Providing opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience at top-level events is a hallmark of the University of South Carolina Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. Those opportunities always produce lasting memories. They often lead to connections that launch careers. And sometimes, they lead to friendships that endure long after college days, including friendships between faculty and students.

Instructor Paul Graham has been the driving force behind numerous such experiences, including one particularly long-lasting one. Graham was the original tour manager for Hootie and the Blowfish, and tournament director for the band’s Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am, one of the most popular tournaments in the country. 

Even before joining the faculty at South Carolina, Graham began bringing on Gamecock students to assist with the tournament. Several of those students, now alumni well into successful careers, continue to make time to return and assist each year, and they and Graham have become the closest of friends.

Sara Dolan met Graham in 2006, when she was still a student. Then and now, Department of Sport and Entertainment Management students are required to complete two internships.

"I had those on the horizon and Monday After the Masters was a perfect fit," she recalls. "I was brought on with open arms from Paul and kind of thrown into the experience of what it looked like to facilitate and help manage a celebrity pro-am. And so here I am, coming up on my 19th year."

Brandon Morel was also one of Graham’s first interns. After he graduated from South Carolina in 2006, he started his career as a sales representative for the Phoenix Suns and Mercury. He realized after a year there that ticket sales was not his passion, and as he sought a new direction, Graham was there to help.

"When I moved back to South Carolina in 2008 to chase opportunities in event management, Paul brought me back into the fold. I attended MAM in the spring of 2008 and a few other events with Empire Sports Management," Morel says. "That 2008 MAM is where I met Sara Dolan and Scott Tomasello for the first time. After that, I just kept coming back, wanting to support Paul and the Empire team. My role has pretty much stayed the same over all these years."

Tomasello came on board in 2008, recruited by friend and fellow student Dolan. 

"She got me connected with Paul since she knew I was pursuing golf as a career. One of our first working experiences was a networking event at Kiawah Island. Paul and I immediately bonded both professionally and personally," he remembers. "Over the years, a lot of interns have stuck around to help out on a volunteer basis years later, which speaks a lot to how much fun it is working with his team. I keep coming back because of the friendships I've made."

The former student interns have thriving careers now, and have scattered across the country. Dolan is an AVP for digital experience agency Primacy, based in Connecticut. Morel, trade marketing director for McCormick and Company, is in Maryland. Tomasello worked in Myrtle Beach (home of Monday After the Masters) for years, and is now based in Nashville, running the golf-focused company he founded, SkyLinks Management. Tomasello had a hand in running the Alex English Celebrity Golf Tournament in Columbia in 2024, and continued the tradition by arranging for USC sport and entertainment management students to be part of it. All three credit Graham and the lessons learned at MAM for contributing to their success.

"It is invaluable," Tomasello says. "I used this experience to grow my career to become a tournament director at a company with similar responsibilities. Eventually, I pivoted to start my own company that I hope to be as successful as theirs, thanks to the mentorship from Paul."

Dolan agrees that the experience is invaluable, adding "It’s the hands-on experience that you get from working in an environment that is fast paced that deals with a lot of different personalities, a lot of moving parts. I think what's unique about an annual event is that you're constantly trying to make it better, and you're going to evolve. Having the opportunity to live it and breathe it is really where the magic happens."

"Another great skill we learned from Paul is just how to build relationships and interact with people. In the business world, creating and managing relationships is a key part of what I have to do everyday, leading teams of people and working with customers. Paul is a master at it and getting to observe him for years interacting with others has had a major influence on me and the success I have found in my career," says Morel. 

Friendship is what brings these busy people back to Myrtle Beach each spring as the years go by. They have become a family, and Graham is the center of it all.

"Paul has been transformational in a lot of people's lives, myself included," Dolan says. "Relationships overall are what keeps us all coming back, but Paul specifically has really invested a lot of time and energy in his students who have now become friends."

Tomasello speaks for many, summing up his feelings on Monday After the Masters. "Until they tell me to stop coming back, I'll be there."