With their inaugural NRL season fast-approaching, The Dolphins have signed another promising young talent – but not one you’ll see on the field any time soon.

University of the Sunshine Coast Bachelor of Sports Studies student Jayden Mitchell will be suiting up for The Dolphins sales department, after impressing the club during his work placement.

“It was amazing. To work so hard towards this goal and then actually getting the opportunity to do it,” Jayden said.

“When the Chief Commercial Officer and Human Resources Manager sat down with me to discuss a full-time role at the completion of my placement … it doesn’t compare to any other feeling I’ve had before.”

Jayden’s hiring marks a milestone in the ongoing partnership between The Dolphins and UniSC .

The Dolphins Chief Commercial Officer Damien McDowell believes the relationship will continue to bear fruit for both organisations.

“For us, that partnership with UniSC is really critical… so that we have students in all sorts of different areas of our business from commercial, to administration, to high performance,” Mr McDowell said.

Pursuing his passion for sports and business, Jayden was already studying when he saw an opportunity with the announcement of The Dolphins as the NRL’s newest franchise.

After approaching his UniSC supervisor, he was able to secure a work placement at the club and suddenly found himself in the thick of the sports business world:

His role: helping prepare the NRL’s newest franchise for its grand arrival.

“I helped out the membership and ticketing team, I've helped develop a CRM (customer relationship management) system integration with the website as well, just for keeping track of leads and things like that for certain departments,” he said.

“Even just listening to a lot of the conversations about where we're heading in the future and what it's going to look like in 2023.”

Jayden’s potential was quickly spotted by the club.

Dolphins Chief Commercial Officer Damien McDowell said Jayden ‘almost immediately’ became a key member of the team.

“He presented himself beautifully and fit into a professional environment immediately, which is which is a wonderful thing for a student to be able to do. He really made himself part of the team,” Mr McDowell said.

“If someone's prepared to do the hard work to make themselves known and get themselves an opportunity, it's a really wonderful opening impression.”

Watch the video below to learn more about Jayden’s story.