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• CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Magazine Archive

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Note: This story appeared in the Winter 2021 February edition of CoSIDA 360 Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here. 

Also read:

• The People Are the Best Part, by Sarah Fetters
• Other Duties as Assigned, by Danielle Potts
• Writing Well for Storytelling Success, by David Kiefer

Cover Story

Storytelling During a Pandemic

Athletics communicators have showcased their talent, versatility and creativity despite limited or no games, shrinking budgets and difficult circumstances.

by Rob Knox – UNC Greensboro, Associate Athletic Director of Strategic Communications / CoSIDA Past President

Veteran Bethune-Cookman athletic communicator Dan Ryan didn’t let anything stop him from sharing the accomplishments of volleyball student-athlete Miranda White. Working from home. During a global pandemic.

He incessantly emailed media members and spent lots of time calling television stations to get White’s impressive academic research on the air.

“She had her appearance in front of a Capitol Hill committee presenting her scientific research wiped out,” Ryan recalled. “The story evolved from that moment into a review of her work and what she plans to do. To this day, I still have no idea what a Bayesian Conditional Probabilistic Model is, but readers on the NCAA website, social media platforms, and viewers of a local TV station learned plenty about her and her research. When was the last time you had a volleyball player get TV time? It’s in the top three placements of my SID career.”

Throughout the tsunami of unprecedented events over the last nine months — which included the crippling COVID-19 pandemic, the calls for social reform following the deaths of unarmed African-Americans Breonna Taylor and George Floyd to the hands of police brutality, and a divisive political environment that left many in tears, frustrated, hurt and sad — athletic communicators were vital cogs and beacons of light in their respective departments.

Without the steady and comforting rhythm of games to chronicle along with the soothing flurry of gameday activity, athletic communicators — regardless of budgets, resources, and the size of the school — showcased their talent, versatility, and creativity in the face of unprecedented and tumultuous times.

While storytelling during a pandemic had its share of challenges, many athletic communicators were happy and satisfied that their words, videos, and photos provided the beauty, power, and significance of a poignant story. The stories proved to be calming and captivating for sports fans.
 

Beacons of Light
Student-athletes already rocked from the sudden end to the winter and spring sport seasons needed an outlet. Athletic communicators provided it.

Athletic administrators looked for assistance with crafting and proofreading statements condemning the social injustices across the country. Athletic communicators were in the trenches.

“It was very important to amplify our students’ voices through all of the initiatives we launched at Maryland, online, in our magazine, and the media,” said University of Maryland associate athletic director and strategic communications officer Jason Yellin, who had a national public service announcement that aired on ESPN about ending racism. “We provided a platform for them to stand up for themselves and take a stand on the most important election of our time. They were able to express their opinions in a safe space.”

Athletic communicators humanized their student-athletes. They educated fans and provided stakeholders with fresh, engaging, and quality content that connected generations.

The passionate stories inspired resilience, optimism, hope, faith, and love while highlighting memorable moments and providing authentic emotion.

Feature stories, video highlights, contests, Zoom interviews with participants who played in classic games that re-aired on television or social media, and social posts gave fans something encouraging in which to look forward.

“We took a step back to analyze what was happening when COVID shut down the world of athletics and tried to figure out what we needed to do to keep our fans engaged,” Alabama State sports information director Travis Jarome said.

“We took a new stance, one that has always been there but made us look harder — what do the fans want and how would they want to see it? Aside from all the social media pieces, we did with old videos and audio clips, and new graphics, we refreshed how we told our stories.”

A New Normal
As the sun rose and unfurled soft promises on the day after the stunning announcement that the NBA was suspending its season following the positive COVID test of Rudy Gobert, athletic communicators were wary something major could be happening.

Yet, while that possibility hung over their heads on Thursday, March 13, they went about the business of preparing for their games.

• Making sure starting line-up graphics were published on social.
• Delivering final nuggets of information to broadcasters.
• Checking to make sure live stat links worked correctly.
• Eating fruit, eggs, and pancakes at team meals.

Former Towson assistant director of media relations Nicole Curtin remembers being in the bathroom, straightening her hair, and getting ready to fill her water bottle because the Tigers were scheduled to play an afternoon quarterfinal game in the Colonial Athletic Association women’s tournament at Elon.

That’s when she received the official, but expected, news: tournament canceled.

Before figuring out content strategy, Curtin scrambled to pack and clean her room. She boarded the bus for the six-hour ride back to Towson and responded to the buzzing flurry of messages on her phone from media members. She arranged an interview with head women’s basketball coach Diane Richardson on the side of the highway over FaceTime with a television station when the team stopped at Walmart to get water.
 

The strangeness was just starting for athletic communicators across the country especially after the NCAA canceled the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments — days before selections.

