Beyond the Field sat down with the UNI Athletics Communication Department. We interviewed Assistant Athletic Director for Athletics Communications Colin McDonough, Assistant Athletic Director for New Media Michelle Van Dorn, and Assistant Director for Athletic Communications Jordie Lindley.
You might be wondering what exactly athletic communications is and what people in this position actually do. Colin, Jordie, and Michelle all have certain sports that they are in charge of for social media, act as a liaison between media and the teams, promotion of the programs, and game statistics.Colin oversees all communication for the volleyball, men's basketball, golf, and tennis teams. Jordie oversees football, women's basketball, track, and cross country, while Michelle oversees wrestling and the videos seen on unipanthers.com and other social media accounts.
Colin and Jordie both got their start in athletic communications while in college. Colin attended Northwest Missouri State where he majored in journalism with a minor in broadcasting. During his time at Northwest Missouri State, Colin served as a student assistant Sports Information Director. He graduated from Northwest Missouri State in 1998. He then continued his career by working as an assistant Sports Information Director/intern at the University of Akron in Ohio. He was responsible for women's volleyball and softball publicity. Colin then worked six years in the University of Northern Colorado's athletic media relations office. In 2004, Colin was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.
The following year, Colin joined the UNI athletic department as the Associate Media Relations Director. During the 2009-10 basketball season, the men's team made a memorable run to the Sweet 16 where Colin was the primary contact. During the same year, the athletics communications staff was named the Missouri Valley Conference SID Staff of the Year. Colin currently serves as the Assistant Athletic Director for Athletics Communications. Colin's favorite part of his job is getting to know the student-athletes, coaches, and different members of the media. He noted that meeting these people creates lasting friendships that last longer just the length of a season. His favorite memory so far working at UNI is when the men's basketball team took down #1 Kansas to advance to the Sweet 16 in 2010. He said that this moment really put UNI on the map and was just cool to be apart of. Another thing is Colin is proud of is having the highest vertical jump in the UNI Dome Upper Northwest athletic offices.
With any job, there are difficulties. One of the hardest things for Colin is being away from his family. Colin has been married 15 years and has two children, Dalton (8) and Graham (4). One of the hardest times recently was when Colin traveled with the men's basketball team to Hawaii over the Christmas holiday. He said that being away from his family for a week, especially during Christmas was really hard.
Finally, Colin offered this advice to those looking to get involved in athletic communications: "Get as much experience you can in college and create connections with people who can help you advance your career."
The next member of the staff interviewed was Jordie Lindley. Jordie is entering her fourth year working for the athletic communications department. Along with serving as the primary contact for football, women's basketball, cross country, and track, she is also responsible for the UNI Athletic Communications Intern program. Jordie earned her bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and sports media from Oklahoma State University in 2010. She played varsity soccer for the Cowgirls before suffering a career-ending injury during her junior season. Wanting to stay in athletics, Jordie was introduced to the the sports information staff at Oklahoma State and began working for them. She was a post-graduate intern at Oklahoma State University working with women's soccer and wresting while being a primary feature writer for the athletics website and game programs.
Before joining the UNI staff, Jordie was an Athletic Communications Assistant at Oregon State University where she was the primary contact for women's soccer, track and field, corss country, and swimming. She was also the secondary contact for the nationally ranked wrestling program.
There are many different things that Jordie enjoys about her job. Her favorite part is getting the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people and be a story-teller for the student-athletes. The hardest part of her job at UNI is that since she is originally from Edmond, Oklahoma, she doesn't get too many chances to go home and be with family during the long athletic seasons.
Jordie said there have been a lot of awesome memories that she has had while working at UNI but her most favorite is when she traveled with the football team to Hawaii in 2014. During this trip, they had the opportunity to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial. She said that it was a memory that will stay with her forever.
Jordie offered some advice for those looking to get into athletic communications:"You must be willing to sacrifice parts of your life for your job. There is a lot of times during the year where I am on the road with the teams traveling to games. Sometimes these trips are long and tiring, but they are worth it in the end, especially when the athletes have fun doing what they do."
The last member of the staff to be interviewed is Michelle Van Dorn. Michelle joined the UNI staff in 2012 as UNI's first Director of New Media to help serve marketing and athletics communications. She was named UNI's Assistant Athletic Director for New Media in July 2015. She is the day-to-day athletic communications contact for Panther wrestling.
Michelle is a Cedar Falls native and earned her bachelor's degree in print and electronic media from Wartburg College in 1998. She then took a job at The Courier in Waterloo, Iowa as a copy editor. She then took over as the newspaper's first online editor. During her time with The Courier, she was on a team that helped the newspaper win national and state awards, covered the trial of Mark Becker, earned the Associated Press Managing Editors Association Online Convergence Award, and the the Iowa Newspapers Award for online coverage.
On a day-to-day basis Michelle oversees all social media platforms, assists in Monday's press luncheons, and handles requests for video of student athletes and sporting events. Her favorite part of her job is that everyday is different. There is always something new that comes up that she needs to do. She job encompasses a little bit of everything from marketing to athletic communications to video production. The most challenging part of her job is keeping up with all of the sports and what they need done during the week. She also noted that it is hard to keep to up with all the changing technology. She wants to make sure that UNI Athletics has the most up-to-date technology that will help increase the fan experience when using social platforms and videos.
Michelle's favorite part of her job is seeing how athletes handle themselves with the media. That was especially evident this past weekend when wrestling Dylan Peters interacted with national media at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in New York. Peters wrestling the majority of the season with a torn ACL and was still able to earn All-American honors for the second time in three years. She has the utmost respect for the student-athletes and enjoys being around them.
Lastly, Michelle offered this advice to those looking to work in athletic communications/new media: "Get as much experience as you can doing many different jobs. Take jobs that you think you will enjoy even if they don't relate to athletics because the skills learned can help you get a better job in athletics."
The athletic communications staff is a huge part of what makes UNI Athletics one of the best athletic departments in the country. Without their help, UNI sports teams wouldn't have any coverage and UNI wouldn't be as well know as it is today.
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