College Sports Information Directors of America

Related
• CoSIDA.com/WoSIDA
• November Woman to Watch – Jenna Willhoit, Dayton

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Earlier this year, the long-time CoSIDA group Female Athletic Media Relations Executive (FAME) re-branded and will now be known as WoSIDA (Women Sports Information Directors of America/Women of CoSIDA). As part of the recent rebrand, the group has introduced a Women to Watch feature series. For more information on WoSIDA including the updated mission statement, goals and value statement, go to CoSIDA.com/WoSIDA.

All members of CoSIDA — female and male — are invited to join WoSIDA. Contact Chevonne Mansfield or any of the steering committee members listed on the WoSIDA page above.

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WoSIDA Women to Watch: December 2017
Sammi Wellman, Director of Sports Information – California Baptist University

by Diane Nordstrom, Athletic Communications Associate Director – University of Wisconsin
CoSIDA Board of Directors

For Sammi Wellman, sports information combines her love of sports and writing. Wellman, the sports information director at California Baptist University in Riverside, California, has been in the profession since she was a student at Azusa Pacific.

Wellman (then Sheppard) was a standout goalkeeper for the nationally ranked Cougar soccer team, earning the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Champion of Character award her senior season.

After graduating from APU in 2010 with a degree in journalism, Wellman served as an assistant coach with the Cougars before taking the job as the sports information director at Humboldt State. She also served as the sports information director at San Francisco State before joining the staff at Cal Baptist.

Wellman is a member of College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), serving on the Publications Committee. She has attended three CoSIDA Conventions, twice presenting on Photoshop. Wellman also presented on a CoSIDA Photoshop webinar. In addition to her sports information duties, she also serves on the D2CCA NCAA Division II Softball Committee and was on the Women's Basketball Division II West Region Media Poll committee.

A Southern California native, Wellman lives in Riverside with her husband, assistant CBU men's basketball coach Doc Wellman. 
 

What got you into sports information?
“I actually went to college as a marine biology major, but when I transferred to Azusa Pacific for soccer, there was more medical classes and I wasn’t interested in that. I ended up switching my major to journalism and for one of my class assignments, I had to interview someone in a journalism profession. I interviewed my SID, Joe Reinsch, and he said he got started as an intern. That sounded exciting to me so I asked if they had an internship spot open for me and I was able to work with them for a year as an undergrad before moving on to get my first assistant SID job after I graduated.”
 

What is the best part of the profession?
“My favorite part of being an SID is getting to know my student-athletes and coaches. Being able to build relationships with them and see how they grow both on and off the field is so exciting to me. I think sometimes I’m more excited about awards the athletes get than they are because I’m just so proud of them.”

What’s your best piece of advice for being a woman in the profession?
“I read ‘Lean In’ by Sheryl Sandberg and I remember her talking about taking a seat at the table as a woman and not sitting off to the side. Especially when it comes to sports, there are people who think women don’t belong at the table. I make a point to not only take a seat at the table, but also speak up when I feel I need to. I’ve had men look at me like ‘what does she know,’ one because I’m a woman and two because I’m young, but I do know quite a bit and I’m not afraid to voice my opinion.”

What obstacles or challenges have you overcome in your career so far? How did you get through them and learn from them?
“The biggest challenge I’ve had to deal with came my first year as an SID. About four months into the job, the head SID took a leave of absence for a month due to health reasons. It also happened to be the start of the fall/winter overlap season so I went from covering just men’s and women’s soccer, to handling women’s volleyball, football, and men’s and women’s cross country, while men’s and women’s basketball were starting up.

“I had never covered volleyball or football, but I had multiple people help me figure it out. I’ll never forget Tyler Lobe (from Sonoma State) coming up with his volleyball team on a Wednesday to input that night’s match for me and try to teach me how to input since I had to go live two days later for another match and had never even looked at the volleyball StatCrew before. I’m forever grateful for him and the other people who helped me get through that time. I was thrown into the fire and had to learn a lot of information in a very short amount of time, but I’m also thankful for that experience because I believe it made me a better SID.”
 

What do you do to balance work/personal life especially since you are married to a coach?
“I got married to one of our men’s basketball assistant coaches last year and it’s great since we work at the same school and I cover them, but our schedules also don’t always line up. He knows how college athletics can be, though, so we try to spend our off time together as much as possible since we don’t always get time off. At CBU, we normally get Sundays off so we’ll usually go to the movies or do something together. We also try to go get lunch together during the week or at least eat together on campus.”

What is your most memorable event/moment from your SID career?
“In 2015, our women’s basketball team made it all the way to the DII championship game. It was so cool being a part of that since they came out of nowhere and were rolling past everyone. They were so much fun to write about. We even got a private plane out there, which I had never experienced before.”

What are the characteristics of a good SID?
“Something I feel benefits me is being able to problem solve but also keep a good attitude about it. Almost always something goes wrong at a game and I’m usually the one needing to fix it.

“My first time inputting volleyball, I cried thinking I messed the file up, but turns out I just missed an over pass on two different plays. From that moment, I learned there’s always a way to fix something, you just have to take a deep breath and assess the situation. Now, when issues come up during games, I kick right into fixing mode and remember to laugh about it later.

“Even this year, I lost the first five minutes of my men’s basketball stats – straight up poof – and I wanted to cry, but I didn’t. I had my students start writing down the plays and I got the scores from the book to catch us up on what was missing leading up to that moment. Obviously, not an ideal situation and not what the coaches were hoping for since it wasn’t accurate on shooting percentages and rebounds, but it worked for the moment. (I communicated the issue to them and they were both very understanding.) I had to go back and re-stat the opening minutes later that night, but my husband had to watch film anyways so we did it together.”

How do you decompress after a stressful event/week/season?
“Eat ice cream, sleep and/or watch Harry Potter movies.”

What do you hope your SAs remember most about you?
“I hope my student-athletes remember how proud I am of them. I’ve even teared up before when a kid gets a big-time award like national player of the year. We’ve had athletes go on to play professionally or even for Team USA and it makes me so happy for them. I almost feel like Elf, ‘I know him! I know him!’”

Do you hope to continue being an SID or do you have other career aspirations?
“I love what I do. I get to combine my love of sports and writing into one profession. I’m not sure I’ll always be an SID, but I know I want to be in athletics. I just can’t imagine me being away from sports.”