MARCO, ISLAND, Florida -- The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) national organization has announced the appointment of Will Roleson to the newly-created position of Director of Internal Operations/Treasurer.
Roleson has 18 years of experience as a senior-level athletics communicator in higher
education/collegiate athletics with extensive media relations and brand management experience. Among his previous experience, Roleson served as the Horizon League's Associate Commissioner for Communications and Multimedia (2004-10) and as Kent State University's Sports Information Director (1999-2004).
The announcement was made at the annual business meeting during the CoSIDA Convention which took place this past week at the Marriot Marco Island Beach Resort in Marco Island, Florida.
Roleson begins his new position on July 11, 2011.
This spring, the Board of Directors appointed a special search committee, chaired by CoSIDA Past President Nick Joos of Baylor University, to conduct the Director of Internal Operations/Treasurer search.
"The CoSIDA Board of Directors is delighted to add Will Roleson to our full-time staff in the newly-created position of Director of Internal Operations/Treasurer," noted Tom DiCamillo, 2011-12 CoSIDA President. "Because of our tremendous organizational growth and the impending 2012 retirement of our long-time, highly-valued treasurer Dave Wohlhueter, we felt it was time to add this new position to assist our two other full-time employees [Executive Director] John Humenik and [Director of External Affairs] Barb Kowal. Will is highly regarded as an outstanding athletics communications professional and has been involved with CoSIDA at many levels, including serving a three-year term on the Board of Directors a few years ago."
"The Board also appreciates the thorough work of the selection committee, chaired by Nick Joos, which worked hard to identify quality candidates for our position," DiCamillo concluded.
In his new role, Roleson will work closely with Wohlhueter in this transition year on coordinating day-to-day organizational accounting matters and developing and coordinating all financial and tax reports. Roleson also will serve as manager of the annual CoSIDA Convention and coordinate all hotel needs and registration processes. He will work with Humenikl on sponsorship/fund-raising efforts and with Kowal on membership services and CoSIDA.com website management.
"I would like to thank the CoSIDA Board of Directors for the opportunity to serve the membership alongside Executive Director John Humenik and Director of External Affairs Barb Kowal," Roleson commented. "The momentum built by the Board during the last several years has been nothing short of impressive, and I look forward to working with the Board on the challenges and opportunities ahead."
Roleson comes to CoSIDA after serving as a civilian case coordinator for IIF Data Solutions, Inc., monitoring the health status of Indiana Army National Guard service members.
Roleson served on the CoSIDA Board of Directors from 2005-08. While at the NCAA Division I Horizon League in Indianapolis, Roleson served as Associate Commisioner for four years after a three-year stint as Assistant Commissioner. He coordinated all communications efforts and developed the Horizon League’s first strategic public relations plan.
Roleson helped launch the Horizon League Network (HLN), a first-of-its-kind conference-wide video streaming platform. He served as the producer for HLN, and was the liaison to the League's media partners, including ESPN, syndication and local networks. As Associate Commissioner, he also assisted with scheduling for men's and women's basketball and co-chaired ILOC media services committees for the 2005 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Final Four and 2006 and 2010 DI Men’s Basketball Final Fours, all which took place in Indianapolis.
Prior to his tenure at the Horizon League, Roleson served at Kent State for eight years, first as an assistant sports information director (July 1996-March 1999) before assuming the head SID role from March 1999 through June 2004.
Roleson beagn his athletics communications career as a men's sports information intern at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1993-1994) and then was an assistant editor at Host Communications, Inc., in Lexington, KY (now known as IMG College) from 1994-1996.
A native of Brookville, Ind., Roleson earned a bachelor's degree in mass communications (cum laude) from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in 1993. He resides with his family in Greenwood, Indiana.