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A nd we view any job candidate who's worked in a minor league team as hav- ing a leg up on any candidate who has not. That 's a serious difference maker in our consideration of a candidate. Russo: Hockey front offices have grown since I started covering the league. There's opportunities in player development, analytics, things like that. Does that give kids more opportunity? Majka: The one a rea that has emerged on the spor ts operations side is a na ly tics. The vast majorit y of those people have necessa rily no athletic backg round or spor ts back- g round other tha n maybe a n interest in spor ts. But more so, they come from statistics a nd a na ly tics a nd the numbers. A nd so that is bra nd new, a relatively new way for a person w ith- out a spor ts athletic backg round to get into the spor ts operations side of the business. A nd the other thing I'd say, young k ids don't a lways understa nd that ever y spor ts tea m is a t wo-headed a nima l, in that there is spor ts oper- ations a nd business operations. A nd while the t wo need to be integ rated a nd work closely together, they a lso operate independently a nd require dif ferent sk ill sets. A nd that 's the f irst decision point for a young per- son. Do I wa nt to work in spor ts oper- ations or business operations? Russo: How does youth and high school spor ts prepare k ids for the workplace? Majka: I think I'll start with maybe the most obvious thing, and I think that is teamwork. I think if you play on a sports team of any kind, you are exposed to how powerful teamwork can be. A nd you may play on some tea ms where it 's not there a nd you see what the results of that a re. But when you succeed in business, whether it 's whatever business you choose, it requires the sa me sor t of at titudes a nd self lessness as a g reat hockey tea m or footba ll tea m does in the hig h school level. Successf ul businesses operate absolutely the same way as success- f ul spor ts teams, in that they play as a team and they w in together. They lose together. A nd the whole notion of teamwork is centra l to success. Russo: A ny final thoughts? Majka: Just again, there's a lot of perception about glitz and glamour work ing in spor ts. A nd to me, the people I work w ith are rea lly bright, passionate people, and I love work ing a longside them and it energizes me. A nd yet, there is a grind. There is a grind to it to actua lly succeed over years and years. That you put in a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifices of your persona l time, evenings and weekends. A nd other careers, other industries, you would not ma ke those sacrifices. But there's a lso intangible compensation work ing in spor ts that people who do well in spor ts va lue. A nd for example, the roar of the crowd is something that you're not going to get work ing in other indus- tries, but you get it in spor ts. It 's intangible compensation. You had a sma ll hand in creating that roar and it pays you of f. A nd the people that feel that adrena line when they hear the roar of the crowd are the ones that succeed in spor ts. Michael Russo writes for The Athletic. He's entering his 18th season cover- ing the Wild and 28th covering the National Hockey League. He has three podcasts: Worst Seats in the House on talknorth.com and The Athletic Hockey Show on Wednesdays and Straight From The Source for The Athletic. All three podcasts can be heard wherever you get your podcasts. Russo can be heard weekly on KFA N (100.3-FM) and seen throughout the hockey season on Bally Sports North and the NHL Net work. Follow Russo on T witter and Instagram at @RussoHockey. To subscribe to The Athletic at a discount, go to theathletic.com/ straightfromthesource. M H J ON L I N E . C O M | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 32 P R E S E N T E D B Y Russo's Rants Photo / Bruce Kluckhohn/Minnesota Wild Majka believes job applicants who've worked for minor league teams have a leg up on the competition.