College Sports Information Directors of America

In his 15th year as Assistant Athletic Director for Communications at Oklahoma City University, Rich Tortorelli covers 22 athletic programs has been a part of numerous conference and national championships, and has earned numerous writing and publications and digital design awards from CoSIDA and the NAIA.  Since July 2018, he also serves as the sports information director for the Sooner Athletic Conference. He was selected as the Sooner Athletic Conference SID of the Year in 2015-16 and was the 2016-17 National Wrestling Media Association small-college SID of the Year.
 
No award has been bigger than his most recent honor, as Tortorelli was selected 2019 recipient of the NAIA's Clarence "Ike Pearson" Award which annually recognizes a member of NAIA-SIDA for outstanding contributions to the profession. The award is named in honor of the former statistical crew chief of the NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Championship in Kansas City, Mo.
 
An active member of both CoSIDA and NAIA-SIDA, Rich serves on the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee and the NAIA-SIDA Publication Committee.
 

 
You were named recipient of the NAIA's prestigious Ike Person Award. Congratulations again on that selection! What does that honor mean to you?
 
I was absolutely floored when I found out the news the morning of September 16.  I have long known that the Ike Pearson Award each year goes to an individual who has contributed so much to the NAIA and our profession. I have admired those individual honorees for a long time. I am truly blessed and honored to be considered among that group. I am looking forward to celebrating this award this June in Las Vegas with the peers and friends I have made over the years in strategic communications as well as with my family.
 
I am grateful to my wife Kathryne and Oklahoma City University athletic director Jim Abbott for their support and to the many contributions from those who worked alongside me as my assistant sports information directors over the years as they all have helped us succeed at OCU. 
 
We are asking each Recognition Week featured member to provide a professional development tip to share. What is yours?  
The other day our golf tournament took place in the middle of 40-degree weather with 15-20 mph winds.  One of the golfers had such a profound comment ... "This is our job. Remember that we love it."
 
What's the biggest career lesson that you've learned?
Be ready to expand your skillset constantly. As soon as you think you have this profession figured out or think you will specialize in just one aspect, there's some new trend to follow or app to utilize when it comes to strategic communications. I had no idea when I came into this career how I would be learning so much about video streaming, broadcasting, graphic design, web site design, social media, etc., etc., etc.
 
What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
Writing may seem like a dying art, but it remains one of the most important tools in our profession. You use your writing ability for so much more than writing game recaps. Yes, I still do full recaps for our web site without bullet points, and that is likely the former newspaper reporter in me showing. Yet, we use our writing skills when it comes to writing broadcast scripts, drafting social media posts, and even when designing a gameday graphic. So hone that skill by reading, listening to and looking at good content.

 

 
What have been the most memorable and/or rewarding moments of your career?
Last May, Oklahoma City University hosted the NAIA women's golf championships at Lincoln Park Golf Course in Oklahoma City. The NAIA had selected Oklahoma City alumna Sydney Cox as the first women's golfer to enter its hall of fame, and she became an Oklahoma City athletics hall of fame inductee as well. During her address to the crowd at both induction ceremonies, she thanked me personally for the work I put in to highlight her accomplishments over the years. 
 
The NAIA Hall of Fame induction ceremony was at the Devon Tower, which is the tallest building in Oklahoma City, and the crowd included the 156 golfers and the coaches who were competing that week as well as my boss, my wife and our newborn son. It's not every day we get recognition in our profession, let alone in a public setting like that.
 
What's one communications/social/PR tool that you could not live without and why?
We joke about protecting our laptop computers at all costs, but it's true. They house our stat keeping programs and our previous files and provide us with our main tool for performing our jobs day in and day out. 
 
Why is it important for you to consistently remain involved in CoSIDA and NAIA-SIDA? Since you serve on the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee, what one piece of advice you have for other SIDs who are voting or nominating?
The importance of staying involved with CoSIDA and NAIA-SIDA has been about the relationships that I've built over the years in strategic communications, and the annual CoSIDA convention has played a large role in helping me to maintain those relationships and picking up on the tricks of the trade.
 
Whether it's rooming with someone at the convention, visiting over lunch, or getting together your local peers periodically throughout the year, we need to build relationships with those in our profession. We need each other to support one another, to troubleshoot a problem, or to share an "aha!" moment we've had.
 
As you participate in the Academic All-America program, please ensure that you carve out proper time to exercise your ability to nominate and vote for Academic All-District and All-America honors, because you will never know if you have a deserving student-athlete until you try and you want to present their information in the best ways possible.