It is not only the toughest job in college athletics but it is the most unrecognized. It is sports information or athletic communications, athletic media relations. No matter what you call it sports information directors (SIDs) are the unsung heroes and most important people on a college athletics staff.
This year marks the first year of Co-SIDA's week of recognition of those athletic department staff member where working an 80 hour week is considered normal. What do you think that those game stories on Saturday afternoons are going to write themselves? Of course not someone is writing them and uploading them to the website.
But the job is more than just updating the website and statting games. Unlike other roles in an athletic department, sports information directors have the ability to see the big picture but focus on the small details. They are meticulous planners, storytellers, historians and are the first line of defense media members have to go through before they reach student-athlete and coaches. Coaches and administrators rely on them for information and student-athletes need them for support.
SIDs do their job so effortlessly and without much fan-fare, blending in to the background of the the athletic department so well that it makes it appear as if it is easy. Well I can tell you one thing it is not easy. It is a lot of hard-work, long days, many emails, problem-solving and they do so because they are dedicated to the success of their student-athletes both on and off the playing service without special recognition for themselves.
Because we spend our time in relative anonymity, it is appropriate that we take this week (Nov. 7 - 14) to #thankyourSID. So to any student-athlete out there if you see your SID out there thank them. They are not hard to spot; they are kind of quirky with their head buried in a computer, behind closed doors working diligently so you can have updated and correct stats, a bio on the website, game-day programs, social media posts and graphics and media guides.
This is your week fellow SIDs - although I know you're probably too busy to fully recognize it.
And to all my mentors and friends who helped me get this far (you know who you are), I never would have made from that "cute little kid" carrying a laptop at any opposing school's baseball field to molding sports information directors of the future. (Damn what was I thinking with the latter!)
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