College Sports Information Directors of America

Related Content
• CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week is Nov. 7-13
• Learn more about WoSIDA at: CoSIDA.com/WoSIDA
• WoSIDA Women to Watch Feature Archive

---

  WoSIDA Women to Watch: January 2019
Hannah Bradley, Assistant Director of Media Relations
Southern Conference
by Chevonne Mansfield – LEAD1 Association, Director of Communications
 

Hannah Bradley is in her first year as Assistant Director of Media Relations at the Southern Conference. Her experience spans Power Five institutions (Clemson), FCS (Wofford), and DII (Southern Wesleyan), where she ran the entire athletics communications department by herself at 25 years old. Bradley is very active within CoSIDA as a member of several committees.
 
Tell us about your career path. What led you to a career in athletics communications? How did you get started?
HB: I kind of stumbled into the athletic communications field. I grew up playing softball and missed it once I got to college. Clemson didn’t have a softball team, so getting involved with the baseball team was my best bet. I spent my freshman year getting adjusted to college, and then in my sophomore year, I interviewed to be a batgirl for the team. During my first year as a batgirl, I was talking to the team’s director of operations and inquired about opportunities in the athletic department. As a communications major, I knew I was interested in that side of things. I used to think I wanted to be on camera as a broadcast journalist but realized during my freshman year that was no longer what I wanted.
 
Once I realized that athletic communications combined my love for sports and interacting and communicating with others, I knew that sounded right up my alley. I interned with Tim Bourret, the Sports Information Director and now a CoSIDA Hall of Famer, in the summer after my sophomore year. It was an unpaid gig and I did a lot of monotonous tasks, but by the end of the summer he realized this was something I really wanted a shot at, so he hired me on as a student assistant. I came in the office when I could around class times and worked as many sporting events as I could, trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible from the full-time staff. I worked as a student worker until graduation, and after expressing to Tim that I wanted to stay on as a graduate assistant, he obliged and offered me a spot. I served as a GA for two and a half years while I got my masters, then was offered my first full-time job at Southern Wesleyan University after graduation. My husband and I were newly married and both looking for jobs, and he found one a few months later in Louisville, so we moved to Kentucky after a semester.
 
We lived in Kentucky for a year and I worked out of sports information but volunteered with Louisville’s sports information department at some volleyball games and tried to keep my skills sharp. A friend told me of a job opening at Wofford College and I applied, knowing that after a year away from friends and family, back home in South Carolina was where we wanted to be.
 
After working as a graduate assistant at a Power Five, to running an entire DII athletic department by myself at 25 years old, I liked the middle ground of a mid-major. After two years at Wofford, I was asked to interview for a position at the Southern Conference. I was seeking a little better work/life balance, and this transition allowed that. I was already familiar with the conference, as Wofford is a member, and the conference office is in the same town, so it worked out well and the transition was smooth.
 
Q: What is your most memorable event/moment from your SID career?
HB: I love getting asked this question, because the answer is easy. In my second year at Wofford, I was finally coming into my own and feeling more comfortable in my role. I was the youngest men’s basketball SID in the league and the only female. Wofford played at North Carolina on Dec. 20, 2017 and pulled off the upset against the fifth-ranked defending national champions on their home court. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen, and it wasn’t anything I (or anyone else!) was expecting heading into the last game before Christmas break. We led for almost the entire game, but it didn’t hit me that the upset could actually happen until the man doing official stats asked me when the last time, we had beat a top-five team was and I said something like, “are you kidding me!? We have never even beat a top-25 team!”
 
During games, I kept the book on press row, so I was just trying to focus on that and then quickly realized I needed to switch gears and prepare for the madness that was about to ensue. I quickly took pictures and videos as our guys stormed the court, but the night was just getting started. We were quickly grabbed and Coach (Mike) Young was pulled to do an on-camera postgame interview. Then, after a fun locker room celebration that ended up going viral, Coach Young had to get to the postgame press conference. My phone started blowing up with texts from friends and family, but it was also going off with calls from all major national outlets. Coach Young stood on the floor in the Dean Dome, long after the janitors left and the lights had been turned off, and did phone interview after phone interview with national radio hosts. I still have the voicemail Andy Katz left me while Coach was on the other line, which is neat!
 
