Stacy Toy doesn’t have $10,000 sitting around to spend on tickets to this year’s Super Bowl. Instead, she’ll be getting paid for standing on the sidelines at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Toy is an Operations Assistant for NBC sports and Sideline Producer for CBS Sports, and is also the former secretary for Hoover Principal Jennifer Earl.

“To be chosen to be one of the few people to get in there is amazing,” she says.

Toy started her sports news career in the early 1990’s. The job of statistics upkeep was offered to her by an Associate Director of NBC Sports. Ever since, she’s worked her way up the sports television industry.  

Toy has covered all kinds of sports from hockey (her favorite), to football, boxing, and cage fighting (her least favorite). 

As an Operations Assistant and Sideline Producer, Toy runs errands, does mic checks, keeps scores, chauffeurs, and helps reporters behind the scenes get ready for their time in front of the camera.

She’s gotten to meet and work with people like Mike Emrick and Vincent Lecavlier, and is going to relish the opportunity to work at the Super Bowl this year. 

Dr. Earl will be watching the Super Bowl from home while Toy will be working the sidelines for NBC.

“I hired Stacy one of my first years as principal, so it was almost like growing up with her,” Dr. Earl said. “We really became not just work partners, but sisters.”

Toy chose to work at the district when she decided that it was too hard to spend entire days away from her family. She was looking for a job that could afford her “medical benefits and a steady income” while she was raising her two children.

Toy’s first year as secretary was Dr. Earl’s first year as principal. They had a tight bond while working together. Toy says, “I’ve known her for so long that we seem to finish each other’s sentences”

Dr. Earl and Toy liked the same music and food and were able to develop a close friendship in the decade they worked together. Earl allowed Toy to create her own job, rather than having her sit and answer phone calls all day. She had the freedom to help coordinate events like sports assemblies and graduation ceremonies. They made decisions together, like giving the teachers parking passes so they knew who was coming in.

Toy loved her job as secretary, partially because she got to know everybody. Whether they were teachers, students, or staff members, she was able to say hello to people and have a personal interaction. She loves people, and considers herself fun and vivacious. She was able to watch students progress from being “little freshmen” to graduating and going off to college.

Now some of those “little freshmen” will be watching Super Bowl LVI on their televisions while Toy gets a lifetime experience at the biggest game of the year.