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This feature is part of our series of profiles showcasing members throughout the CoSIDA membership during the celebration of CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week for 2018. See more features at CoSIDA.com/ThankYourSID.
Chris Wells – Lindsey Wilson College Assistant Athletic Director
by Barb Kowal - CoSIDA, Director of External Affairs and Professional Development
Wells holding the 2012 NAIA women’s soccer national
championship trophy next to Lindsey Wilson women's soccer
coach Drew Burwash on the night the team won the title.
Nearing two decades of award-winning work at Lindsey Wilson, an NAIA institution in Columbia, Kentucky, Wells holds the Assistant Athletic Director title as he directs the athletic media relations efforts for the school and for the Mid-South Conference. He has led communications for nine NAIA national championship teams at Lindsey Wilson (men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball) and has helped build coverage and awareness for five new athletic programs since 2009 (football, wrestling, men’s and women’s swimming and diving in 2009; archery in 2018).
In addition to his campus and conference duties, Wells serves as First Vice President of the NAIA-SIDA Board of Directors and coordinates the annual CoSIDA Convention programming for NAIA Divisional Day.
He has been recognized nationally for his work, gaining the 2015 Clarence "Ike" Pearson Award from the NAIA Sports Information Directors Association (NAIA-SIDA), an annual lifetime achievement award for outstanding contributions to the profession. Wells also was selected the 2016 NAIA Sports Information Director of the Year and has been named MSC's Sports Information Director of the Year nine times.
Congratulations on your national honors throughout the years and for leading Lindsey Wilson’s award-winning communications efforts. Adding to that, you continue to give back to the NAIA and CoSIDA. What motivates you to take on leadership roles?
A few years back, one of the most respected NAIA SIDs, Jay Stancil of Union, told me I should be thinking about a leadership role in NAIA-SIDA. So, when I attended the CoSIDA Conventions, I wandered around to get feel of what it would take. Jay, who is on the CoSIDA Board now, has been instrumental in NAIA-SIDA successes and I looked up to him. He created the whitepaper for NIAIA-SIDA and I saw what he was doing and how much he was giving back to a profession that was treating him so well.
After a few convention I told myself I needed to help out more. I joined committees in NAIA-SIDA and started networking. I was thinking that I’d like to be in a leadership role, but before I could consider it seriously, I was nominated for a NAIA-SIDA at-large board spot. I was blown away. There were a lot of great people on board already, people that I admire greatly (Cindy Potter of Columbia College, Aaaron Sagraves of Cornerstone), really good friends who I have a lot of confidence in. I was elected to join them and spent my first year listening a lot and asking questions, then got more and more involved to the point where I am serving as first VP.
I’m excited to do things in our profession. For all the new CoSIDA and NAIA people out there, I think back to where I was when I was younger in the profession, and I’d like to be their Jay Stancil and help them in any way I can.
Wells interviewing Lindsey Wilson football coach
Chris Oliver after a game.
You started your career in university PR – how did you find your way across campus to the athletic department?
I graduated from Lindsey as a journalism major and started working in our PR department and then, it happened. Roger Redmond was SID and we switched jobs, flip-flopping our jobs in the middle of the year following a national soccer tournament. It was learning on the fly. Even then I could go to Roger and get pointers. Duane Bonifer was head of PR at Lindsey Wilson and was so great to me and pushed me into this new role. He knew that I was like a little bird needing to be shoved out of the nest. He taught me so much about writing and PR. He said, you will be great at this sports information role, and gave me a solid push over to athletics, and I’ve been so happy with that decision I made 20 years ago. He eventually moved to a position at the University of Kentucky, Even now that he is at another institution, I still text him and ask his advice because I value his opinion so much.
What’s the project or campaign that you’re proudest of? Why?
There was one day in Lindsey Wilson history that stands out the most – November 22, 2014. That was the day we hosted four national tournament opening-round games - football at 11 am, volleyball at 3:30 p.m., women’s soccer at 6 p.m. and a men’s soccer match at 8 p.m. – there was so much going on! I am so proud of all our folks who pitched in during that week and on that day- coaches from other sports, students, assistants and interns. We handled all the promotion, programs, stats, social media. It all went so well and I was so proud of LW and the fact that we pulled off this jam-packed day.
I also look back to 2009-10 when we added four new sports. We played our first football season in 2010 after adding wrestling and men’s and women’s swimming in 2009. That was a huge sports expansion for our school. We spent 9-10 months prepping, recruiting, and hired great people who have brought unbelievable student-athletes to campus. They’ve all had success. Football has brought a spark to our campus, especially on Saturdays. I broadcast those games and it’s been really fun to watch our department grow.
Small staffs always face the challenge of resources and personnel numbers. How have you addressed this at Lindsey Wilson?
One other thing I'm proud that Lindsey Wilson allows me to do is to have a terrific intern program. We hire two new interns every year in our SID department. Those two people are usually recent graduates looking for experience. Of our interns over the last decade, 13 are still in college athletics -- one is the head video coordinator at SEMO, one is in athletics fundraising at Creighton, one is a former head SID and now a communication director at the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's main office, two are GAs in an NAIA conference office and eight or either head or assistant SIDs at the NAIA or NCAA level. This is just something I'm proud of and so fortunate to work at a place that supports our profession.
What’s the best piece of sports content that you have recently consumed?
There are a lot of things I follow on social media and take from and borrow from. We all are looking to make our departments and teams better on social, and I’m always on the lookout for things that can work successfully for Lindsey Wilson. One thing I do each summer to get ready for the fall is research and read football game notes, across all divisions. It really helps me prep for my game broadcasts, too. I’m constantly going to other websites, and also as our conference SID, I go to other conference websites to find ways to better promote our student-athletes. Telling the stories of how great our student-athletes are is part of my biggest joy in doing this job.
