Hokies rock Paris house

Two Virginia Tech alumni have been squeezing a little orange and maroon into their wardrobes the past couple of weeks while walking around Paris, a notable contrast to their customary red, white and blue attire.

Kaitlin Reese ’15 and James Morrison ’14 are representing Hokie Nation at the Summer Olympics, carrying the proverbial Virginia Tech flag among the athletes from more than 200 countries competing on arguably the world’s biggest sports stage.

These two, though, are not athletes, but they do find themselves sprinting daily while attempting to provide the perfect fan experience for the thousands of Americans visiting this historic city for the games.

Reese and Morrison are playing instrumental roles in orchestrating the festivities at Team USA House, a central gathering place for U.S. fans, athletes, and athletes’ families. Located at Palais Brongniart in central Paris, Team USA House features an array of activities for attendees, including Team USA athlete appearances, Olympic Games viewings, a Team USA Shop, and American and international food and beverage options. The activities also include daily programming such as medal celebrations, chats with current and alumni athletes, event previews, and more.

Team USA is open from noon until midnight and requires a ticket to gain access.

Reese played a prominent role in the planning of Team USA House events because of her position as an event manager for Wasserman Live, a division of Wasserman Media Group that focuses on live event production and operations across sports, music, entertainment, and culture. Wasserman Media Group is a marketing and talent management company that represents some of the world’s biggest stars, from country music icons Kenny Chesney and LeAnn Rimes to the NBA’s Klay Thompson and PGA Tour’s Ricky Fowler.

“My team and I were in charge of the audio, the video, the lighting, the stage, programming, the run of show, management, all of those kinds of aspects,” Reese said. “But Wasserman, as a whole, we’ve produced the whole house, from designing it to the furniture to the layout. So, it’s a big team effort.

“My job specifically has been to help plan all the stage programming. So that’s all the special guest emcees and the Olympic legends that we’ve had come through the house. … All the entertainment from the stage to roaming entertainment throughout the house with caricaturists and magicians, all of that, I oversaw, the developing and creating.”

Reese, a native of South Hill, Virginia ,who graduated with degrees in public relations and communications from Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, worked as a student in the marketing department for Virginia Tech Athletics before eventually moving into a full-time role after graduation. After spending a year in athletics marketing at Wake Forest, she took a position at CSM Production in 2022, a company that the Charlotte-based Wasserman Media Group acquired and later rebranded as Wasserman Live.

Approximately a year ago, Reese was assigned her role not just with the Summer Olympics, but also the Paralympics taking place Aug. 28-Sept. 8 in Paris. She will end up spending six weeks in Paris.

“I was kind of shocked, but also excited that my boss, Kristin Devereaux [vice president, events for Wasserman Live], recognized my skills and talents would be of good use for this project and that she had faith in me to execute everything,” Reese said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to go to the Olympics and help plan Team USA House.

“I’m definitely in my daily groove of, ‘Oh, I’ve got to write the daily script. I’ve got to get the run of show done. I’ve got to meet the talent.’ But it’s rewarding to take a step back and soak it in and be like, ‘Oh, wow, me and my team are doing a once-in-a-lifetime thing.’ I keep telling everyone that, but it truly is. It’s cool to see everything come together.”

Not long after receiving her assignment, Reese sent Morrison a text, inquiring of his interest to be the DJ and handle all the music at Team USA House.

“It was kind of like disbelief,” Morrison said. “There’s no way. This is too good to be true.”

Morrison, perhaps better known by his stage name DJ TMMPO, has served as the in-venue DJ for Virginia Tech Athletics events since graduation in 2014, handling the music for games, fan days, pregame festivities, and the department’s season-ending awards show, known as The Gobblers. He and Reese had collaborated on many of these events.

Morrison, who will spend three weeks in Paris, never really expected to become a noted DJ, much less work at the Olympics. He got his start as a 12-year-old when he and a friend served as co-DJs for a birthday party. Word got out, and he lived in a Chesapeake neighborhood with a community clubhouse, so he started landing jobs for birthday parties, Sweet 16 parties, and graduation parties, and then eventually to working high school ring dances, proms, and weddings.

He gradually expanded those opportunities after arriving in Blacksburg. By his junior year at Virginia Tech, he was being asked to DJ concerts, parties, the Relay for Life event, The Big Event, and of course, athletics department functions.

Still, his focus was on getting his undergraduate degree in corporate finance from the Pamplin College of Business with thoughts of maybe working on Wall Street.

“It [being a DJ] was always genuinely just a passion,” Morrison said. “It was a business that wasn’t even trying to make money. It was just a good time.

“There were those little steppingstones throughout that kind of carried that journey forward. There was just something in my gut that said, ‘It’s in the music somewhere,’ and I don’t have words for it, even now. I ended up moving back home with my parents after graduation, and then I was back to Blacksburg 27 times from 2014 to 2015.”

Morrison eventually landed in Northern Virginia, becoming the production director for Hill City Church DC, a nondenominational church with services each Sunday at Edison High School in Alexandria. His job allows him the flexibility to work in other capacities, including as a creative director for a local nonprofit organization in Virginia Beach and his role as Virginia Tech Athletics’ DJ.

And of course, it provided him the freedom to accept Reese’s invitation of going to Paris.

“I was just humbled by the ask,” Morrison said. “That was enough for me. It’s really cool to see it all come to fruition, and coming from a military family, I bleed red, white and blue as much as I bleed maroon and orange. So this was a special ask for any magnitude of reasons, as it probably would be for anyone.”

Both Reese and Morrison hope they are providing the ultimate fan experience for American visitors at the Games. Both compared Team USA House to Hokie Village, a family friendly football pregame festivity that takes place across from Lane Stadium hours before kickoff.

“There is something special about Hokie Village, and it’s the purity of it,” Morrison said. “It’s literally just about the spirit of what it means to be a Hokie, to support the Hokies and to be in that environment.

“Team USA House is not in the Olympic Village, but it is that same spirit of solidarity and hype and cheering. Every inch and every turn are so meticulously executed, so well done, for the specific purpose of supporting our country, our athletes, our team as one, and the synergy between the past and now, it just gives me chills.”

The two of them even have added a little Virginia Tech flair to Team USA House, occasionally playing the popular “Enter Sandman,” which serves as Hokie Nation’s national anthem.

“Oh, you better believe it,” Morrison laughed when asked if he was playing “Enter Sandman.” “There is no greater song in this world for an athlete.”

Reese and Morrison expect to be exhausted at the end of their Olympic journey, though they won’t be leaving with any medals.

But they will be the first to tell you – this experience has been pure gold.