Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Sports like baseball, basketball and football are team games, and in team sports, a team leader has to take initiative when needed. Such is the case when plays breakdown or when the chemistry gets out of control. But in an individual sport, like golf or snowboarding, self-determination and responsibility usually fall back on one person.

Colby Fuller, senior communication studies major, has been invested in both worlds and the sports included. But leadership is the accentuation of which Fuller is going for.

“I’ve seen multiple times where something needs to get done and the leader’s not efficient and things fall through,” Fuller said.

After dribbling up and down the court for four years of high school basketball — captaining the team — and also following through on his golf swing, Fuller took on that leadership role even more so while coaching soon after playing.

Coaching led him to where he is now: his first year being a supervisor of Western’s intramural sports.

As one of four intramural supervisors, he oversees every prep, game activity, as well as media event that help to promote intramural sports such as the recent encompassments of golf, tennis and corn hole. The other three supervisors are in charge of administrative activities, employee recognition and making sure that athletes that play in intramural sports are enrolled students. Fuller and his fellow supervisors have also been involved in the intramural games as athletes.

“We’re at every game,” Fuller said of supervisor duty. “Thirty minutes before the game and 15 minutes after, helping set up, taking everything down.”

Intramural supervisors are also tasked to maintain potential hostile situations between athletes.

“I’ve seen, at points, where a game got a little heated, and I had to go in there and break it up,” said Fuller. “I’ve learned so much dealing with all different kinds of situations and scenarios between injuries, fights — when it comes to the ins and outs of the game, dealing with people’s attitudes; it’s just a mix.”

Leadership for Fuller also means stepping into a managerial position at some point in the future. Fuller works at a power line company in Washington, where his job is to keep power lines activated and cut down trees that grow around them. In five years working for the company, the experience has helped pave Fuller’s path towards prospective management.

Some loathe the idea of having to do hard stressful labor work, but it’s been rewarding for Fuller. The most demanding thing he’d ever done was while he was working at his power line company; Fuller was tasked with keeping power lines clear of trees.

“Last summer, they gave me a chainsaw,” he said. A path lied in wait; two miles worth of power lines and road covered with trees that trucks couldn’t get through to.

“They just gave me a big chainsaw and said, ‘here ya go’, and so it was just three straight days — eight hours each — worth of cutting,” explained Fuller. “I don’t think my arms have ever been so sore, but my bosses had the trust in me to get it done.”

Fuller’s content with how hard his bosses push him at work and is aware of the hard work and expectation they require. These are bosses he also fishes with every weekend at a harbor in Westport, Washington, about an hour and 20 minutes from his home city of Shelton.

Fuller’s plan after his 2018 graduation is to move back to his hometown and continue working with the company.

Management and the specific work Fuller has done goes hand-in-hand with his minor in organizational leadership and it’s been pushed even further with his major in communication studies. One of the many things the study of communication teaches is how to manage conflicts and situations, which Fuller has learned to deal with.

Whether that’s been the job of coaching, refereeing a basketball game, or coordinating an IM event, Fuller says “I’m the kind of person that likes to be in control. I like to take initiative and lead the group… I don’t know I just find myself comfortable in leadership positions. I know that when I’m in control, things are going to get done.”

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of: Colby Fuller