Meet your Athletics and Campus Rec VP — Taylor Sampson

Taylor Sampson has been working with Utah State University Athletics since her sophomore year, and now as a fifth-year senior, she is ecstatic at the opportunity to continue working with USU’s athletic programs as the new Athletics and Campus Rec Vice President.

Sampson had to pave her own way at USU. “I’m a first-generation college student,” she said. “So when I first got to college, I had no idea what was going on.” 

She joined the USU student section, the Hurd, as a videographer during her sophomore year (2018), and found her way to USU’s marketing program through her friends there. 

One of those friends is sophomore Shelby Gatherum, who worked with Sampson in public relations and marketing for the Hurd. 

“Taylor is a professional,” Gatherum said. “In athletics, she knows what she’s doing.” 

Sampson gets her professionalism from her passion and experience. After her first few years at USU, Sampson has two career paths: sports marketing and content creation for digital media. 

While USU helped Sampson discover her career path, her entrepreneurial experience helped her gain professional experience in marketing. Sampson has run her own videography business since high school, managing marketing and sales on her own. She quickly moved from working at wedding receptions to recording sports games. 

“I grew up cheering so I was always on the sidelines during football and basketball games,” Sampson said. “After joining the Hurd, I became the Hurd videographer so I was making all the hype videos and the atmosphere was just so fun. How can you not be happy at a basketball game?”

That’s when Sampson realized that athletics was where she needed to be. Executive Vice President Porter Casdorph couldn’t agree more. 

“I’m a big Taylor fan,” Casdorph said. “If I had a foam finger that said Taylor Sampson, I would wear it.” 

Casdorph has known Sampson for three years and the two have worked together quite a bit. In fact, Sampson was Casdorph’s campaign manager last year when he won the race for Student Events Vice President. 

“She was there to help me design everything, she was there to wipe my tears during moments of stress,” Casdorph said, “and she was there in the happy moments after we won.”

One of the biggest responsibilities Sampson will have as the Athletics and Campus Rec VP will be to keep students at USU informed about athletic events. Sampson already has big plans to update and redesign the Hurd website so that everything athletics is in one place. 

“I just want to bring the Aggie spirit back,” Sampson said. USU’s student section has been affected by the recent pandemic but things are starting to look up.

“Taylor is the ultimate hype woman,” Casdorph said. “I genuinely feel with her in charge, I’ll have a good time, win or lose.” 

Emily White is a junior studying English and print journalism. She is currently serving as the senior writer for the Lifestyles section of the Statesman.

—emily.white@usu.edu