MORGANTOWN — The title sounds probably way too high-falutin … assistant athletic director in charge of digital/creative media.
Mostly, though, Ross Marra, a Bridgeport native and graduate of Bridgeport High, figures the job he just took with West Virginia University is to come up with new, different and entertaining ways of bringing the world into West Virginia athletics through video, photos and social media.
His arrival signifies another step into the branding effort that is going on throughout the Big 12 under the philosophies put forth by its commissioner Brett Yormark as the league changes its image and focus to create a young, hipper following of fans.
And so it was, as his first week on the job came to an end and he reached for a towel to dry off those feet he now had gotten wet, Marra was asked to explain how he sees his role in presenting and promoting WVU athletics, especially at a difficult point in their history.
“I’m a sports person and a sports fan who learned creative media,” he said. “It helps me understand the game and anticipate plays as far as shooting it. As the landscape of college athletics evolved over time, that brought in creativeness.”
No longer was the game the only focus. Yes, ESPN and Fox and whichever of the thousand or so streaming networks would be handling the game, was in charge of getting the word out. Now WVU had control over it, too, through its website and social media accounts and the approach could be far more creative than in the past.
As long as WVU has been involved in athletics, as many tales as have been told, Marra would be looking for new ones.
“There’s always stories to be told, powerful stories to be told,” he stressed.
The art of storytelling was evolving rapidly.
“It’s definitely keeping our departments on their toes. The equipment evolves, social media evolves.
“It’s hard to always be in that creative mindset. It’s hard to be always thinking of new ways to cover the teams, but it’s so much fun to be there covering the games.”
Marra plans to try and find new approaches to old stories.
“Over the past couple of years (at Wake Forest) I was in charge of cinematic game recaps,” he said. “The way I view that is when you set out to do a cinematic game recap there’s so much game coverage from ESPN or whatever network you are playing on that you don’t go there. My sole focus and outlook on that is to showcase the angles the viewers aren’t going to see on TV; to tell the story from a completely different angle.”
That could be miking up players or coaches, new perspectives, new views. He wants to have things like a camera in the student section, views from behind the bench with a different kind of lens than the TV cameras have, locker room stories, interpersonal stories.
“You can tell them the story within the game with less focus on the final score,” he said. “There are multiple stories that take place within the game as far as different player storylines and things like what’s going on in the players’ lives.
“It’s being always out there, always ready to capture different moments. You never know what you are going to use. We try to report on as much as we can,” he added.
His background as a WVU fan tells him the passionate fan base is an asset for him.
“That’s an extreme help. For 25 years of my life I have a part of that fan base. It’s fun to create for passionate fans. As someone who has been a part of it, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what WVU fans want to see; what they are most passionate about. Also the historic clips that resonate with fans.”
What Marra does is not to be confused with an unbiased reporting approach. His job, he says, is more to market WVU athletics than anything else.
“Whatever it takes to showcase WVU and its athletes in its best light, that’s the business I’m in,” he said.
But what he is selling is real.
“You are selling the fan experience …. not just selling it but enhancing it for those in attendance and to share and convey that fan experience to those who weren’t in attendance; whether they be WVU fans across the globe or just general fans who want to become WVU fans.”
Marra was very much a typical Mountaineer fan as he grew up.
“For as long as I can remember, way young, I was a fan,” he said. “I came to West Virginia football and basketball games. That’s just what you did. That was a way of life. That was my childhood. Everything revolved around WVU.”
That’s posters and T-shirts and hats.
“I remember coming to the men’s basketball game when they beat UCLA in the Coliseum. I remember both of the College GameDay visits, LSU and TCU. I remember squeezing 30 people into 11 seats at the LSU game.”
But there is one game that stands out in his memory.
“I went to the Oklahoma game at the Coliseum with my dad when it was Jevon Carter against Trae Young. That was the loudest I ever heard the Coliseum,” he said.
Marra was born and raised in Bridgeport, went to Bridgeport High and was a part of their 2014, 20015 and 2016 state championship teams as a left fielder.
Always he was, like nearly everyone he knew, a rabid WVU fan.
He opted, though, to attend South Carolina.
“When I got out of high school, I knew I wanted to go south for college,” Marra explained of his leaving home to attend South Carolina. “That was always the plan and when I toured the school I fell in love with it and had a fantastic four years there.”
As Tony Caridi says, though, there’s always a West Virginia connection.
Marra got involved with creative media while he was there.
“I spent three years working with Frank Martin and Andy Assaley, who is now director of basketball operations at Clemson,” Marra said. “They were both with Huggins at Cincinnati and Kansas State, as well.”
As a student and working with the athletic department and basketball team, it was a different seat for Marra than being a WVU fan at home.
“It was a different feeling,” he admitted. “It’s a different perspective when you are part of the team and part of the university. That was the first time I got a taste of that.”
After South Carolina he moved on to work at Wake Forest.
“I went as men’s basketball producer off my work at South Carolina. I did that for one year, then was given the opportunity to take over the creative department there. The past two years I was involved in growing that department and building it into one of the premier creative departments in the country.
As big a Mountaineer fan as Marra was, he missed maybe the greatest game of his lifetime when the Mountaineers went double overtime at Cleveland State to score a 111-105 victory over the No. 5-ranked Demon Deacons.
“I walked into the office the first day and there was a 2004-05 Wake Forest basketball poster above my desk with all the guys’ signatures on it,” Marra said. “Funny thing is, at home I have a basketball with all the West Virginia players signed on it.”
It was a nice way to be welcomed to his new job, especially since the game was the last collegiate game for Chris Paul, the Wake star who went to become one of the greats ever to play in the NBA, and it gave Marra a story he could tell to anyone who listened at Wake Forest.
