you think to serve, you know, but it's a collective experience that everybody's having, which in my opinion, makes it much more worth it because, you know, it's not like anybody has a leg up.

00;25;19;29 - 00;25;41;03
Sean Dufresne
You know, everybody has experience doing this collectively together. And I think that spreads into, you know, whether it's psychology, learning how to do research for the first time. You know, I've tailored a lot of that towards sports stuff to try and make it relate to my minor a little bit more. And yeah, I do like the creative freedom you get as you make your way into being an upperclassman and focused on more specific disciplines.

00;25;41;03 - 00;25;43;28
Sean Dufresne
But yeah, it's I've really enjoyed my time here.

00;25;44;06 - 00;25;56;01
Joe Carr
It's great to hear that you're doing well in the communications minor, which is new. So you're among the first students in that and tell us a little bit more about what some of those courses are and some of the experiences that you're having academically in that realm.

00;25;56;04 - 00;26;17;06
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, of course. So I know it's it's rapidly changing in terms of options that you can take for that minor. But I've taken classes like rhetorical analysis, mass media and politics, oral communication, visual communication and it's been great. You know, I think it's very similar to how psychology has gone for me in terms of electives that you have to take.

00;26;17;06 - 00;26;36;02
Sean Dufresne
You know, there's cultural psychology, there's social psychology, there's communication disorders, There's there's all these different things that, you know, all tied to each other. Sometimes you have terms that overlap with certain classes. And I found that to happen quite frequently with communication, too. But it's in a really nice way because you have different contexts for different things you're learning about.

00;26;36;11 - 00;26;39;17
Sean Dufresne
And yeah, it certainly it's been it's been captivating stuff.

00;26;39;22 - 00;26;59;03
Joe Carr
This always makes me, when I think about WDM and things like it, it always reminds me of one of the characteristics of PC that I think makes it so great. Of course I'm biased, but students come here and they have actual real opportunities to participate in a variety of things. Could be it could be one of the media organizations, it could be an investment club, it could be any any number of things.

00;26;59;03 - 00;27;06;02
Joe Carr
But you mentioned from your first year you were able to get behind the microphone. And that's that's really a nice thing and it makes a huge difference.

00;27;06;08 - 00;27;29;27
Sean Dufresne
Yeah, it I'm just so lucky. Honestly, that's that's been my thought process throughout these these four years. And I I've always thought with the broadcasting side of things and then just, you know, the radio station, you know, we have such beautiful facilities here. Division one like quality and you know, I feel like to not have been able to take advantage of that, whether it's the broadcasting or or the, you know, getting involved on social media, you know, reporting for the teams.

00;27;29;27 - 00;27;44;14
Sean Dufresne
You know, it really would have been a missed opportunity. And I hope, you know, that's something that underclassmen maybe hear and think, okay, like this doesn't seem like something that's right now that competitive to get into. I can really get an edge now and you know down the road I might discover that this is something I want to do.

00;27;44;20 - 00;27;51;02
Joe Carr
So you'll be graduating and as we speak, about seven weeks, I guess seven or eight weeks, not too far away. It's real now, isn't.

00;27;51;02 - 00;27;52;03
Sean Dufresne
It, all of a sudden? Yeah.

00;27;52;18 - 00;27;55;15
Joe Carr
That happens fast. What's next for you? What kinds of things are you thinking.

00;27;55;15 - 00;28;11;11
Sean Dufresne
About that the goal right now is to get involved with something in broadcasting. I know that's easier said than done. I know that you're going to have to pay your dues. If you do something like that. You may have to call a sport you might not be familiar with or you may have to, you know, work with a team that's not exactly close to home.

00;28;11;16 - 00;28;30;14
Sean Dufresne
And I recognize the challenges behind that. But I think given the experience I have now up until this point, a, that it's just been self fulfilling and I don't I don't want it to end here. So I think that's that's certainly number one in my mind right now. But if I can find something else sooner just to get my foot in the door somewhere, then of course I'm going to go for that.

00;28;30;19 - 00;28;40;19
Joe Carr
And it all sounds sounds great. I'm sure that there's a bright future in front of you, and I will be looking forward to keeping in touch with you and seeing how things go and how it develops throughout the course of the next few years.

00;28;40;28 - 00;28;41;24
Sean Dufresne
Thank you very much.

00;28;41;28 - 00;28;55;27
Joe Carr
This has been fun. Thanks for coming in and joining us on the podcast and good luck the rest of the way. It's like a lot in front of you in the next couple of months, so a lot of it'll be a lot of fun. So I hope you take time to enjoy that in the midst of all the stress associated with it.

00;28;56;07 - 00;28;58;13
Sean Dufresne
Thank you. I'm looking forward to it. And thank you for having me on.

00;28;58;18 - 00;29;16;27
Joe Carr
Providence College senior Sean Dufresne, our guest today. Thank you for joining us. You can subscribe to the Providence College podcast and all the usual places, and they're available on the college's YouTube channel. Feedback is welcome, of course, at podcast of Providence Dot edu. Thanks to our producer Chris Judge. I'm Joe Carr. Until next time.