The Rostrum Group

The difference

This isn’t your average media training.

The rules of the game have changed. Athletes are no longer just players in sport — they’re brands, voices, and headlines. It’s not enough to be physically talented; you have to be a reputation manager, poised under pressure in every conversation. The best way to get there is by training your voice the way you train for your craft.

Most communication training starts in the obvious place: delivery — posture, pacing, eye contact, the mechanics of sounding confident. We start much deeper: identity. Before an athlete can sound like themselves, they have to know who that is. When the person underneath the jersey is clear, everything downstream gets easier.

Built for…

Identity

who they are beneath the role

Purpose

what they’re meant to do next

Built with…Communication

Built on…

Science

how identity actually forms

Experience

driven by a 13+ year veteran broadcaster

Who's behind the work

Thirteen years rinkside — on both sides of the mic.

Sarah Merrifield built her career in rooms where communication isn't optional: live on air, rinkside, no second take. A four-time Emmy winner and current NHL rinkside reporter for the Utah Mammoth, she founded The Rostrum Group to help athletes do the one thing the game never teaches — know who they are, and say it on purpose.

Education

Our flagship program — immersive learning, multiple ways in.

Podium takes athletes deeper than a one-off workshop ever could. One proven method, delivered the way each athlete learns best — self-paced field notes, the full curriculum on their own time, or private one-on-one coaching — meeting them where they are.

Flagship

Podium

For athletes

The complete path — from first guide to private coaching.

Tier I

Field Notes

Digital Downloads

Self-paced guides to build your communication, one piece at a time.

Tier II — Most Popular

The PlaybookComing Soon

Virtual Course · Self-Paced

The full curriculum, on your own time.

Tier III

The Podium

1-on-1 Private Coaching

Private, intentional coaching — offered for athletes only.

Enter Podium →

Keynotes & Speaking

Forum.

Sarah Merrifield · Keynote Speaker

Keynote Breakout Fireside Workshop

Sarah has spent thirteen years inside the rooms most people only watch from the outside — rinkside, on camera, live, with no second take. She knows what it takes to hold a room, and what it costs an athlete who can’t.

On your stage, she turns that into something an audience carries out with them: a clearer sense of who they are beneath the title, and the confidence to say it — in the interview, in the locker room, and in whatever comes after the game.

Book Sarah for your school, conference, leadership summit, players' association, or team gathering.

Learn More

Rostrum Network Coming Soon

The next chapter — stories from inside the game.

Beyond coaching, The Rostrum Group is building a home for long-form storytelling about identity in sport: The Living Library, authentic conversations, and original storytelling that follow athletes through the arc no one talks about — who they become when the game ends, and why leaving the game is more difficult than getting in it.