Related Stories
•
2018 Special Awards Annoucements and Features
•
#CoSIDA18 Headquarters |
Register for #CoSIDA18
•
Past Rising Star Award Winners
Olivia Coiro (Syracuse University) – Rising Star Award - University Division
by Patrick T. Walsh, Assistant Director for Communications, Indiana State University
Olivia (center) her sister Leanna (left) and mom Laura (right).
Sass and flair. And a heart as big as an ocean. There may not be a more fitting description of CoSIDA’s 2018 Rising Star (University Division) winner
Olivia Coiro.
If you know her, then you know it is no surprise she is receiving this award. She is one of the most driven people you will ever meet. This is a common theme in her story. Not all paths are straight, some have twists and turns – and Coiro has worked at all three NCAA divisions. But isn’t it funny how we get on our eventual paths of fate?
Coiro attended Lasell College (a Division III school outside of Boston in Newton, Massachusetts) and initially was on the cross country team. Incurring a preseason hip injury her freshman year, two meets into the season she still hadn’t been medically cleared to run and knew that competitive athletics was not her path. But thanks to that lovely biographical information form that every freshman loves to fill out from an anxious sports information director, Coiro found another path into athletics; she landed a work-study job in the SID office.
Thus, the communications spark was lit. Coiro loved working in the SID office so much midway through her sophomore year she added a second unpaid (to start) student internship at Lesley University, another NCAA Division III school 20 minutes and a toll booth away in Cambridge. Coiro literally paid (via tolls and gas) to score games for Lesley. Can we all be so lucky?
Upon graduation, the Long Island native followed the path many New Yorkers take and moved to Florida (albeit 60 years earlier than most!) for her first full-time job at Lynn University, an NCAA Division II institution. There, she promoted two national championship performances and two national runners-up. Coiro developed and employed a constantly expanding skill set that made her shine — or, better yet, with an ode to her popular blog — is it sparkle? (editors note: see
sparkleandsports.com)
Coiro holds a love in her heart for her student-athletes, coaches and colleagues. She brings a charm, flair, sense of humor to everything she does and a level of professionalism that is often yearned for in most Millennials.
She constantly finds ways to utilize tried and true methods of our industry within the confines of advancing technology. When it comes to Coiro, you get the whole package.
“Olivia has always been fun and easy to work with because of her personality,” Michigan assistant director of communications Katie Gwinn Hewitt explained. “It’s been a joy to see Olivia grow since I first met her when working in the Sunshine State Conference. I’ve known she was special ever since the day that I met her.”
High praise from her partner-in-blog. As Coiro moved from Lynn to UNC Greensboro (an NCAA Division I mid-major athletics program) and Hewitt moved to Michigan from D2 St. Leo University, the two felt a need for female mentorship.
They started the Sparkles & Sports Blog (
www.sparklesandsports.com), a place that is designed to create a space for females who work in the male dominated sports industry where they can share stories and lean on each other for advice.
Coiro had just been at UNCG less than a year and was already expanding her reach as a mentor to hundreds of women in the industry. Driven.
“Olivia impresses me with her thirst to learn and do more in her career,” commented Ann King, director of athletic communications at The Sage Colleges. “Her passion to make a difference is evident in her personality and her drive to do and be more. The blog she and Katie (Hewitt) started, Sparkles & Sports, is an example of her passion to make a difference. You can’t help but be inspired and driven to do more and do it better, just like Olivia has done.”
After her stop at UNCG, it wasn’t long before Coiro was headed to East Carolina (a Division I FBS school). She made an immediate impact with the Pirates and was as good as anyone in pushing the messages of ECU and The American Athletic Conference.
“While Olivia's time at ECU was relatively short in length, it was certainly enduring in ambition and energy,” said Tom McClellan, the assistant athletics director for communications at ECU and an over 25-year member of CoSIDA. “She was an asset to our operation in many areas, especially helping us acclimate to a generational gap that many feel has become a challenge in our industry's efforts to communicate in today's culture. Olivia was also a testament that Millennials are willing to embrace old-school principles — the cultivation of relationships for starters — that have provided a firm foundation for our profession.”
McClellan wasn’t surprised or sad that within a year of her arrival at the Greenville, NC school, Coiro was headed north. She headed home to her native New York, this time to Syracuse where she currently works with the women’s basketball, field hockey and rowing teams. In her last two jobs, she has started working with a basketball team mid-season. Yet, on her first day on the job it was as if an established veteran had been there for years.
No matter how short, her stints at her various stops have been impactful. And the opportunities that have been presented to Coiro in the form of career advancement have been accepted with careful consideration and purposeful selection. She hasn’t changed jobs to change jobs, her career path has been exemplary in achievements and lives touched.
“In the last year she truly had an astronomical rise, moving from a mid-major (UNCG) to ECU and now to Syracuse,” said Ira Thor, the director of athletic communications and marketing at New Jersey City University.
“She balances great work ethic and a desire for continual professional development with a great personality and life perspective without taking herself too seriously. I’m really proud to have her as part of my life and I hope I have made a difference in hers.”
Coiro’s love of athletics and of this profession is unquestionable. She doesn’t have colleagues as much as she has life-long friends. And she delights in sending (and receiving) hand-written notes to congratulate someone, wish them well or even just say hello.
It’s further proof she is also one of the most real people you’ll ever meet. Compassionate, gregarious, authentic — that’s Coiro.
“We are thrilled for Olivia to receive this well-deserved honor,” said Syracuse Executive Senior Associate AD/Chief Communications Officer Sue Cornelius Edson. “Olivia’s professional growth and accomplishments are a result of her hard work and commitment. Her passion for promoting student-athletes and the teams she works with, and a never-ending enthusiasm for our profession set an example for all of us. The volume of personal, hand-written notes she has received since joining our Syracuse team is a testament to the impact she has already had on our profession. I look forward to her continued success as she promotes the Orange.”
Whether it be leading a panel, heading the CoSIDA Young Professionals Committee, advising females in the industry what is the best attire (no polos and khakis, please) or even crooning at a late-night karaoke session, Coiro’s award presentation at this year’s CoSIDA Convention will likely be her least impactful part of this year’s conference.
Yet what an honor it is for the rest of us to recognize one of the bright, young, rising stars of our profession.
She brings the sparkle to sports in more than one way, that’s for sure.