College Sports Information Directors of America

UCF Director of Athletics Keith R. Tribble has announced the
hiring of Joe Hornstein as the Golden Knights' Assistant Athletics
Director for Communications and Ryan Powell as Associate Director for
Athletics Communications. 

"We're excited to be bringing Joe [Hornstein] to UCF," said
Tribble.  "I personally witnessed as he developed into one of the most
respected media relations directors in the bowl business. For UCF, he
brings in a new vision for our athletics communications department along
with a national media presence that should prove invaluable as we
continue to build a program with national prominence."

For the previous four years, Hornstein, 34, has overseen the historic
Miami-based Orange Bowl Committee's external communications efforts,
most recently as Vice President of Communications. In addition to
operating the Orange Bowl's media relations and operations for the
prestigious FedEx Orange Bowl game and Festival week, he also served on
the media policy and public relations committees for the Bowl
Championship Series and Football Bowl Association. 

During his tenure at the OBC, he hosted four FedEx Orange Bowl games,
including the 2005 National Championship between Southern California and
Oklahoma, which would feature three Heisman Trophy winners in Matt
Leinart ('04) and Reggie Bush ('05) of USC and Jason White ('03)
of OU. Additionally, the game set an organizational championship record
with over 1,200 media credentials issued. The program publication for
that game, produced in-house, is known to be the largest program for a
collegiate event (316 pages). Elements of that game's media operation
have been adopted by the BCS and implemented at all BCS bowl games.

His final Orange Bowl game saw college football's two largest living
legends face off for perhaps the last time as Penn State's Joe Paterno
battled with Florida State's Bobby Bowden to a BCS record triple
overtime conclusion in 2006. The 2006 FedEx Orange Bowl saw a
non-championship game record of 759 media credentialed, surpassing the
previous record of 692 credentials for the 2004 game.

Prior to the OBC, Hornstein served for five seasons as an Assistant
Sports Information Director at the University of Miami, working with the
Hurricanes baseball and football programs. As the baseball media
contact, Hornstein had the opportunity to work two College World Series
championship seasons in 1999 and 2001. His 2000 baseball yearbook, which
covered UM's 1999 National Championship, was selected as "Best in
the Nation" and "Best Cover" by CoSida. As UM's No. 2 football
SID, he worked several bowl games including the program's highly
publicized 2001 National Championship season and subsequent Rose Bowl
victory over Nebraska. 

He came to UM in 1998 after spending three seasons as the graduate
assistant for the Florida State University Sports Information Office,
working with the football program as well as several other Seminole
programs. He was a student assistant in the University of South Florida
Sports Information Office from 1991-95 and graduated with a bachelor's
of science in public relations.

Powell, 29, joins the UCF athletics communications staff from the
Conference USA office in Irving, Texas where he spent two years as an
assistant director of media relations before his recent promotion to
associate director in early July. At the league office, Powell served as
the co-football contact as well as the primary contact for cross
country, indoor and outdoor track and field and softball. He coordinated
all media operations at the inaugural C-USA Football Championship game
held last year at the Florida Citrus Bowl.

"When the football SID position opened up, we immediately targeted
Ryan [Powell] to the fill that vacancy," added Tribble.  "He brings
with him experience dealing with the national media that follow
Conference USA and that should further solidify our athletics
communications office as one of the top offices in the conference."

He also handled media relations duties on an interim basis during the
2005-06 men's basketball season and he coordinated media operations at
several of C-USA's year-end championship events: the 2004 and 2005
women's soccer championships, the 2005 women's golf championship,
the 2006 men's golf championship and the 2006 men's tennis
championship.

Prior to his stint at the league office, Powell served as a graduate
assistant in the University of Memphis athletic media relations office.
He earned a master's degree in sport and leisure commerce at the
institution in the summer of 2004. His responsibilities at Memphis
included serving as the primary contact for the women's soccer and
baseball teams, while also assisting in gameday operations for football
and men's and women's basketball. Powell began working in the
athletic media relations field as an undergraduate at Auburn University
where he completed a degree in corporate journalism in 2000.