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OUR STORIES
Hung Tsai
Stanislaus State Assistant Athletics Director, Sports Information & Marketing
CoSIDA Convention Operations Committee vice chair
by Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of Professional Development and External Relations
CoSIDA Week Committee member
Hung Tsai is in his second stint serving at Cal State Stanislaus. Since 2007, he has been an Assistant Athletics Director who now oversees both athletic communications and marketing efforts for the Warriors and serves as one of five on the athletics department's administration team.
Tsai had been the SID at the school from 2001-04 before leaving to start a website development company, receive a graduate degree in sports management from Long Beach State and then serve as Assistant Commissioner of the California Collegiate Athletic Association in 2006-07.
Previously, Tsai has worked at his alma mater Humboldt State, San Jose State and ESPN in a variety of athletics administration and media relations positions. He also found time to serve on various advisory boards and in CoSIDA committees. Currently, Tsai is the new vice chair of the CoSIDA Conventions Operations committee, headed by Will Roleson, CoSIDA's Director of Internal Operations/Treasurer.
"Hung was one of the first to step up when we began putting together the CoSIDA Convention Operations Committee a few years ago," noted Roleson. "Annually, he has been a huge help with on-site registration and helping our members navigate through the process. Hung has been willing to do whatever is needed as a volunteer with logistics at the hotel property. He was the immediate choice to become our committee's new vice-chair."
Read more about Tsai below as he discusses his career, how he measures professional success and future goals.
At what point did you know you wanted to work in athletics, and when and how did you decide to go into athletic communications?
Tsai: I had always been very interested in sports but never got involved with organized sports since our family
moved here to the United States when I was 12. Baseball probably would have been the sport of choice since I grew up in Taiwan. By the time we settled in the USA, however, I was too old to get started in organized sports, especially with adjusting to the new culture and life here.
In high school, I covered a lot of sports teams for the school paper. In college (I spent my first 2 years at College of the Redwoods), I started to work as a stringer for the local daily in Eureka and thought I was going to write for
Sports Illustrated one day. When I got to Humboldt State, (former SID) Dan Pambianco recruited me to check out the sports information side of athletics and the rest is history.
You were recognized as a "Student Who Makes a Difference to a Club or Organization" for your undergraduate work with the Humboldt State athletics department while a journalism major. What work did you do for the department to gain that award?
Tsai: I worked as a sports information student assistant for my two years at Humboldt. During that time, I served as primary contact for many sports. Dan Pambianco, SID at the time, nominated me for that award for the work I did in the department. I was a trailblazer, if you will, in many areas of the SID operations, as I worked to develop the first athletics website at HSU and redesigned nearly every publication for athletics (media guides, newsletters, brochures, etc).
You've worked in a lot of different areas in the sports industry: in a conference office, on campus, at ESPN. You even left the profession for a time. What did you take from each of these steps along the way and how have those various experiences shaped the professional you are today?
Tsai: The opportunity to intern at ESPN in Bristol, Conn., came up after a few trips to work with the X Games communications teams on location in various places. The adjustment to Connecticut summers (and impending winters) was not ideal for me, however! Even though ESPN wanted to hire me to stay in Bristol, I opted to return to college athletics when Lawrence Fan hired me as one of his assistants at San Jose State. That got me back on the sport information track, more or less, ever since.
The break from college athletics (2004-07) was primary for personal reasons. While working from home, I started the design and web development business because I had the interest and skills for website development ever since starting the first HSU athletics website. That experience was rewarding because I was able to work from home to spend time with a newborn son. Missing college athletics, I enrolled at Long Beach State's graduate program for sports management and obtained a master's degree to, once again, get back on track with collegiate athletics.
Every step of the way, I always felt like sports and athletics were going to be a big part of my career. Circumstances kept drawing me back to college athletics. I was fortunate enough to have an athletics director who believed in me, twice, to lure me back here to Stanislaus State a second time as an Assistant Athletics Director where I am now.
