TALL TASK: LEVERAGING THE MEDIA FOR ECU (Part 1
of 2)
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Part 1: Inside Athletics Media Services
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A Small Crew Doing Big Things for ECU —
Saturday, December 31, 2005
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By Ron Cherubini |
With a Relatively Small Budget and Limited
Resources,
Department Elevates Output
INSIDE ATHLETICS
MEDIA SERVICES
Part 1:
With a Relatively Small Budget and Limited Resources,
Department Elevates Output ...
More...
Part 2: A Week in
the Life of the Athletics Media Relations Department ...
More... |
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East Carolina's
Athletics Media
Relations Staff
Tom McClellan, Director
Jody Jones
Associate Director
Malcolm Gray
Assistant Director
Pam Forrest
Administrative Assistant/ Secretary
Jon Cole (not
pictured)
Staff Assistant (intern)
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A Week
in the Life of the Athletics Media Relations Department |
So, it’s a crispy fall Saturday and you are
with your friends and family in Greenville ready for another East Carolina
University football game. For you, the weekend is just getting going. For
the ECU Athletics Media Relations staff, it has been a
six-day production in the works. ...
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Common
Misconceptions About Athletics Media Relations
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We’re members of
the media.
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We’re nerdy
stats and computer geeks.
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We’re part of
the coaching staff.
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We only support
the football, basketball and baseball teams.
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We’re an all
sports database, not just ECU, but all sports professional
and amateur.
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We control what
is printed in papers or aired on television.
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Believe it
or Not, it’s True
“I
recall getting asked by an out-of-state media member whether I
could confirm the pending hiring of John Doe (I’ll leave off the
real name for sensitive reasons) as our football coach in late
November. As it turned out, John Doe had passed away in October,
a little less than two months before Coach Holtz was hired at
ECU.”
— Tom
McClellan — |
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©2005 Bonesville.net
East
Carolina fans and alumni are no strangers to hearing about the mountainous
obstacles standing between the athletics program of today and the potential
collegiate sports Promised Land. Out front, everyone sees the high profile
Athletics Director Terry Holland out on the stump. Everyone knows about the
men and women who lead the athletics teams… the likes of Skip Holtz, Ricky
Stokes, Billy Godwin, Tracey Kee, Sharon Baldwin-Tener and Bill Carson.
Everyone knows the Pirate Club and its leader Dennis Young.
But,
behind the scenes are quite a few organizations and people who make things
happen in ways not so obvious, not so high profile.
The
Athletics Media Services Department — formerly known as the Sports
Information Department — is one such organization. The department is an
internal support division reporting directly to the athletics director’s
office.
For
many, the inner workings of the department are a mystery. They are sometimes
confused with the Sports Marketing Department and other times, they are
mistaken for journalists, criticized for not having enough creative flare or
providing enough feature-oriented material.
In
the summer of 2004, East Carolina University hired Tom McClellan to head the
department and in doing so, injected much-needed energy and expertise into
an under-appreciated but vitally important aspect of the ECU athletics
machine. For many, McClellan represents a level of professionalism not seen
at ECU since Charles Bloom, currently an associate commissioner of the
Southeastern Conference, manned the position.
McClellan shared his
insights into the inner workings of his office, providing an inside peak of
how the department functions.
Gaining an understanding of the department’s mission helps to frame the
actions and the outputs of the department.
“Generally speaking, our task is to publicize the total program in the
broadest fashion possible by taking full advantage of our athletic success,
academic achievement and compelling figures in all ECU sport programs,”
McClellan explained. “We always need to attempt to tell the media our story
— by working as diligently as possible — in its coverage of Pirate Athletics
via any vehicle (releases, website, phone calls, personal visits, e-mail,
publications, etc.). Simply, our top priority is establishing and
maintaining exemplary service to the media, administrators, coaches and
student-athletes at all times. I feel that relationships with those
constituencies are built on a foundation of honesty and strengthened by a
forthcoming approach. The byproduct is credibility, which is then sealed
with unparalleled service. Service is simply meeting the needs of your
public with quality work on a timely basis. In summary … it signifies doing
what one promises.”
