The College’s Athletic Department has undergone vital modifications following the retirement of former Director of Sports Information, Dick Quinn, final spring. Quinn held the place since 1989, overseeing a workforce of student writers who documented the College’s athletic occasions.
Since Quinn’s retirement, the athletic division has navigated a management transition whereas reassessing how athletic content material is produced and shared. Senior Associate Athletic Director for Recruitment and Sports Supervision David Lindholm is serving because the interim head of the Sports Information division whereas the College searches for a everlasting substitute for Quinn. During this era, the division additionally expanded its workers, hiring two assistant administrators of athletic communications, Rachel Davis and Trevor Wenners.
Since these modifications in staffing, most content material on the Sports Information web site is now produced by Davis, Lindholm, and Wenners, somewhat than by college students, in line with Lindholm. Along with this staffing change, Sports Information adopted a extra standardized format for sport recaps. Recaps at the moment are designed to be concise and constant in size and construction to make sure equal protection throughout all sports activities groups, in line with Lindholm. “We’re trying to make sure that every team, student, athlete, and sport gets about the same type and style of coverage,” he stated.
Under Quinn’s management, student writers had been usually given extra flexibility in creating article format and content material, in line with Atticus Ross ’27, who coated the wrestling workforce for Sports Information. “I was definitely given creative freedom to describe how I thought each match went,” he stated. “Oftentimes, I would pick two to three matches that really summed up how the day went, and I got a lot of freedom in how I described those.”
Ross, a member of the lads’s soccer workforce, additionally famous that student writers typically introduced views formed by their relationships with athletes, which he thought supplied perception past statistics. “Having the student-athlete perspective … frequently asking for the inside scoop, getting a pulse on team morale — things like that are a big part of it as well,” he stated.
Ross emphasised how being a sports activities author allowed him to attach extra deeply with the athletes throughout completely different sports activities. “I can really empathize with the highs and lows of the season, being there, going through it simultaneously with them, even if it’s a different sport,” he stated. “I have a lot of respect for them after seeing all the effort that they go through and the community that they build.”
Despite the shift towards College-employee-written content material, Davis stated that college students proceed to play an necessary function within the division’s work. “There are some really great student writers here who love to help out,” Davis stated. “Utilizing them has been a great help when we have these weekends where there are 15 teams possibly playing at one time.”
Davis additionally praised the insider perspective student contributors convey to the College’s sports activities protection. “Having those student-athletes and student workers continue to help us as things are evolving has been so great,” she stated. “They know all the insides of the content as well, and they’re part of the audience we want to target.”
Further modifications to the Sports Information web site are anticipated within the coming yr. “Next September, the website is going to look very different than it does right now,” Lindholm stated. “I hope that it emphasizes photography and social media more than our current one does, because we have unbelievable student photographers on campus.”
According to Davis, the division hopes to rent a everlasting director by the tip of the month. With new management in place, division staff hope to reach at a stability between skilled workers and student contributions to Sports Information. “There’s still a bunch of sports that are written by students, and we’re looking to expand that,” Lindholm stated. “I think that’s the tricky thing that the new director will have to figure out.”