Yellin was temporarily stranded in Indianapolis.

Assisting at the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, he was scheduled to fly back to College Park with the team when its time in Indianapolis concluded.

The Terps never took off. Yellin moderated a press conference with Commissioner Kevin Warren while answering pandemic-related questions he had no answers for and trying to figure out how he could get home.

“I stayed an extra day in Indianapolis and started asking people for rides to Chicago since it was three hours from Indianapolis,” Yellin recalled. “Eventually, I was able to ride back to Chicago with Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune. I called my wife and asked if she could pick me up on the side of the highway and take me home. All I had was my five suits and casual clothes. I was happy to see my family and kids, but the dynamic was weird.”

Instead of the traditional “One Shining Moment” montage airing after the tournament, athletic communicators made sure their student-athletes had shining moments to cherish.

There was no shortage of content ideas.

There were stories written about former student-athletes who were working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and student-athlete protests across the country. Learning more about their backgrounds, and seeing their increased civic engagement took center stage during the summer.

Tidbits from articles and student-athlete bios were repurposed and transformed into quality social posts.

Stories were shared across every platform possible: Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Snapchat. There were infographics celebrating seniors, memorable moments, and video highlights that kept fans entertained.

“It gave me a new perspective of storytelling,” Jarome said. “I would say fun was one word to describe it, but I also found myself being investigative. I wanted to make sure to tell the story the right way, and, after six months of working on one story, we are close to releasing it. It’s always fun to tell the stories of those who are here. I’ve always said if we don’t have student-athletes, coaches, or administrators and stories to tell then what are we doing?”
 

Voices of Change
Athletics communicators were a critical link in helping to bring meaningful change, positively amplifying voices, and raising awareness of issues that were important to student-athletes.

Without games, administrators across the country learned that skill sets of athletic communicators are diverse and go way beyond stating games, keeping historical records, and writing recaps. The student-athletes — the heartbeat of any athletics department — were the beneficiaries.

Athletic communicators enthusiastically embraced the opportunity they had to teach, learn, and impact others.

Former University of Kansas assistant director of athletic communications Kiaira Cooper participated in a social justice march with the Kansas women’s basketball team.
 

“We are here to help guide them as they’re still trying to figure out life,” Cooper said. “Every experience is a learning one. I believe this season in their lives was big because they saw that their voices do matter. I learned that my voice matters in a huge way. My job is about more than that and I saw that when those young women marched on campus.”

They led with empathy and humanity during uncertain times and relied on one another in the profession for support.

“I also learned that there are a host of people from all ethnicities and backgrounds in our SID family that wake up every day and decide to be the change instead of talking about it or denying that there’s a need for change,” second-year Elizabeth City State sports information director Shalyn Moore said. “It taught me that I was going to make the intentional effort to be the change with them.”

 
Towson unveiled an “In Her Words” series in which volleyball athletes shared deeply personal stories of how social injustice impacted them.

Middlebury College athletics welcomed uncomfortable, authentic conversations into the everyday lives of their community with a transformational series titled, “Leaning Into Discomfort.” The goal was normalizing talking about aspects of identity such as race, sexual orientation, gender, and ability.

The University Athletic Association (UAA) had a series called “Conversations on Race and Racism.”

New York University released a series called “Violets Using Their Voices.” It was a Zoom interview with a student-athlete and department personnel each week where topics like social justice, racism, voting, and gender equity were featured.

“My series (entitled ‘Pitching In’), writing about what athletic department staff members and coaches were doing since we weren’t tending to games and events was well-received by university administration,” NYU’s Jeff Bernstein said. “Presenting the versatility of department personnel (handing out COVID Tests, working with students in quarantine, etc.) opened some eyes.”

Jarome started two new programs called “Hornet Nation Unfiltered” and “Unplugged.” It was a platform where former student-athletes, current coaches, and administrators told their stories of Alabama State.
 

As part of its “Impact of a Scholarship” series, Maryland focused on former student-athletes in the medical field.

“These stories also allowed us to connect with our development unit, the Terrapin Club, knowing the impact communication can have in leading to a major gift or reconnection with an alum,” Yellin said. “We ran a campaign called “More than the Score” — what it says, during these times, it’s more than the score.”

At Elizabeth City State, its “My ECSU Stories” compilation was meaningful for Moore.

“It was very imperative to provide the student-athletes with a platform to advocate for themselves and spread awareness throughout this year’s social justice reform movements and the election,” Moore said. “We pride ourselves on providing a campus and conference culture that promotes diversity and inclusion, so that must reflect in the dialogue, development, and support our athletic programs deliver. As an athletic communicator, it showed me that it was of the utmost importance to me that our student-athletes didn’t feel silenced or divided.”

