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This feature is one of the many profiles we are doing to showcase our diverse CoSIDA membership during 2017 CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week. To see all the feature stories, please click HERE.

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Lisa Champagne: New England Small College Athletic Conference
Assistant Director for Media Relations 

by Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of Professional Development and External Affairs

When the request went out to colleagues of Lisa Champagne for their thoughts on Lisa to include in this feature story, the responses came back almost immediately.

The speed of the responses, and the descriptions of Lisa and her impact, gives you an idea how respected Champagne is and how her long-time athletic communications work and contributions are valued.

How do they describe her?

“Lisa is a selfless professional who cares only about shining the light on others.” (Bill Chaves, Eastern Washington University AD)

“Lisa is so passionate about college athletics and what she does.” (Andrea Savage, NESCAC Executive Director)

“Her personal touch when dealing with student-athletes, coaches, members of the media and peers in the profession is unmatched.” (Daniel Ruede, New Haven Associate AD for Communications)
 

“Dedicated, quiet, focused, Lisa brings all those qualities to her work, but as a friend she's even more amazing. Lisa is the type of person who will drop anything to help you out if you need it.” (Amie Canfield, Mount Holyoke Associate AD/Communications, and a former student assistant of Champagne’s)

“The consummate professional, Lisa’s talent, worth ethic, and morale fiber are second to none.” (David Alexander, The College of Saint Rose Assistant AD for Communications)

Champagne, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Assistant Director for Media Relations, is in her 23rd year in the profession. A Connecticut native, she has spent her career in New England, working at New Hampshire College, her alma mater (now Southern New Hampshire University), Quinnipiac, St. Michael’s College, and the University of Vermont prior to joining the Division III NESCAC conference. The NESCAC is comprised of a group of 11 highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities (Amherst, Middlebury, Tuft and Williams are four of them).

A softball and basketball student-athlete as an undergraduate at New Hampshire College, she volunteered in SID Tom McDermott’s office as a sophomore and then became his work study student, balancing sports, work and her studies in sport management. 

“Working in college athletics isn’t just a career, it’s a lifestyle. I’ve learned something every step of the way in my career and continue to learn something new each day, especially being new to the NESCAC and the ever-evolving world of technology,” noted Champagne. “The biggest lesson I have carried with me is to be helpful, considerate, respectful, and kind to people.”

The unassuming Champagne has had a decorated career, working at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, two Women’s World Cups, Special Olympics World Games, while promoting and publicizing NCAA national champions and telling the stories of countless student-athletes and coaches along the way.

Champagne’s contributions have not gone unnoticed by her peers. She also is an award-winning SID.
 

In 2013, Champagne was honored with the prestigious Irving T. Marsh Award (in the university division) by the ECAC Sports Information Directors Association (ECAC-SIDA). The award, named after Irving T. Marsh, the ECAC Service Bureau founder and director, is given annually to sports information directors who exhibit excellence and commitment in the field of athletic communications.

Champagne was the seventh woman to receive the honor since its inception in 1966.

Five years earlier, she also was honored by the Vermont athletics department with its Zabriskie Award for Excellence.

Champagne is passionate about what she believes are the core values of athletic communications.

“It’s been said over and over at CoSIDA and ECAC-SIDA conferences that this is a people business and I think we lose that perspective once in a while, getting bogged down by the daily tasks on our to-do list and lose the purpose of why we are doing what we do. I try to never lose sight of this.”

Ruede echoes similar thoughts about Champagne and her contributions.

“I have known Lisa since I first began in this profession in 1998 and I can truly say she is the type of SID you hope young professionals in the business can emulate,” Ruede stated. “As our profession continues to evolve on a daily basis, Lisa is an individual who adapts and expands, while never forgetting the foundation that our profession was built on.”
 

NESCAC’s Savage along with Chaves, who hired Champagne as a Quinnipiac graduate assistant when he was the SID there, are quick to note her leadership skills and are happy to see her recognized.

“We are so fortunate to have someone of Lisa’s talents, drive and expertise at the NESCAC. We have 27 conference sports, and Lisa works tirelessly to promote and publicize them,” noted Savage. “It’s very clear that Lisa is very well-respected by everyone in our industry. I’m happy to see her featured during CoSIDA’s Recognition Week. It’s a great idea to have this week and showcase the work of the athletic media relations professionals who give so much of themselves every day. Lisa epitomizes that.”

