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Previous Women to Watch Features: December: Sammi Wellman, California Baptist | November: Jenna Willhoit, Dayton
WoSIDA Women to Watch: January 2018
Natalie Davis, Director of Sports Information
Copiah-Lincoln (Co-Lin) Community College
by Candice Kelm, Sports Information Specialist – McLennan Community College
Natalie Davis is in her 19th year as the director of sports information at Copiah-Lincoln (Co-Lin) Community College in Wesson, Mississippi, and is one of the longest serving SIDs in the state of Mississippi. In addition to her SID duties, Davis serves as Co-Lin’s director of public information and yearbook advisor.
Davis is a member of College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and Two-Year Sports Information Directors of America (2YSIDA). She is also a member of the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi (CPRAM), having served as past president, the National Council of Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR), Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition, and is a past member of the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
During her tenure at Co-Lin, Davis has been the recipient of Co-Lin’s High Performance Award, the Eta Omega Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa’s Faculty Scholar Award and received the Ann Bradberry Award in 2013. She has been selected for Who’s Who Among Junior College Instructors and has received numerous awards from CPRAM, NCMPR and the Mississippi Press Association.
Davis, a native of Savannah, Georgia, attended Wesleyan College in Georgia and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Mississippi. She and her husband Stephen have two children, Leah (John) and Paul, and one grandson, John Samuel.
Davis at the MACJC basketball tournament.
What’s your best piece of advice for being a woman in the profession?
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. Know that you can!
As a woman working with men’s teams, what is the dynamic working with coaches and players?
When I first started 19 years ago, there were very few women in the field. As with every new job, you sometimes have to “prove yourself” to your co-workers. Once the coaches and players realized that I had knowledge of sports and could write sports, they were much more receptive.
What are the characteristics of a good SID?
A strong work ethic, organizational skills, the willingness to go the extra mile to get the job done, showing initiative to your superior(s), and thinking outside of the box, just to name a few.
What obstacles or challenges have you overcome in your career, and how did you learn from them?
The biggest challenge that I have faced is how to balance my work schedule. As both the director of public information and sports information, I was a one-person shop. I would sometimes work until 3 or 4 a.m. on game nights to meet deadlines, get stories posted, and then be back in the office at 8 a.m. It wasn’t easy to get through those days, but I have learned to be a better manager of my time.
How do you balance work and personal life?
I write down my daily tasks and stick with them. I try and get everything done during work hours/during the game so that when I get home, all I have to do is email out and post to the website. I also try and leave my laptop at home on off nights and weekends.
What are your top tips for traveling with your teams?
- Always take spare batteries, chargers, photo cards and ear phones with you.
- Do as much as you can before you get to the venue including starting to write the story and creating graphics, and review photos during timeouts so that you don’t have so many to go through after the event.
What is your most memorable event or moment of your career?
My most memorable events are going to bowl games and national tournaments, and watching athletes react to places they have never been before, such as seeing the ocean for the first time, walking in the sand for the first time, and meeting other athletes from different parts of the country.
What do you hope your student-athletes remember most about you?
I hope they remember that I supported them and that I helped make their experience here enjoyable.