And
while the former moniker of Sports Information Department may describe what
McClellan is stating, the evolved name — Athletics Media Relations —
demonstrates the elevation of the mission and nuances of the role that the
department plays within the holistic sports program.
“I
think there are a multitude of reasons for the title ‘revision,’” McClellan
said. “It perhaps introduces a little more of a corporate mindset in terms
of identifying what we do (i.e. mirroring public relations), maybe reaching
a little deeper in labeling our responsibilities across the board as opposed
to a stereotypical belief that we solely write releases and keep statistics.
On the humorous side, because of the departmental listing in the phone
books, I know many ‘sports information’ offices who were continually called
by people on and off-campus to find out what time the racquetball courts or
swimming pool opened in the morning. Then, there’s my favorite ... the call
from bars late at night when we’re working late to ask who won the 1982
Super Bowl or where Tiger Woods rates against Jack Nicklaus on the all-time
win list to settle a bet.”
Though it is a safe bet that he and his staff knew the answers to those late
night queries — the San Francisco 49ers won the 1982 Super Bowl and Jack
Nicklaus holds a 73-46 tour victory margin over Tiger for the record — in
all seriousness, the sports information they produce and manage is no joke.
The department of four full time employees, with the help of an intern and
four student helpers, manages to provide timely information, photographs,
multimedia, and more for all 18 intercollegiate varsity programs to the
myriad state and national print, video, and more recently online media
outlets. They do this from their cramped quarters in the Ward Sports
Medicine Building on campus.
“Simply, (we move) everything we can get our hands on,” McClellan said.
“Obtaining the information has become much easier as a result of the advent
of technology with the online world. In addition to the traditional staples
— like information on recruits, staff hires, accomplishment comparison
research, professional affiliations/stats, etc. — the Internet also serves
as a great tool for us to educate ourselves on connections and names in the
media (online or traditional). Of course, there’s still my favorite way of
finding out information — by personal contact.”
Armed with fax machines and computers, the department personnel cater to the
variety of media services that depend on them for ECU-related information.
For print media, e-mail allows McClellan's staff the ease of “cut and paste;”
for radio and
television, "PDF" files allow for printing and reading on air; and for
many other outlets, including online media, McClellan noted that ECU's
official athletics website
provides the means to pull down information ad hoc.
There is more of course to the job than pushing out information to media
nets.
“We
are always working on keeping contacts (distribution lists) as up to date as
possible — personnel changes in this business occur every day,” McClellan
said. “We have a primary list — local/regional which get everything we send
out, then a sport-specific list… for example, for football, opponent media,
bowls, award voters, national columnists, football magazines, football
contacts at ESPN/CSTV/ABC/CBS and others, etc., and a hometown list — all
media in the student-athletes’ home town areas — and a handful of others: TV
only, radio only, PSRN only, website only, C-USA schools only, selected ECU
campus leaders only, etc.”
In
addition to servicing the 40-50 print, radio, and television outlets on
their local list and 200 some interested media organs for football, the
department also must stay aligned with its constituent organizations.
Internally, the department coordinates with the other departments that come
under the direction of the athletics director’s office.
“I
know it’s an oft-used cliché, but our department — especially under Terry
Holland’s leadership — is truly a model based exclusively on teamwork,”
McClellan said. “There hardly is a day that goes by where I don’t have
direct interaction and discussions with our (sports) marketing, licensing,
ticketing, Pirate Club and ECU News Bureau folks. Specifically, if the media
relations and marketing departments can’t work together, we’ve got serious
problems. After all, we both are charged with basically the same assignment
… increase awareness.
“The
Pirate Club has allowed me to help play a role with some of their efforts,
which has resulted in many rewarding friendships and the development of key
contacts all over the region during my first year at ECU. I’m also
exceptionally blessed to have personal access to one of top PR practitioners
in the country across campus in John Durham, who heads ECU’s News Bureau —
among many other responsibilities. John has provided me with invaluable
counsel from his top position, especially during the active ‘crisis
management’ year we had in 2004-05. Speaking from experience, most SID's
across the country do not have the relationship with their counterparts on
the ‘news side’ that I do with John. For that alone, I consider myself
extremely fortunate to have him nearby with his contacts and years of
experience.”
And
before anyone begins to believe that the Athletics Media Department is
simply doing the work for the news media, there are differences.
