by Joel Rineer, Staff writer at
publicopinionnews.com (Chambersburg, PA)
The voice boomed across Heiges Field House.
"You've got to answer your phone."
It was about 10 o'clock in the morning, and Bill Morgal was preparing for one of the biggest college basketball games of the year at Shippensburg University.
It was Jam the Gym day and the Lady Raiders were set to host East Stroudsburg in a nationally televised game.
When Morgal wheeled around, he saw SU President William Ruud, in a suit, coming his way.
"What I had failed to do was notify the president and a couple other people that the national television announcers weren't able to make it to breakfast that day," Morgal said. "He had called me literally two minutes before he paraded through the gym at me."
Welcome to life as sports information director at Shippensburg University, a job that can only be described as organized chaos.
It's a job Morgal has embraced head-on.
After two years as interim SID -- including the infamous winter morning involving president Ruud -- the 26-year-old SU graduate was given the job full-time at the end of June.
"It's a rewarding feeling," Morgal said. "My goal all along from being an interim employee until now was to represent the university the best I can. I take a lot of pride in the job and want to do the best I can."
That includes some very looooooooog days on the job.
The sports information director job is not for the faint of heart. Morgal said during the fall sports season, for example, he will work seven days a week and can log up to 80 hours per week.
The entire time, it is a juggling act.
At a soccer match, Morgal might be asked to be the announcer, operate the clock, keep statistics and double as a DJ before the game.
During a baseball or softball game, he might have to play each player's introduction music, keep the boxscore, operate the scoreboard and announce the next batter up to bat.
He might also have to pick up food for the media before a home football game ... or try to figure out why the radio crew's phone cable isn't working at a basketball game ... or sift through 50-60 e-mails a day.
That's all before Morgal will write game reports, check on away scores, update the school's website (
http://www.ship.edu) and oversee the rest of his staff, which includes graduate assistant Eric
Rahauser (a Mercersburg Academy graduate) and between two and seven student assistants.
"It can get very busy and you have to learn to multi-task when you get to this level," Morgal said.
"The hardest part is to stay up to date and current with what you're doing. It's a job that is relentless, especially during a particular season, and it's a job that doesn't let up."
Morgal knows all about that.
Last Nov. 7, the "craziest day" on the job to date, Shippensburg hosted the PSAC football championship game, an NCAA Division II quarterfinal field hockey game and a women's volleyball match.
At the same time, the men's and women's cross country teams were competing at the NCAA Division II regional championships at Mansfield University.
The field hockey team was also celebrating the 30th anniversary of its national title and the alumni were in town.
And, oh by the way ... all five teams won that day.
"That day we won two regional championships in cross country, won a regional game in field
hockey, won the state game in football and volleyball clinched a playoff berth," Morgal said. "We
were up pretty late that night."
On an occasion or two, Morgal has even been known to sleep in his office.
"Last year I had to get stuff done for basketball media day and it just hadn't gotten done," he said. "I
got it done at, like, 2 or 3 in the morning. We were leaving at 7 the next day, so I just laid on the floor and slept for a few hours.
"My goal every night is to be in bed by midnight."
It didn't take long for Morgal to fall in love with the job.
His third day on the Shippensburg campus, he walked into Old Main and told former SID Jason Eichelberger he was interested in helping out. The job quickly became a perfect match for Morgal.
"My third day on campus also happened to be Jason's third day on the job and we just clicked," he said. "I quickly figured out, once I got a few more tasks to do, that people get paid to do this for a living and that's what I wanted to do."
It was, however, a winding road back to Old Main.
He was a student assistant from 2005-07 and a graduate assistant under Eichelberger for one year before Eichelberger abruptly left that summer.
Morgal was suddenly thrust into the job.
And even though his job tag read "interim," at times it certainly didn't feel that way.
"That first month was like, 'Wow, you're the one in charge now; it's all up to you,'" Morgal said. "I
don't think I ever felt truly overwhelmed at any point, but I was tentative and wanted to get my feet
as quickly as I could."
Now that he's officially gotten the job, Morgal isn't slowing down.
He is planning a new design for the SU website and will be working with Jess Kline on creating media guides for all 20 intercollegiate sports. Ship is among only two schools in the PSAC to do media guides for every sport.
Morgal also wants to add a video component to the website this year and continue to update school records online.
The records part may be the most urgent, based on 2009-10.
In the last year alone, track and field programs flourished, led by national champion Neely Spence;
women's basketball standout Lauren Beckley broke the all-time women's PSAC scoring record and the football team reached the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 2004.
"The thing I stress, and I think I speak for almost every SID, is we don't get in this looking for rewards or publicity," he said. "We want to be the people behind the scenes and that's the way we prefer it. The thing that makes us happy is to see our athletes succeed and get recognized for it."
Bill Morgal file
Position: Sports information director at Shippensburg University
Age: 26 -- he is the youngest SID in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
Hometown: Elkridge, Md.
High school: Long Reach, Md. (2002)
College: Howard Community College, associate's degree in liberal arts (2004) ... Shippensburg University, bachelor's degree in journalism and minor in English (2007); master's degree in communications studies (2010)
Coverage: Morgal and his staff are in charge of covering 20 intercollegiate sports, roughly 600 student-athletes and 50 coaches.
Website: SU's athletic site is
http://www.ship.edu and the Twitter account is
http://www.twitter.com/shipsid. Broadcasts of home football and basketball games can be found at
http://www.ship.edu/goraiders.
Honors: Morgal was named the 2009-10 "Raider of the Year," an honor that recognizes an active participant in supporting Shippensburg athletics ... He was part of an SU design team that received a CoSIDA publications award for the production of the 2009 women's lacrosse media guide.