Commitment and experience earned Ryan Keur, who graduated from Elon University in January, a step closer to acheiving his ideal job. Keur was named the new assistant general manager for the Burlington Royals minor league baseball team Jan. 23 after completing a summer internship with the company.
“I’m extremely excited about my new position and believe that there is great room for growth in the ball club,” Keur said. “This was a great opportunity for me to step in a front office position in minor league baseball.”
Although Keur earned his position recently, his relationship with the Burlington Royals ball club and its front office staff is anything but new. During the spring of his senior year, Keur interned with the team, completeing a variety of tasks off-field. His duties included season planning, group sponsorship sales, planning promotional events and working with ticket and concession sales.
“My time as an intern was a great opportunity for me to experience minor league baseball from a different perspective,” Keur said.
Following his internship, Keur decided to stay on during the team’s summer season. Keur’s decision to work through the season helped him see how the planning he had done in the spring directly correlated with the summer results, said Ben Abzug, general manager of the Burlington Royals.
“Ryan was very good at seeking out jobs that needed to be done, and completing them successfully," Abzug said. "He was a good problem solver."
The skills Keur demonstrated and his experience with the team ultimately led the Royals to hire Keur as a full-time assistant general manager, Abzug said.
The work Keur had done as an intern showed the Royal’s front office, specifically Abzug, that he was a hard worker, knew the system’s inner workings and was knowledgeable enough about the game to become a full-time employee. When Abzug was promoted to general manager after last season, he was faced with the task of hiring someone to work under him, and said he knew Keur was the right choice.
“He has a very good idea of how the operation runs, what he’s expected to do, and I knew he would not require much training,” Abzug said.
Although the internship introduced Keur to his current employer, Keur credits his success to his days at Elon.
“I believe each of my courses at Elon was beneficial in my progression as not only a student, but in becoming a professional,” he said. “I definitely need to acknowledge my professors at Elon for all the hard work that they do in helping their students.”
Nevertheless, Keur said his current position is a step toward fulfilling his goal of working with a major league team.
“From the moment I stepped foot on (Elon’s) campus, I had set some goals,” Keur said. “I wanted to work in business, and in sports, primarily baseball. I one day aspire to be in a major league front office and believe this can be a great stepping stone in my journey.”