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Past CoSIDA Achievement Award Recipients
Jill Guise – Johns Hopkins University, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications
2019 CoSIDA Achievement Award - College Division recipient
by Ira Thor, New Jersey City University, Director of Athletic Communications and Marketing
Jill Olsen Guise doesn’t know when she became a foodie.
“It’s a way for me to unwind. I love baking things and giving back to people. I like making people happy and baking is a way to give. Scott [her husband] says I should open a bakery. But with what free time?”
Her love of baking is exceeded only by her love for her coaches and student athletes at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University and for her husband, Scott Guise, the Director of Athletic Communications at York College (Pa.) for the last 24 years, with whom she has formed the “first couple” of ECAC-SIDA.
“I see how hard she works,” said Scott Guise. “We know how hard everyone in our industry works but when you see it in your spouse, it’s special. She’s so dedicated to her kids, her coaches.”
Her exceptional work has not gone unnoticed. Jill Guise, the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications at Johns Hopkins since 2005 is the 2019 winner of the CoSIDA Achievement Award in the College Division, presented annually to one associate or assistant media relations director with 10 or more years of experience in the profession who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college sports information and provided exceptional service to their institution or conference office. Guise is the fifth winner in the award’s history.
Jill, Scott, Carly and Shane Guise at Christmas 2018.
“Jill Guise does her job very well, but more importantly, she does it with incredible passion,” complemented Josh Loeffler, the head men’s basketball coach at Johns Hopkins. “Jill takes incredible pride in her work and cares deeply about the teams and games she covers. We should all be so lucky to work with someone who blends professionalism and a love for her job as well as Jill.”
In her 14 years with the Blue Jays, Guise has hosted numerous Centennial Conference and NCAA Tournament events as well as promoted 37 CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-America honorees, 47 conference champions and 25 individual national champions, while annually dominating the CoSIDA Academic All-District 2 awards. Her 2019 baseball team finished as national semifinalists.
“The quality of her work is so good,” said her doting husband of why Guise is deserving of this year’s CoSIDA honor. “She’s a really smart person. Intelligence pinged with passion is a pretty powerful thing. Her passion and her loyalty set her apart. She is very proud to work at Hopkins and the people she works with and how hard they work. It motivates her to give her best to all the people she serves. There are plenty of times she wants to put down her laptop and go to bed, but she gives her best to every one of those kids, whether it’s a first line lacrosse attacker or a No. 6 tennis singles player. They are all important to her. It’s a very admirable trait.”
Jill Guise’s career recipe originally didn’t have any athletics ingredients sprinkled in. She attended the University of South Carolina, majoring in archeology and wanted to be a forensic anthropologist. After graduating, she was working as a contract archeologist—someone who surveys the land to make sure you’re not disturbing anything with archeological significance. She hated it.
“After a few months, I thought ‘this is not why I went to school. What do I want to do? What do I enjoy doing?’ I started looking at going back to school.”
Guise moved back with her parents in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she had played soccer in high school and handled stats for boys soccer and basketball as a teenager. Quite by chance, and with a hand in the kitchen from her grandfather, an avid golfer, she found her new path.
Her grandfather played in a golf league run by the then SID at North Carolina State, who was wearing an NC State hat. A conversation with him led to a job interview for Guise and a graduate assistant position as she returned to school for a master’s degree in sport management. By year two she was the primary contact for women’s soccer and did an internship with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes in 2002. She had plans to be the team’s gameday intern that fall but a week before the regular season started, the Hurricanes’ media relations assistant left and she was asked to fill that role on an interim basis.
“That solidified for me that this [profession] is what I wanted to do,” Guise recalled.
After graduating from NC State in 2003, she landed her first full-time job in college athletics as the Associate Director of Sports Information at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., working with the legendary Wally Johnson. The Saints sponsor 32 varsity sports and Guise was responsible for 15 of them, including football and Division I women’s ice hockey. She covered two NCAA Frozen Fours in her two and a half years working there.