“When Lisa joined the SID/athletic communication ranks in the early ‘90’s, there were not a lot of women pursuing this career,” said Chaves. “Given what she has been able to accomplish over the past several decades, she has no doubt inspired many more to join this profession. It is so well deserved when she happens to attain a little bit of recognition herself for her dedication in recognizing others.”

 

Q&A: Listening to Lisa

You began your career as a graduate assistant at Quinnipiac College in Connecticut – getting a salary of $4,000 annually. Tell us about your start in our profession.
I played sports as a kid and knew I wanted to do something in sports, I just didn’t know what. I was interested in what went on behind the scenes of a game and when I got to college I learned that being an SID was a great way to get your foot in the door to work in athletics.
 
As an undergraduate at New Hampshire College, I majored in sport management and was a walk-on to the women’s basketball team as a freshman. During that year I was introduced to our sports information director, Tom McDermott. As I learned more about his job my interest grew.

I played one year of basketball and switched to playing softball my final three years. After my freshman season I went to Tom and asked if he could use a student worker. I volunteered as a sophomore and then earned some work study money my final two years. It was a great experience and he taught me the fundamentals of being an SID.
 
The summer between my junior and senior years I did an internship with the Nutmeg State Games, an Olympic-style sports festival for the State of Connecticut. I worked with Bill Chaves, who was the SID at Quinnipiac University at the time (now the AD at Eastern Washington). He let me know that he had a new GA position opening. After graduation I reached out to Bill and was brought on board for a “salary” of $4,000 and I could take a few classes toward a master’s degree each semester. It was another stepping stone in my career. I lived with my parents in Tolland, Conn., drove the hour (each way) to Hamden, Conn., to work. I think my “salary” was just enough for gas for the year!
 
In the middle of my second year at Quinnipiac Bill for another job and I was the interim SID for the rest of the year. I certainly learned a lot during my two years at Quinnipiac and it led to me becoming the sports information director at Saint Michael’s College, my first full-time position.
 
In a team environment, what role do you usually take on?
I’m a team player, whatever needs to be done I’m ready to pitch in and help in whatever way is going to help make the project successful.
 
How has the transition to conference life from a campus job been for you?
I’m in my second year at the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) and it has been a whole new world and one I am enjoying. There has been a bit of a learning curve. There is a different rhythm to the work. On campus you get in the grove of having a game on a regular basis and prepping for those games. At the conference level I’m not attending games on a regularly. It’s much more of a “hurry up and wait” and the go-go-go once tournament fields are decided and championships have started.
 
I’ve had to learn a whole new conference, its member institutions, its history, athletic staffs and student-athletes. I get to be a fan of a lot of teams and with the NESCAC’s rich tradition of success - the league won its 100th NCAA Championship last year - our teams often compete for NCAA Championships both at the team and individual level. It creates a lot of excitement.
 
How do you measure success in your athletic conference office job? What is the most gratifying part of your position?
Success to me in the NESCAC office is putting on a good championship event with the help of the host and participating schools. Success is also the ability to provide information the SIDs, administrators and others need in a timely manner so they can do their jobs. One of the most gratifying parts of my current position is to see the student-athletes compete and their reactions after winning a championship or beating a personal best time.
 
At a campus SID, I enjoyed watching the student-athletes grow from their first year to their senior year where they have built up confidence and are ready for the next big thing. The relationship I was able to develop and still have with some student-athletes is a special result of being an SID.
 

Four years ago, you received ECAC-SIDA’s highest honor — the Irving T. Marsh University Division Award. What does that recognition mean to you?
I was extremely honored and humbled to receive the Irving T. Marsh Award from ECAC-SIDA. The awards dinner at ECAC-SIDA is one of the best nights of the year. The stories and the words of the award recipients about why they are in this profession and to hear from the people who they have impacted gives me a boost of energy during the summer months to head back into another year.
 
To be considered worthy of joining the exceptional group of past winners, legends in my eyes, and to be the seventh woman to be honored in the history of the award, was an incredibly proud moment for me. It was a memorable evening that I was able to share with many friends in the business.
 
