Apprentice School SID To Receive Media Honor From Peninsula Sports Club
Apprentice School Sports Information Director Jim Heath will be receiving the Bob Moskowitz Media Award from the Peninsula Sports Club on June 23 at its annual Headliners Night banquet at the Hampton Holiday Inn. The following is a story written on him to be included in the banquet program.
The man keeps busy. Spell it in capital letters - BUSY. A one-armed paper hanger is lazy compared to James A. Heath, sports information director, multi-sport statistician, webmaster and, oh yes, a 183 bowler. In retrospect, says Heath, one Dennis Kozlowski triggered all of it - except the bowling.
The 39-year-old Newport News native, but long-time Hamptonian, was recruited by then football coach/track coach/athletic director Kozlowski to keep statistics for the Bethel football team. That led to numerous other channels of endeavor for Heath.
"That got me started in contact with the Daily Press," he recalls. He worked there some in the sports department after high school graduation and still is a stringer. After Heath enrolled at Christopher Newport University, he found that "Koz" had contacted athletic director/basketball coach/golf coach C.J. Woollum, who recommended him to sports information director Wayne Block.
From there, in effect, Heath spread throughout Tidewater.
He has been the SID for Newport News Apprentice School since 2000 and also owns the tag of assistant athletic director. It would be egregious to stop there with his list of current duties in the local world of sports. He still strings for the Daily Press (mostly high school sports), is: media director for the Virginia Duals, SID for the National Collegiate Wrestling Association, SID for for the Atlantic Central Football Conference, special assistant to the U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association and last year became webmaster for the ACFC (acting as content manager for the conference as well as the Apprentice website).
Along the way he was official statistician for the 2004 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Final Four at Virginia Wesleyan; has been an official statistics crew member for the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament since 2001; was 2003 media director for the AAU Senior Olympics; and was media director for the AAU Junior Olympics in 2001 and 2006. He also was a graduate assistant in the Old Dominion University Sports Information Department. He also has been detected filling in as official scorer for the Peninsula Pilots of the Coastal Plain League.
At the Apprentice School, Heath has helped promote over 450 athletes for honors ranging from Player of the Week to All-American. He has won three College Sports Information Directors Association Publication awards, and was selected SID of the Year in 2000-01 by the National Small College Athletic Association.