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Dave Blanchard (Luther College) – 25-Year Award
by Larry Happl, Central College Director of Athletics Relations/CoSIDA Special Awards Committee member
Blanchard pictured with several of his 2017-18 student assistants,
along with Darin Svenson who assists with play-by-play for Luther’s
video stream/radio broadcasts..
The dark secret must be shared.
Dave Blanchard owns a smart phone.
Among app-crazed athletics communications professionals in breathless pursuit of the ultimate meme and most hit-worthy post, Luther College’s Twitterless SID carefully cultivates his image as a technology curmudgeon. Overdue in receiving a CoSIDA 25-Year Award, Blanchard claims to have only recently discovered his phone’s camera function.
Reality, however, is that Blanchard excels because he’s able to adapt in a field that’s transforming at a head-spinning pace.
“He’s always growing,” says long-time Luther wrestling coach Dave Mitchell. “That job has changed so much in the last 20 years. But he’s evolved and grown as the position has changed.”
Veteran Norse sportscaster Darin Svenson notes Blanchard does more than follow the crowd.
“Dave was one of the first to really get on board with video-streaming games several years ago and was really committed to it,” Svenson says. “He made sure we had announcers for the games and that we were doing as many sports as possible, not just football and basketball.”
A Staples, Minnesota native who is unofficially among CoSIDA’s top golfers, Blanchard was an all-conference men’s basketball standout at Division III Bethel University (Minn.) where he was inducted into the school’s hall of fame after setting season and career free throw marks. He ranks fifth in career scoring and second in assists.
After a three-year stint as a teacher’s aide for United Cerebral Palsy, Blanchard became an assistant coach at Bethel. Among his assorted other duties, in 1987 he took over sports information.
He did it without a day of training.
“They threw me in a closet and said, ‘Go!,’” Blanchard recalls. “But it was a different job back then. You’re keeping book, kicking out releases and calling papers. It wasn’t as intense.”
Blanchard pictured with Luther athletics’ play-by-play announcer Darin Sveson.
Blanchard is grateful for the guidance of former University of St. Thomas (Minn.) SID Greg Capell, now senior associate director of athletics at Colorado College.
“He showed me a lot of the ropes and let me know about CoSIDA,” Blanchard says.
While searching for a better-paying head coaching position in 1992, he stumbled onto an opening for an SID at Luther College.
“I had never heard of Luther College but I thought, what the heck?,” Blanchard says. “I had a young family and I thought as SID I was going to be home more than I would as a coach.
“That’s what I thought,” he says with a laugh.
He notes the 24/7-time commitment the profession now demands.
“I’ve missed a lot of my kids’ basketball games and cross country meets,” he says.
That requires considerable understanding from his wife, DeAnne, as well as his now-grown children, Travis and Emma.
“They know that during the school year, I’m pretty much married to my job,” Blanchard says. “But in the summer time, the people around here know that I do my work, but it’s family time. We try to catch up then.”
Yet the workload seldom prevents Blanchard from giving more.
“At Luther, the thing that always stands out is that so many people go above and beyond,” Mitchell said. “Dave is one of those people. It’s not just an 8-to-5 job. He works hard to make sure our student-athletes have a great experience. He’s fun to work with and fun to be around.”
Svenson values that commitment.
Blanchard’s comments: This ‘why me photo’ is us being us. We have
a good time and still are able to get the jobs done in a professional
manner. As you can see, we have a hard time getting along.
“If I’ve got a question before I go on the air about a pronunciation for a golfer or tennis player who I don’t know, I can call him at 5:30 in the morning,” Svenson says. “He’s very accommodating. Other media members have told me the same thing about him.”
He’s the school’s first full-time SID and even with the increased demands, he remains a staff of one. But he’s not alone. By both necessity and choice, he leans heavily on an energetic team of student workers.
“I couldn’t do it without my kids,” Blanchard says. “They’re absolutely awesome. There’s no way you can do everything the way it is expected without them because I can’t be two places at once.”
Eric Sieger was one of those kids at Luther. He went on to become SID at Carleton College (Minn.), where he is now director of media relations and public relations.
“One thing Blanch does that I always try to emulate is that he empowers students to do anything they’re capable of doing,” Sieger says. “He gives them the trust to do that. You give students free rein to take on something and, almost always, they come through for you. That’s what Blanch does.”
Developing students with those skills is invaluable in a one-person shop, which was most evident when Emma chose an October Saturday for her wedding. Only through painstaking planning and using student crews to staff two home soccer games was Blanchard able to arrange for the day off, before returning to the office at 6 a.m.
But Blanchard values those workers for more than their Stat Crew skills. His mental highlight tape is filled not with trophies and game-winning plays, but the faces of Luther students.
“They’re what keeps me young,” he says. “You get these relationships. They come back and see you after they graduate, they email you and stay in touch. That means more than anything else.”
Sieger says they return for more than Decorah’s famed Mabe’s pizza, which Blanchard traditionally serves at halftime in the Luther football press box. (It’s likely America’s only college football press box embedded in a campus cafeteria, part of the student union perched on a scenic bluff overlooking the field).
“Everyone likes Blanch,” Sieger says. “Working sports information can be a grind. It’s nights and weekends. There has to be an element of fun. He makes that possible. It makes for a positive working atmosphere, but it’s professional, too.”
And an experience that leaves Blanchard with little desire for an alternative career.
“I always tell people, if I didn’t like my job, I’d do something else,” he says. “It’s a pretty good living being able to watch athletes and get to know students.”