What advice would you give a young professional looking to enter the athletic communications field? What they should know about the job?
I’ve got three pieces of advice to the young professional wanting to enter this field:
 
1) Learn the fundamentals. Learn how to write well, learn how to do stats entry, learn how to utilize the various systems that run athletic websites, learn the basics of Photoshop and continue to learn as the industry evolves.

2) Pick up the phone and call a fellow SID in your league, city or area. Instead of exchanging emails with rosters and stats files and credential requests, call an SID once in a while. Check in on them see how they are doing or if you are facing a challenge they can offer idea on how to handle situations because they’ve been there.

3) Volunteer at events in your area if you can. Volunteering at the Olympics and the Women’s World Cup and other NCAA events provided me with experience to take back to my roles and allowed me to connect with people I may have never met if I didn’t pursue the opportunity. Volunteering doesn’t have to be done at a big event either, I’ve volunteered at many local events or area schools that needed help.
 
Lending a hand can go a long way to develop relationships that can be rewarding on many different levels down the road.
 
As a veteran athletic communications professional, you are a mentor to many former student assistants, interns, assistants and colleagues. Can you talk about some of your own mentors?
Certainly Tom McDermott, the person who introduced me to this profession. He taught me the fundamental skills that became the foundation to build my career on. Bill Chaves gave me my first opportunity - outside of my time as an undergraduate - to work in the SID field. He played an integral role in my development and is still a great friend who I speak with regularly. Chris Kenny, the Athletic Director at Saint Michael’s College (Vt.), and Gordon Woodworth, my former boss at the University of Vermont, are two others who helped me and provided me with advice through the years.
 
I’ve been fortunate to learn from a lot of SIDs, especially early in my career at Saint Michael’s where folks like Dick Lipe (Bentley & CoSIDA Hall of Famer), and the late Bob Richards (Stonehill) and late Steve Morris (Assumption) were generous with their time to help me. As I moved to the Division I level Ed Carpenter (Boston University & CoSIDA Hall of Famer) was a valuable resource to me, sharing his wisdom.
 

You’ve had the enviable opportunities to serve as a media relations assistant at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and work at the 1999 and 2003 Women's World Cups, among many international events. What were those experiences like?
My experience at the 1999 Women’s World Cup was fantastic. I helped manage the press box at the games held at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. and grabbed quotes in the mix zone interview area for the media. Working the Women’s World Cup led to the opportunity to work at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
 
At the Olympics I oversaw a group of volunteers from the local community at Soldier Hollow, the venue for the biathlon, cross country skiing and nordic combined evens. We worked to get the athletes from the finish line, through the mix zone interviews and to the drug testing facility in a timely manner. We were responsible for getting start lists and results to the media members.
 
One special memory from the Olympics was that our venue was the first one to award a medal to start the Olympics. Italian skier Stefania Belmondo won the first gold in the 15K race. From each event I learned something I could take back to campus, whether it was a new skill with technology, or organizational method, or contact with a member of the media.
 
I did not know it then, but working those events helped prepare me to be a part of the University of Vermont’s effort hosting the IIHF Women’s World Championship in 2012 at Gutterson Fieldhouse. The tournament is the biggest women’s ice hockey event in a non-Olympic year and I relied heavily on my past experience working at the Olympics and the other international events to coordinate the host media relations effort.
 
What are some of your biggest “media wins,” the best story placements, that you are most proud of?
I’ve been fortunate to get a few student-athletes in Sports Illustrated’s Faces In the Crowd at each school I’ve worked. I’ve had some student-athletes and coaches recognized on ESPN.com and USA Today. But the biggest “media win” is seeing the reaction of the student-athletes or coaches when they see the published piece. The smiles and thank you’s make the work behind the scenes worth it.
 
How do you carve out free time as a busy professional, and what do you do while away from work?
This is something I struggled with in my first year at the NESCAC last season. I didn’t have to attend games on a daily basis as the conference SID so I had this void of what do I do with this free time I now had. I like having time to explore where I live in Western Massachusetts since I’m new to the area after living in Vermont for 20 years. I also live much closer to my family, which is in northeast Connecticut, so I’ve been able to spend a lot more time with them.