Reaching out to our Canadian athletic PR colleagues: CoSIDA in Canada

Reaching out to our Canadian athletic PR colleagues: CoSIDA in Canada



"The expansion of the CoSIDA Academic All-America program is of great interest to CIS and our Canadian universities. Our student-athletes richly deserve recognition for their commitment and dedication both on the playing field and in the classroom, and the increased chance of receiving Academic All-America honours would be a logical extension to our Academic All-Canadian program."
-- Ben Matchett, Calgary University SID

"On behalf of all CIS SIDs, we’re the ones thanking you, Eric, for attending the Workshop. Your presentation was very good and I think the most important point you got across was that CoSIDA (and especially the Academic All-America program) is for “all universities in America”, not just in the U.S. I really believe our SIDs returned home with a much better understanding of CoSIDA."
-- Michel Bélanger, Manager, Communications & Media Relations, Canadian Interuniversity Sport

CoSIDA IN CANADA
by Eric McDowell, Union College Assistant AD/Sports Information
Chair of the CoSIDA College Division Management Advisory Committee

CoSIDA was represented at the 2010 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) convention for Sports Information Directors recently. The convention featured representatives from 50 of the 52 CIS member institutions, and was held in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. This was the first time the SIDs from this national organization met since they gathered at the CoSIDA Convention in Calgary, Alberta in 2004.

Eric McDowell of Union College in New York, the Chair of the College Division Management Advisory Committee, discussed the opportunities of CoSIDA in a one hour presentation that also featured a question and answer period. He was invited to attend, to represent the organization, by CIS Communications and Media Relations Director Michel Belanger and Ben Matchett, the SID at Calgary.

Among the many topics addressed and discussed were professional development opportunities, the yearly convention, year round website content, jobs available for sports information students, conference calls, and an in depth discussion of opportunities for the schools to be involved in the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America® program.

McDowell also visited with the SIDs at various meal settings. Currently, students are eligible for the Academic All-Canada program and a “Top 8” program selects an elite eight individuals from up to 104 national nominations to honor academic and athletic excellence.

“This was a wonderful opportunity to expose the benefits of CoSIDA to our colleagues in Canada,” said McDowell. “I was most welcome at this fabulous location by a group of dedicated, hard working and enthusiastic sports information professionals. I truly appreciate Michel and Ben for their hospitality and the opportunity, and I look forward to their future involvement with our organization.”

Canadian Interuniversity Sport website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/landing/index