By Ryan Hassiepen
IMC Student
Let’s say you are a student at Ole Miss, or anywhere in college, and are not in love with what you are doing. You need to hear the story of Patrick Ochs.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he and his family moved a lot when he was a kid. Eventually, they wound up in Marietta, Georgia, where Ochs attended Walton High School. After high school, he chose Ole Miss and thought he wanted to be a lawyer. So he arrived in Oxford to pursue a degree in political science. He soon realized it was not what he wanted to do.
“I didn’t fall in love with it,” Ochs said. “If you don’t fall in love with what you are doing, it’s easier to change it in college than later in life.”
So he changed his major, this time to what is now Integrated Marketing Communications in the School of Journalism and New Media at Ole Miss. Back in 2008, Ochs’ degree was a B.B.A. in Marketing Communications with a minor in print journalism. Writing became his passion once he made the decision to change.
“I had a reporting class where I had to get a certain amount of stories published,” he said, “and shortly after, I fell in love with it.”
He interned with the Atlanta Silverbacks soccer team after his first summer in college. That helped him get an idea of what sports writing and reporting would be like in the real world.
He then became the beat reporter at the Daily Mississippian for the Ole Miss volleyball team, an assignment that helped him on the path he is on today. In the summer of his junior year at Ole Miss, he went to Oregon and was an intern for the Portland Timbers soccer team and the Portland Beavers minor league baseball club, working with game promotions.
“It was one of the best summers of my life,” Ochs said.
Most students want a job right out of college, and Ochs applied to over 100 companies, hoping he would have one prior to graduation. He got offered a position by the newspaper in Natchez, Mississippi, the Natchez Democrat.
“The Democrat was always something that I will look back to and say it helped me because it was my first job,” he said. “I met a lot of good people that made me a better writer and reporter, so it definitely helped me. I am grateful for the experience I had with them.”
He was at The Democrat for three months before accepting a position with the Oxford Eagle. He was back in the city where he attended college.
“The Oxford Eagle helped prepare me to be an all-around writer and reporter,” Ochs said. “I was covering things from school and city board meetings to Ole Miss baseball games.”
While he was working at the Eagle, he met his future wife, Jaime Weaver.
“I was covering an Ole Miss men’s basketball game at the time,” Ochs said. “It’s crazy, you never would think some things will happen the way they do. But things happen and you can’t make them up.
“Jaime was the Rebelettes coach, and I was covering the game. We met in the walkway of the media room and the court. We’d both stopped to talk to a mutual friend. Later that evening, the mutual friend put us in touch with each other.”
Jaime and Patrick married in 2013. They have two daughters, Allie, 3, and Rylee, two months.
His time at the Eagle helped him onto his next chapter of work as he got a job with the Sun Herald on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, one of the state’s largest newspapers. At the Sun Herald, Ochs was covering breaking news.
“I was reporting drug busts, murders and important information to the public that you did not want to mess up,” Ochs said. “The hours were tough as the Sun Herald covers the lower six counties in Mississippi and it was just a very exhausting job and I had very little hours to myself. But overall it was all worth it and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
The Sun Herald experience led him to his current job at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Mississippi, where he is the Director of Marketing and Communications.
“I have been at Pearl River for two years. I absolutely love it,” Ochs said. “All our sports programs have been doing great, and it’s been a fun couple of years. I’m hoping for many more after the coronavirus situation is, of course, all gone.”
Patrick Ochs often reflects on his Ole Miss degree and all his previous jobs that have gotten him to where he is today. But most importantly he recalls all the relationships he has made along the way.
“No matter where you go, the memories and relationships you make stay with you forever,” he said.
