Related Content
•
CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Magazine Archive
Note: This story appeared in the Fall 2020 November edition of CoSIDA 360 Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.
2YSIDA Finding Its CoSIDA Footing
Where we are and where we're going.
by Roy Allen – Florida Southwestern State College, Sports Information Director @RoyAllenFSW
For years, CoSIDA veterans like Wayne Block, Fred Baer, and Tyler Cundith walked around convention center halls across the country year after year for the annual CoSIDA Convention without a place to go on the much anticipated ‘Divisional Day.’ They were two-year SIDs, ‘JUCO’ if you will, sometimes overlooked alongside the large Division I staffs from schools that they so often sent their players onto. That all changed in 2014 when a few of those two-year SIDs convened in a back room of the North Tower at the Orlando World Center Marriott, putting their heads together to form 2YSIDA (Two-Year Sports Information Directors of America), a group that has quadrupled in size and more than that in action in its first six years of existence.
Today, 2YSIDA is well represented all across CoSIDA. A cabinet made up of members from all three factions of two-year athletics in the United States (NJCAA, CCCAA, and NWAC) was formed this year, representing institutions from California and Oregon on the West Coast, across the heart of the Midwest, and all the way to the deep South in Mississippi and to the East in the Big Apple. Mike Robles, who works as a one-man shop as the director of sports information and communications in the 100-plus school CCCAA, is on the CoSIDA Board of Directors in 2020. 2YSIDA President Kevin Maloney of Jones College in Mississippi continues to serve on a number of CoSIDA committees including Publications, Goodwill and Wellness, and the Mentorship Program. Candice Kelm, a founding member of 2YSIDA from McLennan CC in Texas serves as the National Coordinator for the College Division of the Academic All-America® program and works on the Advocacy and WoSIDA Steering committees. The moral of the story; while their institution’s name may not ring a bell immediately, you likely have a 2YSIDA member working hard next to you on one of your CoSIDA committees.
2YSIDA members meeting at the #CoSIDA19 Convention in Orlando.
In 2019, after years of hard work and back and forth communication with CoSIDA execs, 2YSIDA had a huge breakthrough when the Academic All-America committee established a College Division for the award. Up until that point, two-year college sophomores had to compete for AAA accolades with upperclassmen, or even graduate students from four-year schools, making it difficult, if not nearly impossible for them to ever earn the honors. After a successful inaugural year for the College Division awards in 2019, 2020 brought over 300 nominees for the 20 at-large AAA spots with student-athletes from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and Monroe College earning AAA Team member of the year awards. 2YSIDA brass hopes to eventually see the award process mirror that of the Divisions I, II and III, and NAIA levels to include Academic All-District awards before ultimately selecting Academic All-America teams in each sport once participation from two-year members warrant it.
The future is bright for the 2YSIDA group. In just six years, the organization went from non-existent, to kicking off the 2020 CoSIDA Convention with over 50 members on its Divisional Day Zoom call. Now convening on monthly calls, the group has projects in the works that include its own publications contest, naming a Sports Information Department of the Year, as well as providing a convention grant specifically designed for a two-year member.
If you are a two-year SID interested in joining 2YSIDA or would like more information about the group, contact President Kevin Maloney at kevin.maloney@jcjc.edu or Treasurer Candice Kelm at ckelm@mclennan.edu.
Talk about these stories on the
CoSIDA Slack Community.