Henne finds new beginning in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE — Timing is everything. Nobody has to tell Luke Henne that.
The 2019 Seneca Valley graduate was seated alongside his brother, Brendan, in the right field stands last season when the latter snared the 3,000th home run hit in PNC Park history. Luke Henne was serving an internship with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the time.
He began this season in an internship role with the Pirates, working with Director of Media Relations Dan Hart.
“I was graduating from Duquesne and had to start looking for a full-time job,” Henne said. “I wanted to stay with the Pirates — I’ve been a Pirate fan all my life — but there were no openings in the organization. So I was looking around.”
Henne noticed a position came open in media relations with the Milwaukee Brewers. A member of that staff had accepted a similar position with the Major League Baseball office.
Henne applied for the job on Father’s Day weekend — when the Pirates happened to be playing in Milwaukee. Hart was on that trip.
“I asked Dan if he could put in a good word for me and he obviously did, because I got a call for an interview,” Henne said. “The Brewers wanted to fill the position rather quickly.”
After a while, Henne, 23, was offered the job.
“For some reason, I was hesitant,” he admitted. “I wondered if I could do the job, for one, and I had never lived more than 30 minutes from home. Just like that, I was going to be eight hours from home, on my own for the first time.
“The whole situation was a little intimidating.”
Henne said Hart helped ease his mind a bit in that regard.
“We talked about it a couple of times when he was mulling it over,” Hart said. “I gave him as much advice as I could without telling him what to do. I knew it was a tremendous opportunity for him.”
Mike Vassallo is the Brewers’ Senior Director of Media Relations and Andrew Gruman is their Manager of Media Relations. Henne would be third in that line.
“Dan told me those were two great guys and they wouldn’t give me anything I couldn’t handle,” Henne said. “I would grow into the position from there. My goal my whole life was to work in Major League Baseball.
“I know a number of people my age would kill for this opportunity. I just couldn’t let it go by.”
So Henne moved to Milwaukee, getting an apartment 10 minutes north of American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. His first day on the job in Milwaukee was Aug. 3 — when the Pirates came to town to begin a four-game series.
“Again, with such a familiar opponent in town and Dan was there again ... It made the transition that much easier for me,” Henne said.
“The Brewers do things (in media relations) very similar to how we do it,” Hart said. “They have a small staff, so Luke will get a chance to learn and do a lot. He’s ready for this. He did a great job with us.
“He’s got all the intangibles. He works well with people. He has a good feel for things, a slow heartbeat when things ramp up a bit. He’s accessible. I know he’ll do a good job for them. I’m proud of him and the work he did for us.”
Henne’s duties with Milwaukee include working on press releases, game notes, lineup cards, statistics packs and other ways to serve the media at Milwaukee home games. Henne is not going on road trips. He said he will work on minor league information and other notes while the Brewers are out of town.
“I spent some sleepless nights trying to decide if I should take this position,” Henne said. “I went to my first Pirate game when I was 2. By the time I was 8 or 9, I was going to 15 to 20 home games. I was invested in the Pirates as a kid growing up. I still want to return home and work for the Pirates or another Pittsburgh team at some point.
“But I know I made the right decision.”
Hart is a fellow Seneca Valley graduate. Tyler Howe is a Butler graduate who is serving an internship under Hart this season. Butler graduate Allison Schubert is a communications coordinator with the Tampa Bay Rays.
“That’s four of us from Butler County working in Major League Baseball right now,” Henne said. “That’s pretty cool.”
