Ali Paquette, Middlebury University assistant director of athletic communications, has earned the 2020 Winter Division III and D3SIDA Recognition Award for outstanding storytelling.
The NCAA Division III and D3SIDA recognition award is a partnership between the Division III governance staff and the Division III College Sports Information Directors of America (D3SIDA) to recognize the best work by athletics communication directors - including news releases, feature articles, videos, blogs and other materials - portraying the Division III identity and student-athlete experience.
Each top honoree receives a $1,500 credit to attend Division III Day at the annual CoSIDA convention. This year, the
#CoSIDA2020 Convention takes place June 7-10 at Mandalay Bay Resort and Conference Center in Las Vegas.
Paquette’s winning entry was produced while she was a staff member at Wesleyan University. It was an
Adobe Spark feature as she chronicled the Wesleyan women’s tennis team’s run to the 2019 NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis National Championship title last spring.
She returned to the Middlebury staff in January as assistant director of athletic communications after serving in a similar role at Wesleyan for one and a half years. Paquette had joined the Wesleyan staff in the fall of 2018 after serving as the Middlebury athletic communications intern for two years.
The Division III and D3SIDA Recognition Award program is part of the Division III Identity Initiative. A panel of D3SIDA members select the recipients each fall, winter and spring, with winners publicized through NCAA.org and social media platforms. See more information on this NCAA Division III program
here.
The two winners prior to Paquette’s winning entry were Spring 2019 honoree Timothy Farrell, University Athletic Association Conference Sports Information Director (
Rochester Men’s Tennis: Diversity on an International Level) and Fall 2019 honoree Brad Nadeau, Middlebury Director of Athletic Communications (
Calling the Shots: Chloe Levins ‘20).