Maddox Ruch Hawken Projects 2025

  After finishing my first two weeks with the Guardians I can say with certainty that I am extremely happy with where I ended up in my Hawken Project. The main piece of advice I would give to rising seniors or those who are considering doing a Hawken Project next year is to choose an organization or a mentor in an industry or with a company that you have genuine interest and excitement for. I knew going into the project that the Guardians are my favorite team in my favorite sport and I would be happy working in any part of their organization. It just so happened that the spot I ended up in was a department that interested me most. I was also lucky enough to do it with one of my best friends and have some really great mentors working right next to me. I look forward each day to going into the stadium and feeling like I’m helping my Cleveland Guardians even if it’s just a minuscule amount. I think my experience would be hindered significantly if I chose an experience that I wasn’t re...

 I have had a really exciting and fun second week continuing work with the Cleveland Guardians draft department. One aspect of this project that struct me is all the work that goes on in the department and how it affects other people. At a quick glance, one might think that the draft department wouldn’t affect a lot of peoples’ lives because it is just the department of a sports team and not something that is necessary to someone’s life. With that being said, when you consider the high schoolers and college students depending on continuing their sport as a career, you realize how important the department can be to so many people. For example, when I find statistics for these high schoolers there are often player’s whose coaches haven’t uploaded there season statistics to Max Preps or Game Changer which could lead to the kid being neglected when it comes to time to configure a list for potential draftees. If the department opts to look at other kids rather than dig for more informat...

 One cool thing Grant and I got to do on the first day was tour the stadium and get to see what goes on behind the scenes on game day. Although we are working in the scouting department we got the opportunity to tour the offices and the field. When we initially arrived we got to go down to security to get our own IDs and see the tunnel entrance on to the field where all the grounds crew and maintenance people walk out to get the dirt and grass playable for the upcoming game. The game was at 1 o clock too and our boss was nice enough to give us tickets and let us watch some of the game at the end of the day right behind home plate. We normally sit in the bleachers so it was really cool to be so much closer to the action than we typically are. Once we made it up to our floor in left field we saw that we got our own desks and cubical with our own computer and monitors for the day. We also have a really cool view of the bridge the Guardians are named after. Getting our own space with o...

 My first week working with the Guardians has been very fun and interesting. I have learned a ton from the scouts we are working and truly feel like I am doing important and impactful work for the team in preparation for the upcoming draft. One thing that surprised me has been how much work goes into scouting high school players. I have spent most of my days logging each pitch that the high school prospects have seen and what their approaches are. It has been very cool to learn and collect so much information that is largely unavailable to the public. The scouts at the Guardians quickly welcomed Grant and I into the team and it has truly been an incredible first week. Everyone with the Guardians has been super cool to learn with in the office and fun to talk to outside of the stadium when we get lunch together. I’ve never met people that were so fun to talk sports with whether it be baseball, soccer, or any other sport. They seem like they know everything there is to know about ros...

  What inspired you to create this project? Are you doing something that you have always been involved in but on a different level? Are you broadening your horizons and doing something completely outside of the box? Tell us who you are and what you hope your project will be. Include your essential question(s) and any pertinent information about what/where you will be during project.  This is a "PREVIEW" to sell your Project Blog to the community . What inspired me to work with the Cleveland Guardians was my love for the team and sport. I love baseball and the team so I thought it would be very fun, interesting, and exciting to work with the team. I have also been interested in working within the sports world and the analytics side so I thought it would be a perfect project. I hope working with the Guardians and learning about the analytics business will give me new perspective on the sport I love so much and provide me with insight to a possible future in the business. I am a...