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CoSIDA Goodwill & Wellness Committee
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Communicators Outside the Lines Feature Series
This is the next profile Q and A in a series entitled
Communicators Outside the Lines: Better Yourself, Better Your Community produced by the CoSIDA Goodwill & Wellness Committee. Read past profiles at
CoSIDA.com/CommunicatorsOTL.
HAVE IDEAS OR MEMBERS TO NOMINATE FOR THIS SERIES?
If you have any ideas for this series, which will revolve around CoSIDA member volunteerism and health and wellness, please contact Goodwill and Wellness Committee chair
Chris Mitchell, Washington University in St. Louis Assistant AD for Communications, at (618) 560-9280 or
mitchell@wustl.edu.
Jay Stancil runs to help raise awareness and funding for the
Arthritis National Research Foundation.
Q&A with Jay Stancil
Director of Strategic Sports Communications
Union College (Ky.)
by Tommy Chasanoff – University of the Cumberlands, Sports Information Director
CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee member
Entering his 20th year in the athletic communications profession,
Jay Stancil splits duties as Director of Strategic Sports Communications at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky, and as the sports information director for the Appalachian Athletic Conference. Stancil is known for giving back to his profession and community — and for being an avid runner. The former NAIA-SIDA president was the 2010 Clarence "Ike" Pearson Award winner. The honor is the highest given by NAIA-SIDA for accomplishments and service performed over a career. He is in his final year of a three-year term serving on the CoSIDA board of directors. When he's not at work, he can be found in his running shoes or supporting his family at their activities. He runs in honor of his mother Gloria and the fight to cure arthritis. He and his wife, Genople, have two children — a son, Jayson, and a daughter, Haylee.
Q: Your followers on social media knows that you’re an avid runner. How did you get started? Why are you invested in curing arthritis?
Stancil: Not long after the birth of my son, I began to have some health issues. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure; I was overweight, pushing ever closer to the 300-pound mark; and I was on the road to developing diabetes. On January 1, 2002, I began my weight-loss journey and dropped 80 pounds. I am blessed to say I have been able to keep the majority of that weight off ever since.
It was not until April of 2010 that I really took up running. While I did diet and exercise to take the weight off, running still wasn’t my ‘thing.’ But that spring, Dave Parsons – who was the SID at Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) at the time and continues to be a very good friend, threw a blanket challenge on Twitter saying, “My wife has now run two half marathons, so I’m going to run the Columbus Half Marathon in October. Who wants to join me?” As crazy as this sounds, I simply looked at my schedule and saw that I had an open weekend of no home events and said, “Sure, why not?” And I’ve been running ever since.
I run now to help raise awareness and funding for the Arthritis National Research Foundation (
www.curearthritis.com), and it is all because of my mother, Gloria Stancil. She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in her early 30s and battled the disease over the last four decades of her life. I got an up-close-and-personal view of how crippling arthritis is and the effects it has on the body. Due to the damaging effects of arthritis combined with diabetes, my mom had to have her right leg amputated in June of 2015. It was at this point I took up the cause and will continue. My mother was a fighter and she never let her ailments hold her back, but I know she suffered and was in constant pain despite the smile she always had on her face. Therefore, I am going to do all I can to help cure arthritis.
Q: What has been your hardest challenge or next goal with regards to staying active?
Stancil: The hardest challenge is two-fold: finding time to be active and then feeling up to getting out and working out. I love our profession. It is so much fun, or as my late friend Patrick Moore always said, “We get to play in the toy box of college athletics.” That said, it can be a grind and the hours are long. Trying to squeeze in an hour workout can be hard. Also, because of the long workdays, getting enough rest and/or sleep is a challenge. Sleep is just as important to our well being as exercise, so there have been days I’ve skipped a run or put it off to later in the day to get an extra hour or two of sleep. It’s hard to constantly go, go, go unless your batteries are getting charged up.
Q: You have served as the President of NAIA-SIDA and are currently serve on the CoSIDA Board. What prompted your involvement on both of these boards?
Stancil: Pure and simple: I want to give back to the profession that has given me so much, and I want to do all I can to make our profession better than when I found it. At times, I am amazed at how blessed I have been to have been selected and placed in the various positions that I’ve held over the years. As my time of serving on the NAIA-SIDA and CoSIDA Board of Directors will eventually pass and fade, I plan on continuing serving in whatever capacity possible. My mission is to help others to become the best they can be. I know I don’t have all the answers, but I will do all I can to help point them in the right direction to get them where they want to go.
Stancil is in his 20th year at Union College (Ky.)
Q: How do you balance work as an SID/ conference SID / family life and running?
Stancil: I am not going to lie and say I have found the perfect balance, and I won’t even go as far as saying that perfect balance even exists. As it says in Ecclesiastes, “For everything, there is a season.” And this holds true with managing/juggling work as a school and conference SID along with family life and running. There are times when work has to take top priority, and running and family life have to take a backseat. From August to May, that is a lot of the case. Work has to come first with family life and running mixed in when possible.
This past spring was a major challenge for me. In addition to the normal SID work, both of my children were involved in school sports with my son also being a high school senior. I am proud to say that I did not miss any of my kids’ home games except for when they were both going on at the same time. And now that my daughter is playing high school soccer this fall, I’m making every effort to be there for all the games I can.
To find this mythical thing we call ‘balance,’ it boils down to planning and prioritizing. What is important and must be done whether it’s work, running, or a family event, goes atop the list, and everything else comes after that. The work is always going to be there. There is always something to work on, and the idea of being caught up is a myth – at least it is if you’re both a school and conference SID. But family time is fleeting. Your health can be fleeting as well if you aren’t taking care of yourself.
It also helps to have a great and supportive partner in life. My wife Genople is my rock, and she keeps me grounded. When I get into that crazy, busy, vicious cycle at work – also known as crossover season, I rely on her to make sure I’m not missing something at home. When the sports season starts up in August, she asks the same question: “When are you going to be home for dinner this week?” It’s that simple question that helps keep me grounded and not lose sight of what is important.
Q: What advice do you have for SIDs who want to volunteer or become more active but don’t have the time?
Stancil: Start simple. Start out by doing a little something. You do not want to run the risk of biting off more than you can chew, so start by doing one thing. When I started training for my first half marathon, I could not run a mile without stopping. I had to build up to it. And the time race day arrived, I was able to do a 13.1 miles.
The same principle applies to volunteering. Do what you can, but please do. It’s cliché, but it’s true: a little bit helps and matters.
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