BUCHANAN — At a young age, Kelsie Patrick noticed the excitement sports brought her and everyone around her.

As she witnessed them unite people of every difference, it sparked the Buchanan native to pursue a career in the sports industry. Playing volleyball, soccer and tennis herself, she knew how much they meant to her.

As a film and journalism double major with a minor in public relations at Michigan State University, Patrick hit the ground running her freshman year to gain experience.

She started out as a production assistant with the Big Ten Network’s Student U program at MSU. Patrick’s routine tasks, like setting up audio equipment and cameras quickly turned into live reporting and live editing at MSU football, basketball and softball games.

She eventually was scouted by Fred Heumann, the then sports director at WLNS-TV Channel 6. She worked with the news station from her sophomore year until her senior year.

“With them, I firsthand covered everything myself,” Patrick said. “I would take a video camera to all of the football games and all of the home basketball games. I would shoot the games, shoot press conferences after the games, and then I would edit all of those things together for their newscast.”

It was while working for Channel 6 that Patrick covered her most memorable sports moment — MSU beating Ohio State 17-14 in Columbus to advance to the college football playoffs in 2015.

“When [Matt] Geiger got that last-minute field goal, just being on the field and being able to report and video record that was the most electrifying experience I’ve ever had,” Patrick said.

During her junior year, Patrick also worked with the Washington Redskins for a season. She started organizing footage and quickly moved onto shooting practices, games, volunteer events and features. She also produced a docuseries from concept to delivery on Tailgate Ted.

Two months after graduating from MSU, Patrick was offered a job in California at the NFL Network as a production assistant for the season.

“When I was there, I did everything from archiving footage to organizing footage to helping write scripts for promos and editing promos,” she said. “I also worked with coordinating talent on special shoots we would do.”

After the season ended, ESPN offered Patrick a part-time role working on digital production for their radio shows. Looking for another part-time gig, Patrick was scouted by Fox Sports about a digital content specialist role.

She balanced both positions for a while, and ultimately decided to work at Fox Sports fulltime for a year.

“While I was with them, I pretty much did everything under the sun when it comes to digital and on-air production,” she said. “On college football Saturdays, we would all sit in our war room and [watch] live coverage on 20 TVs all of the games that were happening at one time. We would live clip them for highlights for social media and the site.”

Ultimately, Patrick decided to return to the NFL Network as a digital content producer and editor.

“Of course, I loved my time here so much I decided to come back,” she said.

In her current role, she is in charge of the talent franchise digital content — sponsored and unsponsored. She also works with talent to write scripts and make graphic packages to help sell content. She writes storylines for individual NFL teams and the overall NFL audience as a whole.

When she was younger, Patrick’s goal was to be a reporter in front of the camera. However, her experiences at MSU changed that.

“I truly fell in love with the art of video production and editing,” she said. “I just loved being able to have the power to tell the story and present it in the way I wanted to. Essentially, I liked being able to have the power to use my own voice and use my own unique spin on content and create awesome stuff that makes people super excited about their team or a game.”

Patrick’s advice to anyone pursuing a career is to live life with a “why not me?” mentality.

“Coming from such a small town, there can sometimes be some small-mindedness in a lot of people that might not be able to visualize where you are at and what you visualize for yourself,” she said. “When you are feeling discouraged, remember, everyone started out in the same place that they are, whether it’s a big city like L.A. or a small town like Buchanan, Michigan. They thought the same thing. Everybody is like, ‘Why not them, why not me?’ Why can’t I go and do those things if everybody else did?”

Overall, in sports, Patrick learned how nothing is ever handed to someone.

“If you want to win, you have to continue to work hard and just be the best that you can be in your craft,” she said. “Teamwork is pretty huge, especially working in a digital environment now. In production, there are so many different cooks in the kitchen. It is important for me to properly communicate and work with others who might not have the same outlook that I do.”

Patrick also credits being Miss Buchanan for helping her hone her communication skills.

“Especially in an industry out in L.A., people will eat you alive if you let them,” Patrick said. “Being able to stand your ground and really be confident in what you believe in and bring to the table is super important.”