Jonah Lubin ‘25 spent the fall semester interning as a Business Intelligence intern with the Houston Texans. Lubin, who is double-majoring in Sport Analytics and Business, contributed to projects across a wide range of areas within the organization, turning data into actionable insights.
“These projects covered many different topics, such as concessions, broadcasts, sponsorships, social media, and surveys.” Lubin explained. “My job was to go through data for each of those projects and build it into dashboards, reports, or slide decks for executives to use.”
This opportunity with the Texans wasn’t a coincidence for Lubin, whose goal of working in sports began years earlier.
“Early on in high school, I decided that I wanted my career to be in sports,” Lubin said. “I spent my first three years at Rice trying to get better at analytics, statistics, coding, and other similar skills for the goal of working in sports analytics. I was informed by one of my peers that the Texans posted an internship in business analytics, and I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to get involved in sports analytics.”
Before joining the Texans, Lubin gained extensive experience in sports analytics through a series of internships with Rice Baseball, Rice Football, and Wasserman.
“In my freshman year, I was the head student manager for Rice Baseball, while also being a member of RSAT (Rice Sport Analytics Team), which was my introduction to analytics for a sports team,” Lubin said. “Before my sophomore year, I decided to intern for Rice Football, as football is my true passion, and it would widen my scope of experience.”
Lubin’s time with Rice Football was particularly formative. He started out as a recruiting and scouting intern for the football team, consisting of scouting players in high school and college to decide if they should be recruited to play for Rice.
“During my time at Rice Football, I also launched the Rice Football Analytics Team, which was the first-ever student-led analytics program for Rice Football” Lubin said. “This program has grown tremendously in two years. Initially the program was just two people: me and an assistant coach. Now I oversee 11 interns and ties with several coaches and front office members.”
Lubin credits the Department of Sport Management for helping him secure these opportunities and grow as a professional.
“From my first phone call convincing me to come to Rice, while I was still in high school, I realized that the Sport Management faculty would put in a lot of work in order to see me succeed with a career in sports,” Lubin said. “They have followed through on that, as they have been there to assist me through getting all of my internships, from early freshman year with Rice Baseball to just last year with Wasserman.”
As he looks to the future, Lubin is focused on continuing his career in sports analytics, particularly within football.
“I would encourage people to go through every point in their life trying to better themselves in order to achieve their career goals.” Lubin said. “I think it is also very important to have many different experiences in terms of interning, volunteering, working, etc., as that will ultimately be a guideline of what interests future aspirations.”
Sergio Rojas, a sophomore from Houston, Texas, is double-majoring in Business with a concentration in Finance and also Sport Management with a concentration in Leadership.