College Sports Information Directors of America

He has ventured near and far in the profession, but one thing that remains a constant for John Barry is his passion to promote and tell the story of the student-athletes and coaches he covers. Having grown up in Hawai’i. Barry went to school on the east coast and now works on the west coast, with stops in between throughout the country. Prior to moving to Walla Walla in Washington state to work at NCAA Division III Whitman in July of 2018, Barry served as SID at Regis College, located outside of Boston. He also has worked at the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University.
 
Barry might be one of the rare professionals that has worked at every level of NCAA, but he knows the experiences gained at each stop has made him a stronger communications professional.

The Hawaii native even crossed the nation to play soccer at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania where he lettered for four years. Soccer coaching also is in his background, as he was the assistant men's soccer coach at the University of Richmond for two years before moving back to the islands and beginning his SID career.

 

 
What is the professional development tip that you would share with someone going into business?
Attend the CoSIDA convention and pick the brains of coworkers. It’s the little things online that you can subscribe to; video, graphics and meeting up with friends to try out new technology. Many convention sessions not only teach you specifics, but a bunch of other ideas come into your head at a consistent basis, which helps to up your game and help you learn more during the summer months.

What is the biggest career lesson in your time as an SID, and has that come from CoSIDA conventions?
Learning from your mistakes. When I was at the University of Hawai’i and was coming from covering a women’s volleyball program at the NCAA Division II level prior, that year, my school hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament and the NCAA regionals. I did the best I could, which might not have been the best, but I took notes and two years later, we hosted again and I brought those notes back and it was like night and day. I could enjoy the event for once, because I was much better prepared. It is okay to have to rehash hard events. When you host major conference tournaments, it is important to be prepared for it. Chances are that you’ll have to go through those events again. When you have things that rotate every three to four years, it is important to be prepared for it.
 
I enjoy what I do and I rarely sit back and feel a sense of pride and satisfaction of how I learned so much from two years ago. It was something that I had to really file away to later learn from and it was very daunting getting ready for those NCAA volleyball events the first time versus the second.

 

Do you have any mentors or people you go to for advice that you call up to help?
I don't call many people to ask how they think of things, but Derek Inouchi at the University of Hawai’i taught me a lot about the profession. I left Hawai’i for personal reasons and because a NCAA Division III school was a better fit and use of my talents. I took so much from what Derek did and his influence on me and conversations we had. Whenever we go to the CoSIDA convention, it is nice to touch base with him. I learned the most from him and developed further in the field with his help.

What is one communication or PR tool you could not live without and why?
My Mac. I cannot live without my laptop; my life follows my office. I went to Portugal with our men's soccer team and it allowed me to work from everywhere. I need a good piece of equipment to get everything done. I also use ScoreShots to help with my social media content. You can learn all you want about making graphics and video, but people have made professions out of helping us online, so why not utilize what is already out there for the public to use?  It is fun to learn more to become knowledgeable in our own field.

You mentioned that you went to Portugal with your men’s soccer team. What other places have you gone to that you may not have been able to travel to - without this profession?
That was the main trip I have been on, but I liked being able to travel to Indiana for the DePauw Invitational and the NCAA Tournament in New York. Through work, I have had the privilege of visiting places where I’ve never been before. Even when I was at Hawai’i, I got to travel to New Mexico, Louisiana and other places. You get to see the little parts of the country and it’s likely I’ll never be there again. Driving can be long, but you get to see so many new places with teams. The Portugal trip was two weeks and it was amazing because I don’t know when I could get back to those locations again.

 

What is something people would be surprised to know about you or an interesting little tidbit?
People are surprised to find out that I spent my whole life in Hawai’i. I was born there and remained until I left for college. I was in Boston for two and a half years and people were shocked and wondered why I was there!

You went to school in Pennsylvania, now work in the state of Washington and also worked in Boston; what is it like being in different types of the country?
I have lived here, there and everywhere. I also worked in Indiana with the Pacers, moved to Seattle to try and find work out there not in this profession. When you move around so much like I have, it doesn’t really matter where you live, but you still have a preference. I know when I was looking to leave the Boston area, I could have gone anywhere. But having lived in different places, you can always find your niche anywhere you go. It’s more about the school and situation you are entering into; I was looking to move on and to other parts of the country.
 
You felt that Whitman was a good fit for you and your talents. You have worked at every level (D1, D2 and now at D3); talk about the differences for you at those levels.
D1 SID work at Hawai’i is so media intensive and you try to promote athletics through creative means, but in the end, you are there for the media coverage and that can be very time consuming. I wanted to be able to focus on promoting student-athletes instead of assisting the media so much. Of course, I want to work with the media to promote student-athletes, but I like “telling our story” more. We have an event manager here at Whitman who handles the scorer’s tables set up for every game, which traditionally fell under my job at Hawai’i. At Whitman I can focus on public relations and have time to do highlight videos during the game instead of be bogged down by troubleshooting. I am currently working on video of a cross country athlete hiking the Appalachian Trail. It is nice to get to focus on this instead of doing my job on top of event management.

How do you go about producing more social media and video content by yourself and still do all of the traditional aspects of the profession?
It is tough to be a one-man shop. It’s a goal to have a future full or part-time assistant, but that can’t always be the case. You really have to prioritize your time when you are the only one. There are certain things you have to ask - is this really necessary, and do we really need to do this or that? It’s about figuring out what is the best use of your time and figuring out what people want. You never want to waste your time on things people are not going to be paying attention to.