Here is a glimpse of some of the national attention we received.
 
I’ll never forget Coach Young, my husband and I hanging out on the floor of the Dean Dome while he did those interviews. We had to take Coach back to the hotel as the bus had long gone, and he was still soaking wet from the celebratory shower bath. It was such a cool experience for a 25-year-old to experience and I learned always to prepare like you can and will win the game!
 
Tell us about the differences working at a conference office versus on campus?
HB: At the heart of things, it’s a lot of the same stuff, which is nice and aided in the transition. It also helped that I was coming from a member institution and was already familiar with the conference office and the staff. It’s different having so many teams to keep up with, rather than just the five programs I helped with at Wofford.
 
On the conference side, a lot of my job cannot be done until the SIDs at the member institutions do theirs. Organization is even more important on the conference side. In crossover season when I have up to four sports at a time, that involves 30 or more teams to keep track of game files, player of the week nominations, etc. There is a lot more of a normal work schedule and work/life balance, which was really appealing to me. I do have to work some at home at night, collecting game files, generating conference stats, and updating the website, but I get to do it on my couch instead of in an empty, dark gym. I only travel on some championship site visits and to the championships of my respective sports, so that is a nice change of pace. It’s different not seeing coaches and student-athletes as much, but I am really loving the work/life balance!

 

Who are some of your mentors?
HB: Obviously, Tim Bourret, who gave me my start, is a huge mentor. My husband and I met working in the Clemson sports information department in college, so I always joke that not only did Tim introduce me to my career, but he introduced me to my husband, too! Emily Miles at South Carolina is someone I really look up to as she manages to strike a balance with her health, marriage, motherhood and job responsibilities, which is so admirable. As a part of the CoSIDA mentor program, I’ve become very close to my mentor, Chelsey Chamberlain. Chelsey and I are close in age and have a lot in common, but she works at a Power Five school (LSU) and offers a different perspective on things.
 
Patrick Walsh was one of the few SIDs in the SoCon who reached out to me when I got started at Wofford and he remains someone I talk to regularly. I really think highly of Katie Gwinn-Hewitt and am so thankful for her friendship. We are both huge readers, so we talk about books often. She asked me to be a contributor to the Sparkles & Sports blog, so I love collaborating on that. I love Katie’s openness with her journey to start a family and am so happy that she is in that stage of life! When I was considering my job change, Chelsey, Patrick and Katie were three whose opinions I sought out and took to heart. There are many, many more, including all the friends I’ve met on social media or at the CoSIDA convention. I love that though we have a large membership, we are one big family and I’m certain that anyone I reached out to would be willing to offer advice or help if I needed it.
 
Who is the most well-known student-athlete you’ve worked with?
HB: Fletcher Magee, a men’s basketball player at Wofford, is easily the most memorable and well-known student-athlete I’ve worked with. Magee is the hardest working student-athlete I’ve ever been around, and I loved seeing his hard work pay off. He surpassed Steph Curry and now holds the SoCon record for career threes made and some of the shots he makes are simply unbelievable. Last year he sank a three with three seconds on the clock to propel Wofford past Georgia Tech at home, and it was one of many cool moments he has orchestrated in his impressive careeer. I was blessed to get to cover him for two years.
 
What obstacles or challenges have you overcome in your career? How did you get through them and what did you learn from them?
HB: I have been really blessed in my young career, so I don’t see any of my steps along the way as obstacles or challenges. I try to look at “obstacles or challenges” as opportunities to learn and grow. But, like anyone, I do have day-to-day struggles and times of uncertainty or anxiety. In those instances, I reach out to my network of friends for help, advice or just someone to listen. If I have a bad day or just need to disconnect, I snuggle up with a good book and spend time with my husband to help keep things in perspective and remind myself that “this too shall pass!”