What’s the role of being the Mid-South Conference SID, and how do you carve out time to handle those responsibilities?
Luckily, I have a beautiful family who supports me - my wife Amy, our 15-year old daughter Reilly (who is getting ready to turn 30!) and six year-old son Greyson. I do a lot of conference work in the evening. Thankfully, we have two conference graduate assistants to help and they do fabulous job and I monitor their daily work while I handle awards and all-conference honors. My family’s understanding allows me to spend a few nights in front of my laptop to take care of conference matters. Then, on other nights, I put laptop away and show them the love they deserve.
It’s tremendous to work with other SIDs in our Mid-South Conference. It’s the largest football conference at any level. We have 21 football teams with more coming next year. It is huge geographically, stretching from south Florida to mid-Ohio. It takes some doing to coordinate all the work, and it’s important for me to schedule my time properly. We have an unbelievable commissioner in Eric Ward, and our Lindsey Wilson athletic director, Willis Pooler, is fully supportive of my conference work. It’s a lot of fun and I love doing both jobs.
What’s one trend in athletic communications that you are a fan of?
I’m kinda old school. I read newspapers a lot growing up. The storytelling has gone away from the game recaps, replaced by lots of bullet points. and I know that the attention span of readers is so short these days that we lose the storytelling effect. But, I love love love the aspect of video storytelling. I love that I can do short student-athlete spotlights. I love sitting down with them and learning about them and their backgrounds. My favorite thing I’m doing now revolves around video – interviewing them and reacting to them. I’ll go in with three questions and it turns into 10 as I want to do followup after followup with their interesting stories. A recent example is our video on Lou Bunning, our football center, grandson of Kentucky’s late Senator Jim Bunning, the Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher. Lou, our team captain and a great student academically, broke his leg against Presbyterian. A phenomenal young man. Since his injury, our offensive line has taken a beating. Sitting down with him and telling his story, what he’s gone through the last few months, and how he still is integral to the team, is something I just absolutely loved doing. I still love writing and doing 45-second interviews post-game, but actually sitting down with student-athletes for extensive time is one of my favorite things to do.
You have worked with NAIA national championship teams, as mentioned. However, on the Lindsey Wilson website is a prominent banner proclaiming three national championships in cycling – cyclo-cross (2000, 2001) and BMX (2012). Your department takes an active role in publicizing these club sports, too?
We are proud of our tradition of national success at Lindsey Wilson (the school earned the Learfield Directors’ Cup in 2015-16 as the NAIA’s top athletics program).
Yes, we publicize our cycling club sports. USA Cycling has a collegiate program with five disciplines throughout year. We have our own BMX track near campus – it’s very cool. Those men and women who compete are some of the best athletes on our campus! We see accidents and injuries that make you cringe. It’s an incredible sport – not an NAIA sport but we treat it like an NAIA sport. We write about it and host events on our campus. We love on the cyclists like we do every other student-athlete on campus. As an aside – I’m not ready to write about esports yet, however! I don’t how to write about that … and that’s a trend, isn’t it?
You’ve got a coaching background as well as a PR/communications background. Do you still have a pull to coach as an outside interest?
I liked coaching. I used to be the women’s golf coach at Lindsey Wilson before football came long. I coached for seven years and was fortunate to have some really good teams, including finishing as NAIA national runnerup.
(Editor’s note: Wells was selected as NAIA Regional Coach of the Year four times in 2004, and 2006-08).
As I get a little older, I love watching my kids participate in sports. My daughter Reilly is such a talented dancer and I love going to her recitals. She’s such a great athlete on stage! My son Greyson loves soccer and basketball and is taking karate, and I seeing him so active. It’s all about watching my kids be kids. One of the things I am looking forward to at the CoSIDA convention in June is to see them the day after it ends - in Disney for a family vacation. My joy is to see them having joy.
As a leader in the NAIA, and as the coordinator of the NAIA Divisional Day programming at our annual convention, what’s your message to fellow NAIA sports information professionals on why they should attend the 2019 CoSIDA convention in Orlando?
For me, it’s all about getting to know people and expand my knowledge. I’m a firm believer in networking and picking up great ideas from colleagues, and going to the CoSIDA convention is a perfect chance and time to do this.
When we get into our own bubbles on campuses and conferences with our small staffs, we get wrapped up in covering our specific teams. We don’t always take a moment to look at what others are doing in college athletic communications, things which would make it better for us and our student-athletes. I encourage NAIA SIDs to step out of their comfort zones and see what others are doing - and enhance what you are doing, whether it be in the area of time efficiency, new strategies, new concepts and ideas. Going to CoSIDA is a great tool to help you do your job better. I am a firm believer in attending; even after going to nine or 10 conventions, I’m still learning and that’s exciting to me. This summer, I know there will be three, four or 10 things to pick up and make my job easier or better and help our student-athletes. I recommend attending the CoSIDA convention to all.
We are asking our featured members to provide a professional development tip during CoSIDA Recognition Week – what is yours?
My recommendation: don’t try to do everything that you see out there. Even if you get 10 fresh ideas from the CoSIDA convention, or from a CoSIDA or NAIA webinar, I’m a believer in mastering two or three things versus trying to do too much. Pick a few things and get good at each of them. Teach your student assistants and interns a few things to do really well, and then move on. Also – do not try to do exactly what others are doing in our profession. Everyone has to consider their department’s priorities and resources. Ask, is this new method something we need, and how would I handle it? It’s important to know what’s important to your administration and coaches and prioritize. Once you prioritize, make sure to master the new things. Then you can move on. If you try to do too much you will get burned out quickly because you won’t be able to deal with the time commitment and will be overwhelmed constantly. Prioritize your new ideas.