“Other than sharing similar duties like covering events, writing stories and
shooting photos … we are talking about two separate entities,” McClellan
explains. “It is our job to service the media and provide them with
resources to do their job — facts, angles, working space, communication
tools, images, etc. That’s what gets frustrating with the misconceptions
that get out there. Believe it or not, I’ve worked places where coaches and
administrators called the SID office ‘the media’ or short. I’d hear them
tell their players to ‘go down to the media office and fill out a
questionnaire,’ or ‘have your picture taken,’ etc. Worse yet, I have had
colleagues tell me that their administrators or coaches would not include
them on discussions concerning crisis management because they were under the
impression that they’d be telling the media private information. I can’t
understate it again … a media relations/public relations department is
critical to the ‘health and/or recovery’ of an athletic department and
university at times of crisis. Simply, our interests solely lie in the
public welfare of our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, the
department and university. Yes, we desperately need to assist our friends in the
media to help tell our stories to the public, but let’s not forget that
their loyalties are to a completely different audience.”
As
with most operations, there are ebbs and flows to the work that the staff
must generate. Along with the struggle to produce daily information on every
collegiate sport at ECU, the department also must rise to the occasion to
meet special demands at critical junctures.
“We
continually work throughout the year,” McClellan said. “Something always
needs to be done, if not with a sport directly, then with other facets of
our operations — website, archival filing, etc. I wouldn’t call them
milestones, but there are certain times of year where the alarm clock tends
to ring a little earlier. Anything associated with football has a high
degree of importance, so, yes,
media guide production is a big chore (April,
May and June). Other ‘dates’ of significance are signing day (February), the
start of spring football (March) and the fall reporting date (early August).
Of course, anytime we have a home game in any sport, it is an endeavor we
take a lot of pride in doing right. You have the chance to form a lot of
positive opinions when visitors come to ECU, thus rolling out the red carpet
is a must.”
The
staff does all of this on a budget of less than $250,000 per annum. And when
printing costs each year are in the neighborhood of $65,000 it is easy to
understand why above all, McClellan values his staff of highly dedicated
personnel, willing to put in the hours to get things done. And they know
what skills they are looking for when they do add staff.
“Obviously, like most public relations or communications positions, the
ability to write effectively is of paramount importance,” he said. “Sure,
it’s also a benefit to have someone well-versed in technology skills such as
desk-top publishing, proficiency in the HTLM language, statistical software
and other software-based programs. Yet, I will choose a person who possesses a
passion for this profession, an unbridled work ethic and, most importantly,
superior people skills above all other qualifications. My thought has always
been that people can improve their writing skills and learn the computer
lingo with time and experience; yet, nothing slams more doors on building
and maintaining relationships than a lazy, unfriendly individual who lacks
any sort of fire. I still, to this day, don’t understand why people (if
healthy, in town or void of scheduled appointments like dropping kids off to
school, etc…) don’t show up for work early with their sleeves rolled up. To
me, getting paid to work in collegiate athletics every day is simply the
greatest job in the world. In short, I’ll take a person who promptly replies
to e-mails, returns calls, sends old-fashioned ‘thank you’ notes and brings
that unsolicited extra bottle of Pepsi or water to the radio people who are
on the air anytime.”
The changing
landscape
Since the explosion of the .COM era, more and more athletics
media relations
departments are adapting to the host of opportunities provided by the
worldwide web. And the irritations, too.
A
powerful tool for efficiency in a small, minimally funded operation, the
Internet has, indeed, changed how the Pirates media relations personnel
conduct business.
“(The Internet has changed things) incredibly, from both a time-saving
factor to a more work-producing arena,” McClellan said. “The advent of
technology has helped tremendously — e-mail, automated in-game statistical
programs, publishing software — but it has also added another responsibility
the SID is typically charged with: maintenance of a website. We now are
assured that what we disseminate will be ‘published’ and accessible or
available to billions of people worldwide, where before, we were solely at
the mercy of the media for coverage. Needless to say, there’s not a single
more powerful tool in our department than our website to educate, inform,
entertain and create interest in Pirate athletics.”
