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• Past CoSIDA 25-Year Award Recipients

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Michael "Mex" Carey – Michigan State University, Associate Director of Athletic Communications
2019 CoSIDA 25-Year Award recipient

by Gene Wong, Sports Reporter, The Washington Post

The email from Mex Carey landed in my inbox around 12:30 a.m., because, for anyone who knows him well, late-night/early-morning hours are when the Michigan State associate director of athletic communications prefers to get things done.           
 
I learned this unequivocally during my years spent covering Georgetown at the Big East tournament in New York City. I'd often hear from Mex, for years the Hoyas men's basketball SID, at 2 or 3 in the morning making sure I didn't have any questions for my story and that I was all set for the next game.
 
In any case, this time, Mex was asking if I could write a short profile in recognition of the 25-Year Award he would be receiving from CoSIDA at the convention in Orlando in June.
 
"It's a pretty overwhelming and humbling feeling to get recognized by CoSIDA," Mex wrote. "I still remember when I got my start as a student as St. Bonaventure and how I really felt this was what I wanted to do for as long as I could." 
 
The profession is lucky to have him. And truth is, there aren't many in any industry as diligent or as caring as Mex. 
 
 
Beloved by his peers in athletic communications, and serving the good of the organization by being a member of CoSIDA's Convention Programming Committee, Mex also is greatly respected by all of the writers, television and radio announcers and producers who have worked with him in his two-and-a-half decades of athletic communications. "I've had the opportunity to work with some terrific coaches and student-athletes, but I really admire the work done by my colleagues in this business," Mex wrote. "I've made some wonderful relationships, life-long friends, and I wouldn't trade the hours or weekends for any other job."
 
The indelible image I'll have of Mex is from August 2011 during an ill-fated trip to Beijing with the Georgetown men's basketball team, which was scheduled to face two teams from China in exhibition games intended to promote goodwill.
 
Instead, in the second of those games against the Bayi Rockets, a professional team sponsored by the People's Liberation Army, a benches-clearing brawl erupted in the second half. Then-Hoyas coach John Thompson III elected to pull his players off the court and leave the arena for safety precautions.
 
It was the right decision, given spectators had stormed out of the stands and run onto the court to join the fracas. Some even tossed full water bottles at Georgetown players and staff as they attempted to exit through the tunnel and into the locker room to retrieve their belongings.
 
During the most heated moments of the fight, Mex was on the court trying to play peacemaker, even protecting Mikael Hopkins, a Georgetown freshman forward, from Bayi players.
 
As soon as Georgetown boarded the team bus, discussions began among those in the traveling delegation, including Mex, about how best to handle this unprecedented situation that in a matter of hours was certain to make international headlines.
 
Despite video clips being shown on all the national morning talk shows in the United States, tensions calmed after the incident. There were no serious injuries. Coaches and player representatives from both teams worked together to discuss methods of reconciliation.
 
Carey’s professionalism during that unforgettable time was greatly appreciated as well, particularly from western media covering the event. He even allowed a crew from ABC's "Good Morning America" to use his hotel room to tape an interview with a Washington Post reporter about the melee.
 
Yet as devoted as he is to the field of athletic communications, Mex has plenty of outside interests about which he's equally as passionate.
 
He loves the Boston Red Sox, the Bonnies and Bruce Springsteen, in no particular order. Not sure who among those three Mex has seen play more often, but I do recall him driving to New York to catch a Springsteen rehearsal in a small venue in front of only a few hundred people.
 
No cell phones were allowed, Carey revealed, but that show had to be one of the greatest entertainment experiences of his life.
 
The enjoyment Mex gets from Bruce or the Red Sox or the Bonnies, however, remains far down the list when compared to watching his daughter, Meghan, sing on stage. She's going to be a huge star probably in the near future, and Mex and his wife, Cassie, will be cheering her on from the front row. 
 
Even if it means driving from East Lansing, Mich., to New York City or wherever else Meghan may be performing.
 
"It's been hard being away and separated from my daughter during her last two years in high school, and we knew that was going to be a challenge," Mex said. "Whether it's seeing her in person or having my wife or friends texting me clips of her performances, there's nothing in my life I'm more proud of than seeing her perform and seeing her do something that she really loves.
 
"Pretty much every time I watch her, I tear up because it amazes me how talented she is. She clearly didn't get that from her father."