A “Super” experience has local ties: Daughter of recently-returned Allamakee County natives enjoying her internship experience with the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl championship season
AFC Championship Trophy comes “home”... Kristin Mathis, daughter of Jay and Maria (Welsh) Mathis of Waukon, is pictured above with Kansas City Chiefs co-owner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Clark Hunt. The two are pictured with this season’s Lamar Hunt Trophy, which is awarded to the National Football League’s American Football Conference (AFC) Championship team and named after Clark Hunt’s father, who is credited with founding the American Football League that would ultimately become the American Football Conference once the American and National Football Leagues merged in 1966. Submitted photo.
Immersed in the celebration ... Kristin Mathis, daughter of Jay and Maria (Welsh) Mathis of Waukon, is pictured at left celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ AFC Championship win this past January that advanced the Chiefs to the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years. Mathis has been serving as a ticket sales marketing and analytics intern with the Chiefs during their Super Bowl championship season, a position running through April of this year. Submitted photo.
by Lissa Blake
When University of Iowa senior Kristin Mathis landed an internship with the Kansas City Chiefs last fall, she had no idea they would actually end up winning the Super Bowl.
“Last year they had a really good season, but after losing some games at home, it was not looking good,” said Mathis of the Chiefs’ outlook late in this past National Football League (NFL) season.
Mathis, a 2016 graduate of South Hardin High School in Eldora, is the daughter of Jay and Maria (Welsh) Mathis of Waukon, both 1982 graduates of Waukon High School. Jay, the son of Bob and Jean Mathis of Waterville, returned to his alma mater as Superintendent of the Allamakee Community School District prior to the start of the 2018-2019 school year, bringing the family back to its parental roots in northeast Iowa where Maria was also raised by her parents, Dan and Sarah Welsh.
Kristin is majoring in marketing analytics and international business at the University of Iowa. She said after studying abroad in Ireland last school year, she wasn’t quite ready to go back into a conventional classroom.
“I saw the Chiefs internship posted. I knew it was a longshot, but I gave it a try and ended up getting it,” she said.
PRE-SEASON
Mathis put her senior year of college on hold and headed to Kansas City, MO for the internship in August of last year, just a week before the NFL pre-season schedule started. Although they’d had a strong season the year before, early losses at home and a knee injury for star quarterback Patrick Mahomes in October had Chiefs fans concerned with how this season would turn out.
THE TURNAROUND
Although the season started out rough, things really started to turn around for the Chiefs at the end of October into December.
“Things just happened... Miami beating the Patriots, us (the Chiefs) beating the Texans, then the Patriots and the Ravens losing. That made us the highest-seeded team going into the AFC Championship game. That game was not looking good either, but we turned it around,” said Mathis. “Even the Super Bowl was kind of a heart-attack game.”
FUN OPPORTUNITY
Mathis said in the past, she has always been a football fan and even made cheerleader in high school. But even though her dad had been a football coach, she never had a specific team she cheered for in the NFL and wasn’t looking to pursue a career in football or in the sports world in general.
“I didn’t apply because of football… but more because it seemed like a perfect position for me,” she said of the internship being offered.
Working for the Chiefs, she has served as a ticket sales marketing and analytics intern. “That means I send out emails, track those, set up Facebook ads and anything to do with selling our tickets. I help market all of those and promote various events,” she said.
On game days, Mathis was present at the gate to help with mobile ticketing, but admits that once the admission frenzy is over early on in the game she gets to be more of a fan and watch the game. “I also got to go on the field for the AFC Championship game,” she said of that January 19 game the Chiefs hosted and won over the Tennessee Titans to earn their first Super Bowl berth in 50 years.
Even though her intern position was in marketing and analytics, Mathis said the job with the Chiefs involved so much more and was filled with different kinds of excitement from day to day. She recalls helping fans take pictures one day with the Chiefs’ new life-sized Patrick Mahomes bobble head.
GAME DAY
During Super Bowl LIV (55) at the beginning of February, the Chiefs’ full-time staff got to attend the actual game, while Mathis and 14 other interns headed to the Power and Light District in Kansas City to watch the game on the big screen.
“That was really fun. We all kind of watched it together,” she said. “It was pretty incredible.”
PRICELESS
Mathis will end her internship in Kansas City this April and return to the University of Iowa with plans to graduate in December of this year. She called her experience and the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win, “A pretty surreal moment.”
“This learning experience has been priceless. Everything just kind of lined up too perfectly… it’s been a cool, full circle moment… going from small-town Iowa to having my team win the Super Bowl,” she said.
Although Mathis won’t be back with the Chiefs for their next season, she said she will still be rooting for them. When asked if she thinks the internship will give her a leg up on getting a job in the sports industry once she graduates, she said she definitely thinks so.
“The sports industry is funny. Everyone is connected and knows each other. I think this experience will open some doors for me… There aren’t many people who come right out of college and get the opportunity I’ve had… I’m just really grateful for the learning experience and for the great support I’ve received from my family,” she concluded.