The one year in a conference office was also eye-opening not only in learning about the politics of athletics, but also because I learned I did not want to sit in an office environment for most of the year. I realized then working with student-athletes is the most rewarding part of collegiate athletics.
If you could form the perfect athletic communications professional, what are the 3-5 traits or characteristics that today's athletic communications pro should possess?
Tsai: The most important trait would be a great work ethic. Like many positions in sports, days are long and list of tasks are lengthy. Being able to multi-task and troubleshoot issues are some of the skills and traits required. Other traits would include being a friendly person and someone people can work with. Great communication skills are obviously key for someone in the public relations realm.
As an athletics communicator, how do you measure success in your job? What is the most gratifying part of your position?
Tsai: I measure my success from the ability to be respected as a professional, as an athletics communicator, and as an administrator. Obviously I had to gain the respect from my colleagues, both here on our staff and at other institutions. I know that I must have been doing things right when I was used as a positive example during conference meetings, or when I received high praises from others after hosting a conference championship event.
Like I allude to before, the most gratifying part of the job is to be able to work with student-athletes, knowing that I am making a difference for some of them as part of the Stanislaus State team that is making their collegiate experiences a positive one.
You've worked behind the scenes through the years as a CoSIDA volunteer. Now at the annual CoSIDA convention you've become a mainstay helping during our registration days and you are the new vice chair of the CoSIDA Convention Operations committee. What's important to you about "giving back" to CoSIDA?
Tsai: I am very honored to be asked to be a vice chair of a committee. I had always wanted to be as involved with CoSIDA to serve the members in our profession. However, I never felt like I could appropriately serve a CoSIDA committee well because I didn't think I had enough time to devote to committee work to do a quality job. (I had been in an one-man SID office since starting here at Stanislaus State; in fact, I was doing about four people's jobs here until 2014). I had served on technology, publications contest, and Academic All-America committees in the past.
Several years ago, when I realized that I could help on-site at the convention - and that would be the best time I could give our organization - I volunteered for the operations committee.
Both you and your wife serve in athletic administration and professor roles, respectively, on campus. When you disengage from Stanislaus State duties and responsibilities, what do you enjoy doing in your down time?
Tsai: Well, there has not been a lot of down time between me working in athletics and my wife, Stefani, working as a lecturer in Theatre! She also co-founded a theatre company for youth here in Turlock - so we are both very busy during the academic year.
When I am able to disengage from duties on campus during the winter holidays and summer time, we travel when we can or just spend time with my son (who visits during the holidays and summer months). We see a lot of plays now, like the traveling Broadway productions in San Francisco or Modesto and I also enjoy attending concerts. My favorite thing to do would be vacationing in Maui or Kauai, yet we have not been able to do that in a while.
How important to you is the work-life integration and balancing time in and out of the office, and what 
advice would you give young SIDs who might be struggling with this?
Tsai: I had struggled with this myself for many, many years! My advice? If at all possible, live as close to campus as possible. I have always lived nearby Stanislaus State from as close as 400 steps home-door to office-door (my son counted it one summer!) to a mile and a half. We work late nights a lot and the ability to get home within minutes, or the ability to leave to go to work as late as possible, means more time at home.
Also, take days off. I take Mondays off after weekend home events. I also don't come in the morning after a late night event when possible. I loved the 12-hour rule we heard from our keynote speaker Chris Winfield on productivity at the 2016 CoSIDA convention. Any extra time away from work helps.
What are some of your future professional or personal goals?
Tsai: I don't see myself leaving a career in sports. I don't really see myself leaving collegiate athletics, but life happens and changes are inevitable. With my spouse also in higher education, situations, opportunities and goal-setting could be limiting. We will follow the path God has already laid out for us.
I would like to eventually move up the ranks and be an associate athletics director for communications as the next step and have a staff I can oversee. Ultimately, when and if the time comes and opportunity arises, I would welcome the chance to be an athletics director.