Sports are in Jarett Mayfield’s blood. Born and raised in Rock Hill, South Carolina — nicknamed Football City, USA for the number of professional athletes the city produces — Mayfield is a distant cousin of Minnesota Vikings cornerback Stephon Gilmore and Miami Marlins pitcher Xzavion Curry. His brother is a production assistant for the NBA.
Now, as a senior sport and entertainment management major in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, Mayfield is poised to forge his own path in the sports industry.
Though Mayfield has always had a passion for athletics, he wasn’t always sure how to channel it. Until sophomore year, he was more interested in tailgating and spectating than building a career.
“I’m like, ‘OK, I’m about to be in my junior year. I need to figure out how people get these jobs in sports,’ ” Mayfield says. “I don’t want to be in Rock Hill all my life. I’ve got to amp it up.”
A first-generation college student, Mayfield got busy attending workshops through TRIO, learning more about how to build a LinkedIn profile and create a resume, but he still needed hands-on experiences. Thanks to HRSM career expos and a job board listserv run by sport and entertainment management senior instructor Steven Taylor, new opportunities began falling in Mayfield’s lap.
At his first career expo, Mayfield struck up a conversation with Augusta National’s head of merchandise Mark Wells, connecting over shared employment experiences with Dick’s Sporting Goods, and found himself with his first job working at the Masters golf tournament.
Inspired by his success at his first job expo, Mayfield attended the spring HRSM event and walked away with a job as a stadium operations intern for the Columbia Fireflies. At Segra Park, he also developed skills in ticket sales and worked the Carolina-Clemson game.
With two professional sports experiences under his belt, Mayfield was ready when his next career move appeared in the form of an email from the job board listserv he’d signed up for the year before: a position as a student ambassador for Carolina Athletics hospitality team.
I take pride in learning about people’s passion for the game they love, seeing where they come from, and realizing how much it means to them. The passion of the fans, that’s what I love to see.
In this role, Mayfield works all football games in the suites at Williams-Brice Stadium, ensuring that the Board of Trustees and other university leadership are attended to and comfortable. He’s rubbed shoulders with international guests as well, most recently mingling with European soccer legends in the Traditions Suite at the Manchester-Liverpool game.
Mayfield confesses to not knowing much about soccer, but his willingness to listen and learn has taken him far. “I learned that this rivalry is how we see USC and Clemson,” he says. “Having the respect to know that it’s something they take very seriously — I take pride in learning about people’s passion for the game they love, seeing where they come from, and realizing how much it means to them. The passion of the fans, that’s what I love to see.”
Mayfield’s own passion has been instrumental in building his sports career so far, fueling him for the long hours that come with sporting events — it’s not unusual for him to spend nine hours at Williams-Brice on game days. He credits his Christian faith, a desire to make his family proud and a genuine love for everything sports-related with his drive to pursue the field long term.
As Mayfield prepares for graduation in May 2025, he continues to develop industry connections and skills as a Carolina Athletics hospitality ambassador.
In the meantime, he coaches wide receivers and defensive backs on a homeschool football team, leading the No. 1 8-man team in South Carolina and Georgia, and he hopes to continue coaching at the high school level after graduation as a way to serve young people in sports.
For his full-time career, Mayfield’s goals are ambitious but open to a range of possibilities; he hopes to lead business and operations for individual teams or league offices in National Football League, Major League Baseball or the National Basketball Association.
The old saying, “find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” is one that resonates deeply with Mayfield.
“That’s me and the sports industry,” he says. “I could talk all day about sports. I can do anything in sports and love it. I don’t work a day.”