College Sports Information Directors of America

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Jay Stancil – Union (Ky.), Director of Strategic Sports Communications

Warren Berg Award
Presented annually to a CoSIDA college division (NCAA DII, DIII, NAIA, Two-year Colleges, and Canadian/U Sports) member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college sports information, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession. Voted on by the Special Awards Committee. (Note: Nominees can be an active or retired member.)

by Blake Timm – Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Assistant Commissioner For Communications

Jay Stancil believes in leaving things better than he found them.
 
“I love seeing people succeed and do well. If I can play a small role in that happening, that thrills me,” noted Stancil.
 
It is an attitude that not only permeates the work that Stancil does for Union College in Corbin, Kentucky and for the Appalachian Athletic Conference but also in the leadership he has provided in his two decades in the profession.
 
The selection of Stancil as the 2022 recipient of the Warren Berg Award, awarded to a CoSIDA member in the college division who has brought dignity and prestige to the profession, is a testament to his goal to leave everything he touches just a little bit better.
 
 
In fact, it is his leadership by example that has made him just the second communications professional from the NAIA ranks to receive the Berg Award. The first was current CoSIDA president Cindy Potter, someone that considers Stancil a trusted mentor.
 
“Jay is not only a wealth of knowledge about the NAIA, but he is an advocate and ambassador for the organization,” Potter said. “He has taught me, as well as so many others, so much about athletic communications but even more about life.”
 
“Jay has been instrumental in bringing the visibility of the NAIA to a greater audience and is a vocal leader for the over 250 athletic communications professionals in our division,” said Oregon Tech sports information director Mike Safford, Jr. “He is a valued colleague for those of us in the NAIA and beyond, and is one of the most respected leaders in our industry.”
 
While Stancil was introduced to the profession by the late Scott Cummings, whom Stancil succeeded as Union’s director of strategic sports communications in 1999, his introduction to the NAIA came at a young age. His parents were employed at the Cumberland College and Stancil spent many an hour taking in Indians’ basketball games. Ever since, Stancil has been an NAIA man through and through.
 
Within Stancil’s first five years at Union, Cummings convinced his Bulldogs protégé to become involved in leadership within the profession. Stancil then joined the NAIA Sports Information Directors Association (NAIA-SIDA) Board of Directors in 2005. He stayed on the board for an incredible 12 years, including a three-year term as president from 2011 to 2014.
 
And things have never been the same. Jay started leaving things better than how he found them.
 
During his tenure on the NAIA-SIDA Board, Stancil became the first sports information director to serve as a voting member of the NAIA’s top governing body, the National Administrative Council. This Stancil position culminated a five-year effort to bring the voices of athletic communicators to the decision-making process within the organization.
 
Through his work with both bodies, the NAIA Council of Presidents in 2015 passed the “NAIA SID White Paper,” a document that set standards for athletic communications within the organization and recommended that all NAIA athletic departments hire a full-time SID. No other national governing body has established codified standards for communications staffing.
 
While Stancil was one of the chief architects and spokespeople for this advocacy outreach, he is quick to deflect the credit to the likes of Potter, Sam Ghrist, Aaron Sagraves, Ron Smith and others who served alongside him.
 
“While I was truly the first to benefit from that seat at the table in the NAIA ranks, I have to give the credit to those who came before me,” Stancil noted. “It was a collegiate effort from everybody. It was something special to be part of it and see it all come together.”
 
But those who have served with Stancil, both within NAIA-SIDA and during his time on the CoSIDA Board of Directors, are just as quick to recognize his contributions.
 
“Jay has had an incredible influence not only on the NAIA but on small college athletic communications. His desire to build relationships and serve the overall CoSIDA leadership has been inspirational to myself and so many others,” said Sagraves, the Director of Athletics at Cornerstone University and a former NAIA-SIDA and CoSIDA board member.
 
Stancil’s love of the profession is surpassed only by the love for his wife, Genople, and their two children, Jayson and Haylee.
 
The Warren Berg Award is far from the first time Stancil has been recognized for excellence in the profession. He was named the Appalachian Athletic Conference SID of the Year three times, most recently in 2020. In 2010, Stancil was named the recipient of the NAIA’s Clarence “Ike” Pearson Award, recognizing a lifetime of service to the NAIA and the profession.
 
Yet receiving the Berg confirms that, indeed, Jay Stancil is leaving the profession better than he found it.
 
“I must be doing something right,” Stancil said. “We work so hard behind the scenes and that sometimes you wonder if anyone really notices everything you are doing and everything that I have done. To receive the Warren Berg honor is a confirmation of that.”