Powerful, indeed. Of course, with the explosion of websites, so too was
there an explosion of message boards, chat rooms, etc. McClellan chooses to
see these as a positive mechanism, though he admits they are not always
positive by nature.
“Unfortunately, those are one of the few negative elements produced by
the
increase in technology,” McClellan said of the message boards. “On the plus
side, message boards do offer a platform for people to communicate who share
the same interests, passion and love for Pirate athletics. Yet, like
everything else in society, there are always a few bad apples in the bunch.
I think most folks who work in collegiate athletics have developed pretty
thick skin and consider the ‘comments’ part of the business and move on.
“I
know many of our fans mean well, but often lose sight of the human side of
our business, like when they openly suggest a change in leadership with a
simple, unaccountable press of the ‘submit’ key. Everyone is entitled to an
opinion and all of us do know that there are many experts out there who feel
they can do our job much better than we do. That’s the way it is pretty much
everywhere. On the other hand, I have received some solid ideas and
suggestions from people who have approached me in a proper manner and, thus
have engaged in appropriate dialogue. Perhaps my only two serious
frustrations in regards to the message boards has been that is has turned
into a media resource site, often turning the wildest and craziest of rumors
and stories into actual inquiries I receive from accredited media members.
(Sometimes) the accuracy rate on some of those posts is a little higher than
I’d like it to be.”
This
fall, coinciding with football season, ECU went the way of many college
programs by outsourcing the website to a vendor. McClellan is happy, though
he was cautious knowing that the department needed to contract a vendor
which would put
the effort into the website that equaled that of those who love and care
about ECU.
“Obviously, I’m ecstatic about the development and progress in this area,”
McClellan said last summer as ECU prepared to roll out its new website
powered by CSTV. “In my opinion, we have been in dire straits in regards to
updating and upgrading our site so we can honestly compete against our
rivals in the ACC, SEC and Big East to name a few. It’ll be nice to simply
get back to a level playing field when it comes to our online presence. ..."
With
all of the benefits of the Internet, McClellan now likes to turn some of his
thoughts to the what's on the horizon in his business.
“(The future) honestly depends on future advancements made in the technology
area,” he said. “Just as recently as 1996, I didn’t have e-mail nor an idea
what a website was. I honestly thought Yahoo was just a chocolate
drink. So, that was less than 10 years ago and look at us now. Obviously,
there will be continued growth in everyone’s online presence … we will
probably be in a position to broadcast nearly every sporting event at ECU
via our website and our hands will undoubtedly be involved in that endeavor.
I expect we will be able to start producing video news releases, which are
broadcast quality that we can send to the hometown TV stations of our
student-athletes. Regardless, I don’t expect us to give up our keys as the
gatekeepers of information anytime soon.”
In
its function, the SID's office must work in concert with the other organizations
within athletics. Deeper, the group must work with the various coaching
staffs to ensure that correct information is moved out of the organization.
“(Our involvement with coaches) all varies depending on the sport and
personality of the coach,” McClellan said. “We obviously work with the coach
to handle the routine things — updating rosters, scheduling photo sessions,
getting signee information, obtaining pre-game starters and post-game
quotes, etc. With the high-profile programs, which receive more media
attention, a large part of my job is setting up interviews. During the
season, there is a structured schedule, but during the off-season it becomes
more difficult to coordinate people’s schedules while trying to respect the
coach’s personal time. Some SID's become close to the coach, so close in fact
that it interferes with the decision-making process during critical times
when there is a need to remain professional in exercising good judgment. On
the other end of the spectrum, there are some SID's who only see the coach on
game day — needless to say, a very unproductive manner to conduct business.
With some sports, we ask that the coach call us from the road if we don’t
generally accompany that team to make sure we have what we need for our
release and website. We also encourage their input when putting together
media guides.”
Ahhh…
those media guides. These days, media
guides are much more than they ever were. In fact, the average fan now can
obtain a media guide, which has changed the function of the document. It
serves, almost, as a preseason magazine — only more accurate and without the
predictions. And the work that the staff puts into the media guides differs
little from sport to sport.
“There is no difference from a philosophical standpoint (in the effort they
put into a given sport, revenue or non-revenue),” he said. “The only thing
which dictates or alters our time and schedule is the increased media demand
with some of the high-visibility sports like football and men’s basketball.
