College Sports Information Directors of America

Related Content
• CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Magazine Archive
• Perspectives on Achieving Inclusive Excellence in Athletics Communications by Katrice Albert
• An Inclusion Story of Success – Marshall Fey by David Boyce

---

Note: This story appeared in the Winter 2019 November edition of CoSIDA 360 Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.

Cover Story

Time For Action: Be more intentional and inclusive when hiring and promoting minority professionals.
by David Boyce

It’s no secret — and studies each year show — that throughout collegiate athletics there is a disparity between the diversity of student-athletes and the athletics directors, coaches and other athletic department staff who serve them. That includes communications staff. With the help of its members, CoSIDA wants to change that perception and reality.
 

CoSIDA Diversity and Inclusion Value Statement “As leaders in the intercollegiate athletics landscape, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) seeks to foster and encourage environments that embrace gender equity, diversity and inclusion. As an organization, CoSIDA is committed to education, discussion, advocacy and programming to establish and sustain an equitable, inclusive and diverse culture within the membership and the institutions it serves.” – Adopted by the CoSIDA Board of Directors, November 2017

Whenever the question of “why” is asked about any situation, the solution is rarely easy. If the answer were easy, there wouldn’t be a problem. But asking the question and trying to solve it bring you closer to a resolution.

The question in this case being why aren’t there more minorities working in athletics communications; and for those that are in the field, is there anything holding those professionals back from staying in the field or advancing to higher positions?

Athletics communications is a meaningful career with benefits well beyond a paycheck — the profession being an attractive one to work in is not the problem. 

CoSIDA board member Jessica Poole, Senior Associate AD/External Relations at Florida Atlantic, shares a sentiment that is common across the membership when it comes to what the most meaningful part of her job is.

“You get to see kids come in as freshmen who are not used to doing interviews and you are able to help them grow, shape their brand and help them be the people they will be down the line,” Poole said. “I think cultivating those relationships is rewarding.”

But when Poole views her profession, she doesn’t see many people who look like her, a female of color.

The important question is why is this the current reality.

“It’s critical that we recognize the disparities in the diversity of our profession and pursue strategies that will give us an opportunity to make improvements,” said Doug Vance, CoSIDA Executive Director. “This has become a priority for both our board and staff. We have exceptional leaders in our organization that have stepped forward to help us navigate through these challenging issues. We want to see greater diversity overall in the profession and, in particular, encourage schools to make sure they are providing opportunities for greater diversity and inclusion in job advancement.”

CoSIDA wants to see more minorities join its profession. And the organization is doing more than just talking about it. Two years ago, it started a Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which Poole chairs.
 

“We wanted to cultivate a space within our organization where our differences can be celebrated; where we could have a place in which folks had a core group of people they could reach out to. We want to help foster some pipelines and help identify some folks to people who are hiring, to be a hub to create those opportunities,” Poole said.

Poole thinks one reason less people of color pursue sports communication is because they rarely come in contact with a minority in the position of sports information director.

Some, she said, will put in a year or two as a graduate assistant or assistant sports information director, but don’t come in contact with other minorities who lead departments and figure the job is unattainable and leave the profession.

“We need to make sure we are giving opportunities to folks in every step of the way so people can say, ‘hey, I know so and so who works in external,” Poole said. “I know someone doing football communications.’
 

“It’s about creating opportunities for people to see other people succeeding. Success is contagious. If you see someone doing a great job, you are able to have an automatic connection and say, ‘I can do this.’”

There are a few people already in those positions. Poole is one. Her story starts as a walk-on for the women’s basketball team at Missouri.

By the time she gave up her dream of playing in the WNBA, she was in the Mizzou sports information office every time the doors were open and she wasn’t in class.

“I was really fortunate at Missouri that there were two awesome women that were in the trenches,” Poole said. “Emily (Gatewood) Murray was working with wrestling and Whitney (Vernieuw) Griffin was doing all the football credentials. I was able to see women being very successful, and making it a long-term career. When you see people like that, it becomes your reality.”

Before arriving at Florida Atlantic in September of 2018, Poole was at Vanderbilt as assistant director of communications working with football and women’s basketball.

Poole was instrumental in helping grow the Vanderbilt women’s basketball social media accounts while also working to implement new and innovative ways to reach the greater Nashville community which included fireside chats and other exclusive events for fans.

Poole was visible in her job at Vanderbilt as she is now overseeing the communication and marketing departments at Florida Atlantic.

 

The Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Poole said, is already helping minorities and women.

“It really is a huge step in the college athletics realm,” she said. “There aren’t that many organizations that have committees or have taken on diversity in this way. We have been able to see some strides and folks hiring people of color, and women getting hired in positions they haven’t been previously. I think my example is a good one.

“My name was able to get out there as someone who can do the job and do it well. I was given the opportunity. What I did with it is what I did with it. The door opened. The first step is to have the door open.”

Another very visible example of a person of color having success in the sports information profession is Rob Knox, who is African American and currently the second African American to serve as CoSIDA President.

Knox serves as Associate Director, Athletic Communication at Towson University and oversees men’s basketball, track and field and men’s and women’s golf. 

 

When Knox attended The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1990s, his goal was to be a sportswriter. While at Lincoln, he was doing things that a sports information director does without knowing it.