Super Bowl Winners and Babe Ruth
At the conference level, the challenges were even greater since they weren’t on a specific campus. Sammi Wellman, director of communications of the Cascade Collegiate Conference, was happy that some of the ideas she had manifested themselves. One of the ideas she excellently executed on was doing stories on families within the conference like fathers coaching daughters, sisters on the same team, and siblings at the same school.
 

“We wanted to keep things active and not have the sad news of things being canceled the only thing people saw on our website,” Wellman said. “It allowed us to do more features on current and former athletes that we might not always be able to do at the conference level. It was fun to see how many family connections a lot of our schools had — we had a lot.”

Jarome spoke with Super Bowl winners Reggie Barlow (Tampa Bay) and Michael Coe (New York Giants) as part of his podcast series highlighting Hornet alums. He also talked with Eddie Robinson, who played in Super Bowl XXXIV for the Titans against the Rams.

Ryan’s decision to focus on former Negro Leaguer Ted Trent, a Bethune-Cookman graduate, was a success. He told the story through the lens of the student-athletes, which was picked up by The Athletic’s Joe Posnanski. Trent was one of the Negro League’s best pitchers and preceded Cy Young by about 20 years.

“We were able to reach deep into the archives to pull out some great stories and photos from as far back as the late 1800s,” Slippery Rock director of athletics communications Holtz said. “We found some good photos of a former Slippery Rock pitcher with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in their Yankees uniforms from the 1920s that gave us some great assets to include with a feature about former SRU baseball players that won World Series titles.

“We found some incredible photos of former SRU athletes that left school to serve in World War II for a feature about the last time sports were suspended on campus and how the war impacted SRU athletics.”
 

Learning Opportunities
Getting student-athletes to earn their trust to share a deeply personal story wasn’t easy.

“It was hard because you had to get to know the subject so that they would trust you to tell their story,” Cooper said. “It still is, to be frank. My philosophy is authenticity when it comes not only to tell a story but allowing others to tell me that they aren’t feeling an idea (it doesn’t fit them). For me, it is quality over quantity, and taking the time to truly tell someone’s story.

“Some of the things we wrote about were meant to be self-reflective as well as helping them understand the subject on a more personal level.”

Since most of the work was done remotely, scheduling interviews were an obstacle. Traditional face-to-face interviews were replaced with text and email exchanges as well as through Zoom calls.

“I learned that it’s important to allow our students to have the freedom to express themselves and feel good about doing it,” Yellin said. “It was empowering for me to see them be so vocal and front and center on campus, in the Washington Post, on umterps.com. It meant a lot to me. Our stories, very often, are bringing happiness and warmth to our supporters.”

Not playing games offered an opportunity for growth for many athletics communicators. Creativity was inspired by participating in many professional development webinars, listening to motivational podcasts, focusing on fitness goals, and reading books.

“I learned to be more versatile and look at a bigger picture than wins and losses,” Bernstein said. “As an ‘old school’ guy, I was glad to see writing become a bit more prominent than it has been lately. It has been, is, and always will be about the student-athlete. Having sports taken away from them was devastating. The only thing we could try to do to help fill the gap was to allow them to speak their minds, to learn what they were feeling and how we could help.”

In the immediate aftermath of the stunning shutdown, many athletic communicators focused on their spring sport senior student-athletes, creating virtual senior days on social media with infographics, creative content, and videos. There were season recaps presented dynamically through SIDEARM’s narrator platform or on Adobe Spark.

‘A Guaranteed W’
While the games ceased, athletic communicators enjoyed the opportunity to tell motivational stories. Many found it encouraging when athletic administrators shared the stories on their own social media platforms.

“Never underestimate the joy of having the administration like your social media posts,” Ryan said.

Communication with administrators during the pandemic was generally strong. Feature stories were shared on university platforms such as daily campus update emails, weekly blasts, and on various social media channels. CCC Commissioner Robert Cashell was proactive in assisting with content ideas. He also encouraged people within the conference to submit content.

“I think being able to write these features showed how unique our conference is and brought some people to follow us that might not normally once they knew more about families at their schools or within their communities,” Wellman said.

According to metrics from several athletic communicators, fans spent more time than usual on pages reading stories. Views increased on YouTube. Twitter engagement intensified. Instagram followers grew.

First-person stories of perseverance, spirit, and success made a lasting impression.

“The intensity of competition is missed as more and more time goes by,” Moore said. “However, I thoroughly enjoy producing feature stories and content. It allows our student-athletes and staff to shine beyond competition. I got to highlight character, classroom, and community success. More importantly, the work I produced in athletics complemented the mission of the university. There’s always a guaranteed W at the end of a feature.”

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