There’s still media guides to be published, stats to be compiled, home game
coverage/services and a website presence which needs our attention.”
Of
the guides, however, the football guide is the most sought after and the
work the staff puts into that document shows.
“It’s a lot more relaxed than it used to be, that’s for sure,” he said. “In
the day before digital images, there were photos and logos laying around
everywhere plus pages and pages of copy ready to be sent in for typesetting.
Now, we simply burn CD's for our printers, which contain everything. If we
need to send additional items, it can all be done via e-mail. Proofs are
sent back from the printer as PDF and corrections are done over the phone.
About the only time it looks a little messy is when you get the blue-line
stage of the job where you’ll actually have large rolls of paper spread out
on your desk to look at one more time and sign-off. Usually I try to assign
different sections like the stats, records and opponents sections of the
book to members of my staff, particularly the person who serves as the
secondary football contact, who was Malcolm Gray in 2005. “
The
production of media guides is not an easy task with a small staff and short
timelines, but the effort is intensified by requirements set out by the NCAA
— requirements that the ECU staff takes very seriously.
“Many (of the regulations) concern publications — including a
recently
imposed maximum (size limitation) of 208 pages, complete with rules about
page size, colors on the inside of the book, (among other stipulations) and signee publicity
— when to release what, no additional releases to cover
all-star game appearances, etc.,” McClellan explained. “Many of the no-no’s
in our business revolve around the College Sports Information Director’s of
America (CoSIDA) Code of Ethics which ‘govern’ our profession to a degree —
which unfortunately, many violate every day — such as cheering in the press
box, criticizing referees and officials and playing favorites with different
media members for starters.”
And
like the rest of the department, McClellan’s office must adhere to Title IX
requirements.
“We’re held accountable under the same regulations as anyone else, making
sure that we devote the same number of personnel and materials and media
guide size to a given women’s sport as its identical male counterpart,” he
said. “You won’t see a difference among many of our Olympic programs such as
soccer, golf, track and tennis and in fact, some of those are printed
together as one book.”
The
media guides are not the only preseason publications that the Athletics
Media Relations office is involved with. They also provide much of the raw
information used in all of those preseason magazines that fans rush to buy
during the summer.
“Typically, we receive and complete many questionnaires during the late
winter and early spring from those preseason football magazines like
Athlon, Street & Smith’s, The Sporting News and many
others. I try to fill it out as thoroughly as possible — usually on a
typewriter — often adding more information and photos than they could
possibly use. That’s one of the reasons why I felt strongly about publishing
a fully-fledged spring media guide at ECU as well. Some call us right before
they go to press and ask for updates. We customarily provide them our
strengths and weaknesses and some names of who we think will be key
performers the next fall. Most also hire freelance reporters to write the
Conference USA preview so I help set them up with an interviews with Skip
Holtz.
“On
the awards, we’ll get usually get inquiries from about half of the
organizations (i.e. Dick Butkus, Doak Walker, etc…) during the late summer
to see if we have any candidates we’d like to include on their respective
‘watch’ lists. Before launching a promotion or even nominating a candidate,
I’ll check with Coach Holtz to gauge his thoughts and confirm my credibility
if anyone in our program is truly a worthy candidate for a certain honor.
You have to be careful … there are SID's out there who try to nominate
someone every year or a player at each position. I was always thought it was
best not to ‘cry wolf’ too often, which in the end, helps validate your
efforts in the future should we actually have a legitimate candidate we want
to promote.”
Guidelines are also adhered to when it comes to credentialing working press
for events.
“In
an effort to seek uniformity and consistency across the board, I generally
follow the prescribed NCAA guidelines which dictate the affording of
credentials to accredited working members of the media,” he said. “While
each institution has different policies in place, the general rule is that
credentials are for those specifically working the event. Sure, there are
always a few exceptions to each rule, but the general idea is to provide the
media with a professional atmosphere in which to do their job. The more
non-workers — or drifters as I call them — there are with credentials, there
is one less seat or space on the sideline for someone who needs to be there for
a constructive purpose.
