This feature is one of the many profiles we are doing to showcase our diverse CoSIDA membership during 2016 CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week. To see all the feature stories leading up to - and during - CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week,
please click HERE.
OUR STORIES
Travis Jarome
Tuskegee University Sports Information Director
CoSIDA Publications & Digital Design Committee member
by Chevonne Mansfield, American Athletic Conference Director of Communications/CoSIDA Week Committee member
Student-athlete. Sports information director. Athletic director. Travis Jarome has worn each of those hats and he draws on his unique skill set while leading athletic communications efforts at Tuskegee University.
Travis started his career in the profession as an undergraduate at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM). The former men’s soccer student-athlete got his start in athletics communications after Tom Strother, former sports information director at AUM, gauged his interest in working for the Warhawks athletics department. Strother left for Troy University shortly after Travis came on board, which led to Jarome being appointed Interim Sports Information Director. He was hired full-time by AUM in 2003.
Travis also spent time with the University of North Georgia of the Peach Belt Conference as they made the transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II. Ricky Hazel (Troy University) reached out shortly after, and Travis returned home to Alabama after a year in Georgia to work with the Trojans’ athletic department.
Troy’s athletics communications staff was honored as one of the Football Writers Association of America
Travis Jarome on the field during Tuskegee football games.
(FWAA) Media Relations Staff of the Year winners during Jaromes’ four-plus years there. He also had an opportunity to promote multiple student-athletes who went on to the professional ranks after their graduation, including O'Darien Bassett and Tawanna Meadows in their pursuit of a spot on Team USA Track and Field.
Jarome left the field in 2011 to become Athletics Director at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School, where he oversaw the Knights’ middle and high school athletic programs. He was responsible for 34 sports during his three years with Montgomery Catholic and presented at the 2013 National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) National Convention on social media in schools and athletics.
Travis was successful on the high school level, yet the glamor of college athletics was tugging at him. He never completely left the field and kept active by working the Southeastern Conference Softball Championship at the University of Alabama. To this day, Travis still serves in several capacities outside of his work at schools. He even had a stint as the official scorer of the Montgomery Biscuits minor league baseball team.
“I wanted to run my own department and get leadership experience,” Travis said when asked about his time at Montgomery Catholic. “I was still involved with college athletics and helped out locally, but I missed being on this side.”
Travis has been at Tuskegee for 18 months and joined the Golden Tigers athletics department last May. He stayed in touch with University of Oklahoma's Debbie Copp, the CoSIDA Committee on Committees chair, at all stops in his career. He has increased his involvement with CoSIDA by rejoining the Publications and Digital Design Committee and running for a Board of Directors position. Jarome credits Britney Reddick, Assistant Commissioner of Media Relations at the SIAC, for the latter, as she encouraged him to take a leadership role in the organization. She also pushed him to run for the SIAC SID Committee, a role which Travis was nominated for, and voted in. He is in his first year of a two-year term as chair of the SIAC SID Committee.
Travis Jarome is one of the many professionals we are highlighting during the inaugural CoSIDA Recognition Week. For more information on the initiative,
please visit this page.