“At the start of my third year, I was ready to go,” Guise said. “Canton is a very small town and my family was 14 hours away.”
Another athletic communications legend, Dennis O’Donnell from Rochester, told her about a position at John Hopkins in early December 2005. Ernie Larossa, now the Associate AD/Athletic Communications at Hopkins, called her for an interview. Guise interviewed with the athletic director and head women’s lacrosse coach, and didn’t meet Ernie until her first day on the job in February 2006. Together, they’ve formed one of the great offices in Division III for more than a decade.
“Jill came highly recommended by Wally Johnson,” Larossa recalled. “There were many similarities between Johns Hopkins and St. Lawrence. Both are multi-divisional schools with a high number of athletic programs and a similar-sized staff. She also checked off what I consider to be the most important box when filling a position: was she someone that I felt comfortable representing Johns Hopkins University? The answer to that was yes.”
Guise, who twice been recognized by the Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division as the Men’s SID of the Year, has never left. She only thought about leaving once, when a position at Army West Point opened and she was considered for the role, but ultimately stayed in Baltimore.
“If I’m not willing to leave to work for Bob Beretta [Army’s current Senior Associate AD], I’m probably never leaving Hopkins,” Guise admitted. “Ernie is my boss, but he doesn’t make it feel like he’s my boss. Ernie has always been a great proponent of taking time for yourself and your family; he has three kids himself. The work will always be there. It is way less stressful working for and with someone who understands that. I know I’m pretty lucky that way.”
When asked what it is about Johns Hopkins that continues to draw her, Guise noted: “I’m a very competitive person and our teams are good. It’s crazy during crossover periods. You’re stressed and sleep-deprived, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We have great students and great athletes and when you look at their resumes—getting to work with kids like that every day makes me want to come to work.”
“Ernie and I take a lot of pride when our kids earn Academic All-America honors,” Guise continued. “There’s a display in our lobby that has all the Academic All-America plaques. It’s a point of pride for us.”
Guise’s competitive nature carries over into her marriage, where she is the reigning and undisputed champion of the GUISE BOWL as Hopkins got the better of York (Pa.) in their 2019 matchups in volleyball, field hockey, soccer, wrestling and men’s and women’s basketball.
The couple, who had previously worked together as professional opponents in soccer and basketball, eventually became really good friends and realized they were a natural fit. Married in December 2012, they are the parents of children Carly (18) and Shane (15). They make their home midway between Baltimore and York, Pa.
“We joke around that we would never want to work together, because we just do things so differently,” Scott Guise said. “We do great as a couple but people say ‘wouldn’t you like to work together’ and I say no. We are two very different people in how we do our jobs.”
While they won’t be sharing an office anytime soon, they do help one another at home events when time allows, stating a basketball game or taking pictures. And through the ECAC-SIDA organization, which Jill Guise has volunteered as the secretary for since 2008, the couple co-hosted the organization’s workshop in 2016 in Lancaster, Pa.
“It’s strange when you have someone who understands what we do, especially in our industry,” noted Scott Guise about being married to a SID. “The uncommon work hours, the responsibilities. It’s nice to have someone as a spouse who truly understands.”
Jill Guise echoed her husband’s thoughts.
“It’s nice to be married to someone who understands what you do and why you love what you do, the hours we do it and the time we have to be away from home. It’s nice to have someone who understands that sometimes you have to miss family things and don’t begrudge you.”
Noting how humbling it is to win the CoSIDA Achievement Award, Guise said: “To get recognition from your peers, I can’t be thankful enough. I come to work every day and do my job. I drive an hour every day and there’s a reason I do that. I love where I work. I’ve gotten congratulations from parents and former athletes and even hand-written notes. It feels weird to be on this side of the award process. I’m incredibly thankful.”
On the menu of college athletics, athletic communications is the buffet and the award-winning Jill Olsen Guise has baked the perfect recipe for success in our industry.