High school is a time to learn, make connections and identify passions, Real Salt Lake President John Kimball recently told more than 100 Brighton High students at a Meet the Pro talk.

“It’s OK not to know what you want to do as a career; you have time yet to decide,” he said. “But start thinking about what makes you excited. What are you passionate about? Those are things that you should be focusing on. I never thought in a million years that I would have a career in something that I loved. Had I known that, I would have probably worked a little harder on some of the skills that I need in my job now.”

Kimball, who grew up playing soccer, rugby, football, baseball as well as taking to the water and snow with surfing and skiing, said, “I would have focused and taken courses in finance because in my role, I deal a lot with numbers and accounting, and how the club’s doing with ticketing and sponsorship. Not that I needed A’s, but so I would understand more, and be more proficient on what you can do in Excel and PowerPoint. I didn’t even have a computer in my first (professional) job.”

Kimball worked at KSL NewsRadio and TV, where he was introduced into working in the sports world during the 2002 Winter Olympics. He continued to work in sports as general manager of ESPN 700 as well as at Brigham Young University, Utah State University, University of Utah, Tour of Utah multi-day road bicycling race, Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake Bees. He was president of Vivint Arena, vice president of Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment corporate sponsorships, and RSL’s chief marketing officer and senior vice president.

“My whole career unintentionally has been sports; I’ve done 10 different jobs, working with all the different sports teams we have in Utah. Before being president of RSL for the past three years, I was running the Delta Center and working for the Utah Jazz. That was a phenomenal opportunity, not only with sports, but with all the music concerts,” he said. “So, if you’re into music, there’s a whole career there in music and concerts and all the cool stuff that is provided through entertainment.”

Within the sports world, Kimball asked students to name some careers; they responded with managers, referees, trainers, players, photographers, commentators, journalists, advertising and marketing. He named other career fields: food, accounting, finance, legal work, sponsorship representatives, merchandise, grounds crew, building operations, community relations, ticketing—and more.

“In sports, there’s literally every aspect of the business world or sales,” he said. “What I’m telling you is there are internships, so you can come and learn and see what people do and get a taste of what you might find is your passion. It’s an amazing opportunity to have a career in something that you’re very passionate about. Be focused on the thing that you might be good at. You might be good at writing code. We have a whole analytics department that focuses on writing code to analyze our players. On their funky tank tops there is a little GPS system built right in the middle of their shoulders. That tracks everything they do on the field. So, after the game, we can sit down and we can see all of the distance they covered during the game and all the data to help them improve.”

Kimball, who had three kids attend Brighton High, said that although “I’d love to see you get straight A’s, more importantly, I just want you to understand what it is that you’re doing here and educate yourself and the other big part of high school is just relationships and friends and building good relationships with good kids and good friends. That’s going to be a huge factor for the rest of your life.”

Relationships helped him land his job today. Not only was it through the Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment group, but also through the Utah Jazz ownership with Ryan Smith and David Blitzer, the senior executive at the private equity firm Blackstone that owns and manages several professional sports teams worldwide. 

Understanding people and relationships also are important within the RSL organization as he manages different departments. For example, he said, “Ticketing and sponsorship are really loud when they close deals, they ring a bell so they’re a pretty rowdy group of people; they hype each other to go out and sell big deals. The finance department is the exact opposite. We put the finance department in a quieter place because they’re working on their computers, doing all the budgets. That’s another thing that’s cool about working in sports, for every type of person, there’s a place for you.”

Kimball appreciates the benefits from working in the sports world.

“One thing I love about my job is that I’m not doing the same thing every single day. I don’t know that I could go to an office and sit at a computer; I don’t have the attention span to be able to do that,” he said. “Three weeks ago, I was in Portugal with our team for preseason training. The coolest thing about my job is I’ve got this team that I’m super stoked about and get very passionate watching. Every week, I have a game or two that I get to go to. I was able to travel to Miami and watch the greatest athlete of the sport (Leo Messi). I had the opportunity to meet him, but I…just waved. For a lot of people, it’s like meeting Taylor Swift. Even our athletes were a little shell shocked for the first half, but then we settled down and started playing a little bit better.”

Another big aspect Kimball likes about his job is being part of the community and working with others to better it.

“We just did a partnership program with America First Credit Union and Adidas, over Christmas. We put about 400 brand new pairs of tennis shoes on little kids’ feet, and a lot of these kids hadn’t had a new pair of shoes for their whole life. There was a desperate need for shoes in the middle of winter. It’s an honor and privilege to be a part of a soccer team knowing we are giving back and can make a difference in our community,” he said.

The 150-member organization is expanding to 170 this year as the Utah Royals return to the organization.

“We have a lot of excitement around the women’s team that’s coming back. The Royals team’s focus is empowering women so primarily all the Royals employees, not just the players, are women and that’s an exciting opportunity,” he said.

Kimball encouraged students to go after their passions.

“Start thinking now about the things that you love to do and find some type of business angle or job that’s involved in it. If it’s music, if it’s makeup, if it’s clothing, if it’s food, whatever it is, if there’s things that you’re excited about, do those things that you’re excited about. My first job was in a graveyard. I was 12 years old, and I had to mow and trim around the headstones. I had watched the creepiest movie I ever saw in my life a month earlier so every day I’d think that there would be dead bodies chasing me. I was terrified and had nightmares so if you’re not into cemeteries, don’t get a job at a cemetery. Do find things that you’re passionate about and then start to figure out what jobs you could possibly do in that industry. Enjoy what you’re learning, make friends, meet people, develop skills that you’re going to need. You’ll be entering the job force so develop skills and find opportunities that will make you happy. If anybody told me that I’d be working in sports when I was high in high school, I would have been very stoked so I’m here to tell you that you can find that career in what you love most.” 

Kimball is one of four speakers in the Meet the Pro series at Brighton High. Earlier this year, students heard from Brandon Caller, medical examiner assistant for the state, and Adam Barker, a professional photographer and entrepreneur. On April 17, Databento CEO Christina Qi will speak to students.

Canyons School District Career and Technical Education Director Janet Goble said the Meet the Pro series is designed to give students a chance to widen their perspectives about professions.

“Students are able to ask questions to industry professionals to deepen their understanding of the careers,” she said. λ