St. Marys University named Derek Smolik the school's Sports Information Director. Smolik comes to STMU from Texas A&M University-Kingsville where he served as Sports Information Director for the last two and a half years.
Smolik, who is a native of Clearwater, Fla., replaces Pat Abernathy, who resigned last fall to leave the sports information field. While at Kingsville Smolik served as the primary contact for all 12 of the schools varsity athletic teams, over saw www.javelinaathletics.com, designed and laid out all the schools media guides and was in charge of game operations at all home athletic events.
At St. Marys Smolik will overall the Rattlers 12 sports, produce media guides for all sports, maintain www.rattlerathletics.com, the schools official athletic Web site, and serve as game operations coordinator.
This was an opportunity that I simply could not pass up, Smolik said. St. Marys is a tremendous institution, both academically and athletically. I am excited about working with Coach (Charlie) Migl and the rest of the staff as we look to continue the tremendous success the department has had over the years.
Smolik and the TAMUK Sports Information Office were honored for their work during his time there. He was twice honored by the College Sports Information Directors of American (CoSIDA) for his work on media guides, earning a third in the nation recognition for his postseason football media guide in 2004 and recently his 2006 TAMUK Baseball Media Guide was named first in the nation, Smoliks first such honor. Two of his student assistant received awards for their writing, with Ted Briggs honored by the College Baseball Writers of America and Adelaida Sanchezs work receiving recognition by CoSIDA.
No stranger to Texas, St. Marys will be the fourth school in the Lone Star state that Smolik has worked at. He previously served as sports information director at Texas-Pan American and was assistant SID at Texas-El Paso, in addition to his time at TAMUK. He has worked at Idaho State, Central Florida, East Tennessee State and Campbell University during his 12-year career. He has also worked in the newspaper field, serving as Sports Editor of the Kerrville Daily Times and as a sports writer at The Monitor in McAllen.
He is very active in CoSIDA, serving on both the Computer and Publications Committees. He has been the vice-chair of the Computer Committee for the last two years and has served for six years overall.
Smolik is a 1994 graduate of Western Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree. He competed in cross country and track and field for the Catamounts. Also active in officiating, Smolik has refereed high and youth soccer for five years. He has umpired baseball and softball at the high school level in the past, as well as college softball. He is engaged to Elvira de Leon Gonzalez of Monterrey, Mexico.