By Will Roleson, CoSIDA Director of Internal Operations/Treasurer
Like many college-division athletics communications directors, Steve Flegel of Whitworth University has worn many hats in a one-man shop. At various points on any given day, he’s a writer, an event manager, a webmaster, a statistician, and more.
And, funds haven’t been available to add a full-time assistant or even an intern or graduate assistant at the Spokane, Wash., institution that sponsors 20 sports.
But this year Flegel and Whitworth have an extra set of hands, thanks to an intern funded through the NCAA Division III Ethnic Minority and Women’s Internship Grant Program.
As the program’s name suggests, internship candidates must be women or ethnic minorities, including American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
Now in its 11th year, the program annually provides selected Division III schools with the funds to offer an athletic department internship of the institution’s choosing. Several of this year’s 18 selected institutions are funding internships in athletics communications/media relations like Whitworth, which hired Megan Herboth, a University of Illinois graduate and former intern at the University of Alabama.
“Having this internship has a huge impact on quality of life,” said Flegel, who is currently an at-large representative on the CoSIDA Board of Directors. “Because Megan and I are splitting responsibilities, my weekends and hours at the office have come closer to a normal working individual. And, she is very creative and has helped me be open to redesigning programs and expanding our social media presence.”
In addition to Whitworth, Pacific University (Ore.) and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater also are benefitting from interns in athletics communications this year.
For Blake Timm at Pacific, the internship enabled him to hire Chelsey Chamberlain to assume the responsibilities of a formerly part-time position that had been added in 2010 but was cut earlier this year due to university-wide budget cuts. Chamberlain, a former all-region softball player at Pacific, also doubles as the Boxers’ assistant softball coach.
“This (internship) is allowing me to assign my assistant more projects that in the past were not possible with the part-time position,” said Timm, the current chair of CoSIDA’s College Division Management Advisory Council. “As the year goes on, I expect Chelsey to take on more in terms of social media and our web site.”
Both Flegel and Timm hope their departments recognize the benefits of an extra staff member and decide to fund a position by the time the two-year NCAA internship has ended.
“My hope is that our administration and coaching staff will see the value that having two full-time sports information directors has in a 23-sport athletic program and will allow for permanent funding for the position,” said Timm.
The grants, which are worth $23,100 for the 2012-13 academic year, are designated for Division III institutions and conference offices to hire a 10-month full-time individual as an administrator and/or coach, and are renewable for a second year. Up to 19 internships are selected to serve as membership hosts.
The funding covers the intern’s salary ($20,100) plus $3,000 to cover the cost of the intern attending professional development activities, including such events as the annual CoSIDA Convention. In addition, the host is responsible for an in-kind contribution of at least $3,700 per year.
“I am having a blast with this,” said Chamberlain. “Blake has been a huge help so far as to teaching me the ins and outs of the department. With those extra dollars, I plan on attending the Emerging Leaders Seminar at the end of January, as well as the CoSIDA Convention in June.”
Added Herboth, “I have learned so much from my internship so far. I’ve been working with sports that I had little or no knowledge about, and I have learned not only how to write about them, but also how to score and read the scores from them. I’ve also been exposed to different parts of the sports world, such as marketing and event management.”
At the request of the NCAA, the intern should be included as part of the athletics department’s leadership team.
“The program was created to encourage the professional development of would-be Division III athletics administrators, and also to help enhance the diversity and inclusion of our division,” said Dan Dutcher, NCAA Vice President of Division III. “In particular, the internship provides would-be athletics communicators with the background and experience to better tell the Division III student-athlete story.”
With no more than 19 internship grants available annually, athletics communications directors may need to apply in multiple years. But Flegel has some advice: “Don’t give up. We did not get the grant the first year we applied. I was discouraged and considered not applying a second time but am so glad I did because this has worked out better than I had hoped.”
Complete details regarding the NCAA Division III Ethnic Minority and Women’s Internship Grant Program are available via NCAA membership log-in at: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/myportal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/academics+and+athletes/student-athlete+affairs/em+and+womens+internship+index. Applications are due not later than January 25, 2013, at 5 pm EST.
For more information, athletics staff members can contact Courtney Lovely, NCAA Assistant Director of Student-Athlete Affairs, at 317/917-6560 or clovely@ncaa.org.