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Note: This story appeared in the Fall 2020 November edition of CoSIDA 360 Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.
Sports Supervisors
Athletics communicators show versatility and value by adding sports supervision responsibilities.
by Laurie Bollig – CoSIDA Director of Membership Engagement @LaurieBollig
Ten years ago, Zach Greenwell was a student at Western Kentucky University and sports editor for the
College Heights Herald newspaper. He was working with sports information contact Todd Stewart on media availability for the football team.
Today, Greenwell is the associate athletic director for communications at WKU and recently added sport supervision for the men’s basketball team to his duties and his title. Stewart is his boss, the director of athletics.
Eight years ago, Emily Dorko was wrapping up a career as a student-athlete at Adelphi, where she played volleyball for coach Danielle MacKnight.
Today, Dorko is the associate athletic director for external relations and senior woman administrator for the Panthers and the sport supervisor for women’s volleyball. MacKnight reports to her.
Life comes at you fast.
Both Greenwell and Dorko are examples of athletics communicators who have added supervisory responsibilities for one or multiple sports to their already-lengthy list of communications and media relations duties.
Dorko supervises cross country, track and field, baseball and volleyball — eight separate programs and three coaches. Her duties include overseeing budgets, making sure they are engaging with alumni and conducting end-of-season exit interviews with senior student-athletes.
While Greenwell oversees one sport — the men’s basketball program — he’s tasked with the same duties as Dorko and also concentrates on scheduling for the Hilltoppers.
Greenwell said his move into the sport supervisor role was a natural progression, one that gave him more credibility to do jobs he was already doing for the program. For four years, he did his sports information job and did it well, proving to be trustworthy and reliable. So reliable that when college basketball moved from the RPI to the NET, Greenwell was running a lot of metrics and analytics. His understanding of the scheduling process meant he was suited to take over that responsibility.
“Scheduling is the best example I can give,” Greenwell said. “It’s a little harder for me to get a foot in the door when I say I’m an SID and I want to schedule. Todd (Stewart) has a lot on his plate right now and some of these things are things I’m already doing. Making it official gives me some tools to be taken more seriously.”
Dorko also credits her athletic director, Danny McCabe, with crafting a job description that combined the roles of communications, senior woman administrator and sport supervisor into an associate AD position she interviewed for and got upon returning to Adelphi in 2017.
“Danny does a good job empowering younger members in our department by giving them smaller teams to oversee.”
Greenwell said the idea of moving into upper level administration never really crossed his mind as he was moving from a newspaper reporter to the SID at WKU.
“I was just so happy to be an SID,” he said.
Zach Greenwell (left) pregame at a game in Diddle Arena with Director of Basketball Operations Talvis Franklin (center) and Associate Director of Operations Martin Cross (right).
Happy to do his job and do it well. Along the way he fostered relationships and became that go-to guy Stewart could count on.
“You need to be really good at your job, build relationships and be that person someone else relies on before you can look for the next job,” Greenwell said. “Be the most dependable person and reliable person in the room — that makes people have trust in you.
“A lot of SIDs have the abilities to move up; there’s a little bit of a stigma that is a hard hurdle to get over. I would love for that to open more,” Greenwell said.
Greenwell credits having a boss in Stewart who comes from the communications background and is “deeply entrenched in our profession and values what we do.”
Greenwell also credited University of Louisville senior associate AD Kenny Klein and current DePaul University AD DeWayne Peevy, formerly at the University of Kentucky, as people who helped him grow in the profession.
“They are two people who are role models and showed me that this job could be more than just media relations and communications,” Greenwell said. “They are perfect examples of how doing your job leads to more responsibility."
In Division II, it’s not uncommon for SIDs to wear different hats. Dorko knew what she was getting into when she took the job in 2017 and would have to fit sport supervision duties into a jammed packed to-do list.
“It’s a daily struggle but it’s also an opportunity for me to work hand-in-hand with our coaches. This just allows me to dive a little more into a program, understanding the pressures a head coach might face internally. Being there to support them is rewarding,” Dorko said.
Despite the extra duties, both Dorko and Greenwell say that being a sport supervisor has made them better SIDs.
“I like to think of myself in this role — and as the SWA — I really try my hardest to get to know each one of these athletes. I really enjoy getting to know them. I enjoy being able to walk across campus and call them by their first name,” Dorko said.
In addition, being front and center with coaches and student-athletes in different capacities allows Dorko to build relationships that help her with storytelling.
“I’m really trying to let them know that we are here to tell their story. I hope that makes me a better SID.”
Dorko’s relationship with MacKnight began when Dorko was on the volleyball team from 2009-12.
“When I came back in 2017, I was 26 and still young. I kind of had to figure out exactly what flipping the script meant. What role I would play; how I would support her. It’s been fun figuring out the best ways for us to communicate and tackle issues she might have.”
From MacKnight’s perspective, “flipping the script” hasn’t changed their relationship.
“I’ve always respected Emily as a person and a player when she was a student-athlete. Now it is nice to have her around the office to bounce ideas off of,” MacKnight said. “She is a very organized person and being a dual student-athlete (Dorko also played softball) with a high GPA can contribute to that. She stays on top of me so I don’t miss a deadline and I very much appreciate that!
“Emily was always a very competitive person. When she puts her mind to something she will work hard to achieve it. I think she has done a great job with her career moves after graduating,” MacKnight added.
Greenwell estimates in a normal year, he spends 70 percent of his time on communications duties and 30 percent in sport supervision.
“I’m very comfortable with the pulse of the basketball program. I’m involved in just about everything they do. I have better context as an SID. I feel like I’m never caught off guard with anything that goes on in the program. I’m better equipped to speak for the program. This informs my job a little better to where there are not a lot of surprises.”
Being in alignment with the athletic director is important to the success of any sport supervisor. You have to balance what your AD wants and needs with what your coach wants and needs. You need to be able to take some things off the AD’s plate and off the coach’s plate. Having a good relationship with both, according to Greenwell, is the sign of a good sport supervisor.
Dorko agrees.
“When we work collaboratively on an issue it could eventually benefit the entire department. Teamwork makes the dream work. It’s cliché but it’s bound to happen when coaches have similar issues when you are on the same campus. We stress working together; coming up with creative solutions that might benefit all of us is really important.”
Emilo Dorko (left) with with Executive Director of Alumni Relations Jodie Sperico (center) and Associate Director of Alumni Relations Katie Grant (right).
Stewart was looking for efficiencies when he promoted Greenwell.
“He helps me tremendously with scheduling and in being a liaison between not only me and men’s basketball but also between our other administrative departments and the basketball program,” Stewart said. “This enables us to be more efficient while also enabling me to use my time in more areas."
Dorko wants the coaches she supervises to know they have her as a sounding board and as someone who can help them.
“I always stress that I want to keep the lines of communication open, to keep me in the loop so I can be ready to help them. We try to stress the student-athlete experience as the main priority, letting them know that we are here to help them. They don’t have to do anything on their own.”
Greenwell would like to see more athletics communicators stretch themselves and find more ways to add value to their departments.
“It’s surprising to me that more SIDs aren’t administrators. We are involved in every possible dynamic more than anyone else,” Greenwell said. “All of that is relationships. Communications is the perfect field for sport supervision. So much of this is communications and relationships.”
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