After Knox graduated from Lincoln, he became a sportswriter. In 2004, his alma mater reached out to him to become the sports information director.

“I didn’t know it was a career or an opportunity in sports information because I was so focused on being a sports reporter,” Knox said. “That was my passion. I was fortunate to have that life and do it for five years out of college.

“There was a little uncertainty when I decided to take the job at Lincoln. I felt like I could do the job and be successful. The good thing about Lincoln was I was there at a time when we were transitioning to greater athletic aspiration. It was a confluence of really good stories and things that hadn’t happened before in Lincoln’s athletic history and I just happened to be there for it.”

Knox was at Lincoln from 2004-09 and then later worked at Coppin State and Kutztown University, and also at ESPN.

“Sports information is my home,” Knox said. “This is where I belong. I am proud of all the work I did when I was a sports reporter and at ESPN, but the relationships I built in college and the athletes I have worked with mean the world to me. I don’t know where I would be without being in the world of athletic communication.”

Knox is among those leaders in CoSIDA who have been a strong advocate for creating incentives that help minorities grow in the profession and he’s encouraged about concepts already in place. He points to the NCAA Inclusion Grant program, developed in partnership with CoSIDA, as a recent example of a strategy that has exposed young minorities in the profession to both the national CoSIDA convention and an opportunity to visit the NCAA office. 

“It’s a meaningful professional growth opportunity for someone who doesn’t have the funding to attend the CoSIDA Convention and wouldn’t have an opportunity to be exposed to how the NCAA functions on a day-by-day basis. This is an outgrowth of our partnership with the NCAA,” Knox said.

CoSIDA also has its own grant program in which two of the scholarships have been allotted specifically for minorities to attend the convention each summer.

“One of the things I have tried to do during my time as president of CoSIDA is reach out to minorities already in the profession, emailing them and being available to them. I think that’s important,” Knox said. “They might think, ‘wow I got a call from the President of CoSIDA to ask about my career and my goals.’”
 

“We have to reach out and make sure that people coming into the business have somebody they can connect to. If you don’t see anybody of color in the positions you aspire to then you might not think it is available.”

CoSIDA First Vice President Herb Vincent says one of the keys is taking time to identify minorities in the profession and then giving them opportunities to advance when jobs open up. 

Vincent, who is Associate Commissioner/Communication for the Southeastern Conference, said there are a lot of talented and hard-working sports information directors at HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).

During a search process, Vincent said, it’s important to be able to find out who is out there and interested and how to find them.
 

“I do think a lot of it is being able to identify who is out there and who is willing to take on new challenges and take on new positions.” Vincent said. “And then it takes a person willing to give somebody a chance. Sometimes people call friends they know in the profession and ask who do you know that is out there. That is how you discover talent. Maybe you need to widen that net on who you are calling and asking who the talented people are who can fit into a job.”

Like Vance, Vincent said this is the conversation that is needed.

“I think it’s critical that CoSIDA gets involved in this topic,” Vincent said. “One of the things CoSIDA does well is bringing forward issues that are important to the profession.”

And the organization brings up these types of conversations even when it’s not easy to digest.

“There have been some real positive and raw discussions,” Knox said. “People have been open and, quite frankly, uncomfortable, which is great. I love the fact we are having these conversations and it’s out in the open. The conversation is beginning. It’s great to see. I am proud of our organization for it and the strides we are making.”

Poole feels just as strongly about the positive steps CoSIDA is taking to have more diversity.

“We have really done some amazing things,” she said. “Last year we did a summit at our convention and we touched on broad-based topics on diversity and inclusion that are affecting intercollegiate athletics.”

The only way change will come, Vance said, is to make the commitment to improve.

“I think we have,” Vance said. “Our board leadership has made it a priority. We are doing more than we have in the past. It has been an issue for a long time. I feel good we are taking the steps. We need to take more.

“We have so many minority student-athletes that it just makes sense when they look for opportunities to be involved in college sports, this is one of the fields they can choose.

“It’s incumbent on athletic administrators at senior level positions to try and help solve this problem. We need more engagement in our profession and our members need to make it a priority to encourage athletic directors to make sure when they are considering people for director-level roles that minorities are among those seriously being considered.”  

 

5 Things You Can Do To Promote Inclusion 1. Be a waymaker. As Katrice Albert advised, speak to middle and high school students and other young people in under-resourced communities about college options that lead to careers in athletics communication. 2. Use your influence. Invite a student-athlete struggling with career exploration. Be a mentor. Open doors that were opened for you. Suggest ways in your department to expand your job searches. 3. Reach out to individuals who are not your mirror image. Widen that net on who you are calling and asking who the talented people are who can fit into a job. 4. Seek to understand your personal biases. Value opportunities to obtain greater awareness and knowledge on different perspectives. Promote people who are advancing athletic department and university objectives. 5. Keep service to your student-athletes front and center. Student-athletes are as diverse a population as there is. When young people see role models that “look like them” — especially in leadership positions — they see it’s possible to achieve.

David Boyce is a sports writer who worked from 1988 to 2009 at the Kansas City Star covering preps, small colleges and the Kansas City Royals. More recently, Boyce covered Northwest Missouri State athletics for its website, and currently writes sports stories for the MIAA, an NCAA Division II conference in the Midwest.