Chris Day from Adams State College and Peter Yazvac from the University of Nebraska-Kearney have been selected as the J.W. Campbell Sports Information Director (SID) of the Year. The RMAC award is in honor of long time Western State College SID J.W. Campbell, who died March 26, 2000 of cancer.
Campbell also was the assistant to the Western State President, an assistant professor, teaching seven separate disciplines and was the schools information director. He also co-authored two books and wrote numerous articles for magazines and trade publications.
The J.W. Campbell Sports Information Director Award is selected each year by the conferences 14 SIDs.
Campbell was a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), receiving a lifetime achievement award from the group in 1999. He also served on the Harlon Hill Award and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame selection committees and was an ordained minister.
For the past six years, Day has held the title of Sports Information Director and Associate Athletic Director for the Adams State Grizzlies and their 15 varsity programs. Day also assisted the conference office the past several years writing press releases and maintaining stats for cross country and indoor and outdoor track & field.
Beginning in July, Day will relinquish his duties as Sports Information Director and become the Associate Director of Athletics for the Grizzlies. A graduate of Mesa State College, Day spent one summer as a student intern at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference office. He has been the Grizzlies SID for six years.
The Director of Media Relations for the Lopers, Yazvac has worked at Nebraska-Kearney for seven years. He is responsible for all 17 of the Lopers athletic programs, including football, basketball, volleyball, and track and field. For the past four years, Yazvac has held the role of host SID at the annual fall and spring RMAC/North Central Conference head-to-head golf meets.
Although being a top-3 finalist the past three years, this is Yazvacs first J.W. Campbell award.
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Sports Information Director Doug Fitzgerald was the third finalist.