• 2015 CoSIDA Special Awards general announcement/release
• Special Awards feature story schedule
by Ira Green, University of Louisville Assistant Sports Information Director
Young kids attending sporting events at the collegiate or professional levels often idolize certain athletes, purchase their trading cards, and clamor for autographs following games.
Sean Cartell, the 2015 CoSIDA University Division Rising Star recipient, didn’t follow the crowd.
The Gainesville, Florida, native regularly attended a wide variety of collegiate sporting events from a very early age. As a middle schooler, he began purchasing team media guides. It wasn’t to flip through the pages to find his favorite superstar athlete and memorize their statistics. Instead, he consciously navigated his way to the staff directory and read through the different positions that made up the athletics organizations.
“I always enjoyed attending all kinds of sporting events growing up,” Cartell said. “But I was much less interested in the outcomes of the games than I was what the people were doing on the sidelines and in the press boxes. I tried to get my hands on as much information about jobs in college athletics as I could.”
Building his base of knowledge about the inner workings of college athletics from a very early age, Cartell, it would seem, was destined to secure a job with a sports organization. He has steadily worked his way up to the Southeastern Conference, one of the most prestigious brands in all of college athletics.
Cartell’s path in the industry first started in advance of his senior year of high school. He worked as the volunteer sports information director at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville. Cartell would attend a full schedule of high school classes, head straight to SFCC to fulfill many of the duties of the program’s sports information specialist, work a game or travel with the teams – depending on the day – and then head home to do homework and prepare for the next day.
Cartell spent much time the summer before his senior year of high school traveling to a number of universities in the Southeast, trying to pick the perfect fit for both his academic and professional goals. He cold called a number of individuals in those schools’ athletics departments, setting up meetings to see which would be the best place for him to serve as a volunteer student assistant. He eventually chose the University of Kentucky, where he would make a mark as a contributor to the athletics programs of the nationally renowned Wildcats.
In Lexington, Cartell was given the opportunity to shine. In addition to managing a busy class schedule, Cartell set out to take advantage of everything he could get his hands on. He served as the primary media relations contact for a host of sports, including gymnastics, track and field, and volleyball during his undergraduate career, and even was named host media coordinator for the 2007 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships and the 2007 SEC Cross Country Championships. His hard work was prominently recognized near the end of his tenure, as he was promoted to media relations assistant, a full-time intern position, before he had even received his college degree.
“I was given the terrific opportunity to have what I call one of the most unique student experiences in all of college athletics,” Cartell said. “I received hands-on experience and a great deal of responsibility at a very early point in my career. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the amazing opportunities afforded to me both at Santa Fe and the University of Kentucky.”
In his first full-time job out of college, Cartell drastically increased the visibility of the UCF women’s basketball and track
and field programs as their primary media relations contact. He successfully promoted the program’s first conference freshman of the year for 2007-08 and was a host media coordinator that year for the Conference USA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The University of Florida quickly noticed Cartell’s talents, offering him a job to be the media relations contact for two nationally ranked and highly visible programs – women’s volleyball, and men’s and women’s track and field. Eager for the challenge, he accepted the position and h
it the ground running.
During his term, his assigned teams captured six SEC championships and the men’s track and field team won consecutive NCAA indoor titles. Cartell’s work
remained on par with the high-level success of his programs. He was twice named the South Region SID recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Grant Burger Media Award in addition to earning the Collegiate Volleyball Update RESPecting Volleyball Award.
His work isn’t recognized only for his professionalism with the media, but he often receives high praise from coaching staffs for his refined ability to tell stories about his student-athletes through web features. In a time where media coverage is transforming and being redefined, Cartell uses the opening to inform and captivate audiences with well-researched narratives on coaches and student-athletes.
Cartell carried those skills with him to a position with the Southeastern Conference. He was hired in July 2011 to help manage the day-to-day operations of the SEC Digital Network and the conference’s social media platforms. Over time, he has added to his plate, acquiring media relations responsibilities for football, baseball and equestrian.
His current position at the SEC has allowed Cartell to grow beyond his communications base, as he also works with SECU, the league’s academic initiative, and serves as the SEC office liaison to the SEC Sports Turf Managers.
When the SEC added equestrian as its 21st sport in the summer of 2012, Cartell quickly took it upon himself to learn as much as possible about the new sport. Showing their trust and confidence in Cartell’s skill set, the SEC selected him as their sport administrator and championship director for equestrian.
Cartell’s diverse skill set, his exposure to a wide variety of aspects within intercollegiate athletics, and his vast knowledge base has provided him with even more drive to chase his dream of eventually becoming an athletics director at a Division I institution.
“The mindset with which I approach every task or opportunity is based on how we can continue to create and improve positive student-athlete experiences for those students for whom we work,” Cartell said. “When you work in college athletics, you’re working in a highly visible segment of higher education. The opportunity to work with college students, whether its student-athletes or those students wanting to break into the field of sport administration, is what’s most rewarding.”
It’s not hard to picture Cartell one day running a remarkably successful athletics department. He’s already taken multiple steps in that direction and credits much of that progress to the support he got when he was first starting in the industry.
“The positive experiences I had very early on in my career provided the foundation for me to continue to grow and learn 10 years down the road,” Cartell said. “I hope that athletics departments across the country continue to identify, cultivate and, most importantly, empower those students who show a strong desire to enter this field and aspire to make a difference.”
To say the sky is the limit would be too cliché, but for someone who has never-ending hunger to succeed in the industry, the phrase is right on par.
He is, of course, this year’s CoSIDA Rising Star.