Marshall University alumna Betsy Haugh was recently hired as general manager of the Pulaski Yankees—a Rookie League affiliate of the New York Yankees.

While at Marshall, Haugh was a soccer player and sports information department intern. After playing for the women’s soccer team for over a year, a shoulder surgery caused Haugh’s decision  to walk away from the soccer and start focusing on other opportunities at Marshall. She stopped playing sports and started covering them.

“I decided that I would rather focus my time on getting the work experience and the sports PR experience that I could get,” Haugh said. “I realized I liked being the one with the answers versus the one asking the questions.”

Haugh started her career at Marshall as a journalism student but switched to sports management and marketing and shortly after she started her job in the SID office.

“My time as an intern in sports information was probably one of my favorite experiences because you are a part of a Division I athletic program but one that was still small enough for you to have your hands in a lot of things,” Haugh said.

She said she credits the graduate assistants at Marshall during that time for being welcoming, fun to be around and knowledgeable.

After graduating in three years with a bachelor’s degree in sports management and marketing, Haugh attended Virginia Tech to pursue her master’s in communications.

“My time at Marshall was a lot more practical, it was hands-on working with sports and at Virginia Tech it was a lot more research-based,” Haugh said.

After her time at Virginia Tech, she started an media relations internship with the Danville Braves Rookie League team in Danville, Virginia.

“Her experience (at Marshall) was what we were looking for in our trainee and she had it,” Danville Braves Vice President and General Manager David Cross said. “I know her working in the SID office really excited her about the prospect of working in baseball full time and I believe she let that drive her to pursue the career she is in now.”

After working with the Braves for two years, she made the jump to the Pulaski Yankees as their assistant general manager. Her job involved working with social media and marketing, overseeing the interns, working with media relations, retail and corporate and ticketing sales.

After one season as an assistant general manager, Haugh was promoted to the general manager of the Pulaski Yankees.

“I’m very prepared for this position, there is still a lot that I will learn and a lot of help that I will need from others that have been in the industry longer but that is the great thing about minor league baseball is that everyone is willing to help everyone,” Haugh said. “It is definitely something that gives you an extra bump at the end of a long year to kind of recharge your batteries for a bit so it should be fun going forward.”

Haugh won numerous awards in minor league baseball and helped the Danville Braves earn Organization of the Year in 2017. As an individual, she won 2017 Appalachian League Woman of Excellence, 2017 Appalachian League Outstanding Employee of the Year and 2018 Appalachian League Woman of Excellence.

“My goals right now are just to make Pulaski baseball the best that it can be,” Haugh said. “Down the road, if there is an opportunity with a full season team or Double-A or something like that then ultimately that is somewhere that I would like to end up.”

Sydney Shelton can be contacted at [email protected].