“In
this day and age of website ‘agencies’, SID's have to be awful careful. We
expressly prohibit the issue of credentials to websites that house or
promote message boards for obvious reasons. Why allow someone access whose
affiliation is damaging to your program? Other criteria I use are solely
common sense. Questions I ask myself sometimes are … does a radio station
really need five credentials for someone to hold a microphone during a
post-game press conference; or is it really necessary to issue three photo
passes for one photographer? If you buckle, chances are there will be a lot of
buddies, non-workers and worse of all, children, clogging up your working
area. People talk about perception being reality … nothing says bush league
or displays an unprofessional operation more than when I see children on the
media sidelines or in the press box. To me, it represents a total loss of
control and management.”
In
the media relations business, the facilities at a university can be critical
to creating the outputs needed by the customers. McClellan believes that the
facilities at East Carolina have helped his staff immensely…and limited them
as well.
“Needless to say, some of our facilities rank as some of the best in the
nation and it pretty much holds true when it involves our working
environment,” he said. “Our press box at Clark-LeClair Stadium might simply
be the best working college baseball facility in America. We have more than
adequate space at Minges Coliseum for basketball, and while the press box at
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium won’t win any special service or aesthetic awards, it
is functional for our needs at the current time. Yet, with the expected
growth and success in our football efforts, I’m not sure I will be able to
say that in a few years. On the other hand — and to properly address some
Title IX issues — we need a covered and protected working area at our
softball facility so we can start doing things such as GameTracker Live
(stats) for Coach Kee’s program like we do for baseball. Another wish of
mine would be a similar facility at Bunting Field so we could produce the
same for both of our soccer programs and perhaps even begin hosting track
meets in the future. We have a lot to be thankful for but there are always
improvements which can be made.”
Any
journalist who has worked an event or awaited releases from the office knows
how proficient McClellan and company are at turning out first-time quality information almost
instantaneously. It is a skill that can make or break a writer who is on
deadline, awaiting the details of a game. McClellan’s staff is particularly
good at this.
“The
key here is to find someone who has that particular gift,” McClellan said.
“Both of those statistical software programs — football and basketball — are
incredible tools which allow us to handle a myriad of things with just one
person and a laptop. In addition to spitting out the traditional box scores,
that one computer also drives the GameTracker Live and our stat monitors
which we provide to radio and television broadcasts. In terms of personnel,
I’ve been very fortunate to know our stat crew chief personally for the past
18 years since she happens to be my wife Joanne. She possesses a keen
knowledge of each game and the software. She says that perhaps the biggest
asset is for that person not to panic if they get behind — there’s always a
timeout at some point to catch back up. Needless to say, she also benefits
from some outstanding help from spotters who help call out the action as the
play develops. She began doing computerized stats back in the early 1990's
and has now turned it into a second career of sorts, working different
conference and NCAA basketball tournaments and American Legion Baseball Regionals each year.”
The
Athletics Media Relations team has done an immense job given the budget
limitations and the volume of information that must be moved across all the
varsity sports offered at East Carolina University. For McClellan and his
staff, it endeavor of joy not just for the university they serve, but
also for the business of sports information itself. That said, is there
anything he would change?
“Not
much, that’s for sure as it is a true labor of love,” he said. “At times,
especially late during the football season, the hours become overwhelming
and the opportunities to spend time with your family become infrequent. Yet,
there is truth to the adage about working smart, rather than working hard.
There are literally no days off in this profession during the course of a
season, so we sometimes look forward to the ones we ‘only’ have to work 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday is a full day in the office, getting ready for next
week’s game. So, if the passion or love isn’t there, chances of survival in
this business aren’t good. Some people think the coaches put in long hours,
and they do, but the support staffs like Sports Medicine, Equipment and
Media Relations are there as well. We always tell the coaches they have it
easy, getting to leave right after the game and spend time with their
families. We still have another three or four hours to go before our night
is over and waking up on Sunday to head into the office.”
So
what would he change?
“... (If) I had to pick one thing I could change,” he pondered,
"it would be
that our profession promotes the idea of being chained to a your computer
which has turned our reputation as communicators into an impersonal
version.”
The
members of ECU's media relations staff are by no means a group chained to their computers devoid of personalities
and it shows in the work they do.
Send an e-mail message to Ron Cherubini.
Dig into Ron's
Bonesville archives.
02/23/2007 02:06:18 PM
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