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Where your path takes you
From Alabama high school student ambassadors and athletes together...to athletic communications Sun Belt colleagues years later.
by Sean Cartell – CoSIDA Advocacy Committee member @sean_cartell
When two sophomores first met as student ambassadors at Prattville (Ala.) High School in the summer of 2014, one could have hardly imagined it would be the beginning of a friendship between two people who would go on to be standout athletics communicators in the Sun Belt Conference and rising stars in the future of the profession.
But that’s exactly how it happened for Troy University Director of Communications Hanna Cooper and University of South Alabama Communications and Digital Media Assistant Nolan Kotila. While both had a passion for sports, the basis of their friendship had no origin in athletics.
Cooper waiting for the arrival of the Troy men’s basketball team for a celebratory sendoff this year.
“We would spend countless hours at school during the summer giving tours and meeting all the incoming ninth-graders,” Cooper said. “We would talk about sports, but the foundation of our friendship really had nothing to do with sports at all. We were around each other so often because of different extracurriculars that we were in.”
Kotila was a standout lacrosse player for Prattville High and Cooper found her passion on the debate team and on the softball diamond. Both also participated in theater activities and teamed up in the production of a house-written play called In The Company of Women.
“That show was definitely where Hanna and I spent the most time together at first,” Kotila said.
As high school students, Cooper and Kotila both had interest in careers in the sports industry, but athletics communications wasn’t yet on their radars.
Cooper had her sights set on a sports broadcasting career and thought she might attend the University of Alabama, following in the footsteps of her brother. Kotila, who was born in Detroit, hoped to attend the University of Michigan and pursue a career designing lacrosse equipment.
In a twist of fate, both stayed home in the state of Alabama at universities that ended up being a perfect fit.
Cooper and Kotila both majored in broadcast journalism and minored in sport management. Cooper was able to realize her dream as a freshman when she began broadcasting Troy women’s basketball games both on radio and ESPN+. Kotila worked for the University of South Alabama’s student media department, helping transform the program and covering a variety of sports.
In addition to broadcasting basketball games, Cooper — who played softball up until high school — had been helping out in the Troy athletics department and her aptitude for the profession had not gone unnoticed. That’s when Adam Prendergast, Troy’s Associate AD for Communications & Creative Content, offered her an opportunity she couldn’t refuse.
“Adam approached me and said, ‘I know you’ve been hanging around the communications office a lot. What do you think about being the SID for softball next season?’” Cooper said. “At first, I thought I really wanted to stick with the broadcasting thing. After thinking it over, I really enjoyed the communications side of things, so why not give it a shot? When am I ever going to have the opportunity to be a primary sport contact at the age of 19? I did it my whole sophomore season and I was hooked after that. My sophomore through my senior year, I had softball and we made the regional right after I graduated.”
Kotila had become well-known by the South Alabama athletics communications staff for his work with the University’s student media. In the fall of 2019, he was doing some volunteer work for his degree program at the USA Intercollegiate women’s golf tournament when he met Charlie Nichols, USA’s Assistant Director of Communications. And, as they say, the rest is history.
A standout lacrosse player in high school, Nolan Kotila participated in the USA Lacrosse developmental program.
“I stuck around and helped him out a little extra with scorecards that day and started talking to him,” Kotila said. “He said, ‘I know you’re doing broadcast journalism, but how would you feel about exploring the strategic side of communications and working in our office as a student assistant?’ I took the opportunity and they brought me on as a student assistant right after COVID.”
The two had stayed in regular contact since graduating from high school, even ribbing each other regularly over the rivalry between their two universities.
“We would joke with each other that she was at Troy and I was at South, so I guess we can’t be friends anymore,” Kotila said.
While they had shared with each other their work in the sports industry, it was during a softball series in May 2021 that Cooper and Kotila realized they each were serious about pursuing a career in athletics communications.
“The moment I distinctly remember that — oh, we’re both for real doing this — was when we played at South Alabama for a softball series and Nolan was there,” Cooper said. “And we solidified that we were both doing this when we graduated. We always kind of joked about this, but it was then that we realized we were both going to be doing this as a career.”
Hanna Cooper and Nolan Kolita Cooper and Kolita as sophomores at Prattsville High School in 2015.
It is a career that both find meaningful and it is no surprise that the aspect of their jobs that they value most is the relationships.
“The best part is definitely the connections that I get to make in this profession,” Cooper said. “It’s really been how close I feel with my student-athletes and I’ve really appreciated some of the connections within my own athletic department and other athletic departments. It’s so much more than the work that I do, but it’s the people that I get to see and the people that I get to hang out with. This profession is nothing if you’re not having fun while you’re doing it.”
Kotila echoes Cooper’s sentiments, giving credit to those he has learned from — which include former Associate AD Brian Fremund, Associate Director Kevin Beasley and Nichols — for helping spark his passion for the profession.
“It’s about those friendships and bonds that I’ve made since I’ve started,” Kotila noted. “I don’t think I could have learned from anybody better. They’re the ones who taught me everything when it came to real-world experience and getting out there and actually seeing it. It came down to guys like Brian and Kevin and Charlie to being able to stay around sports, which is what I always wanted to do. I think we have the most fun industry because who else gets paid to watch games every day? It’s a unique opportunity that I’ve been extremely grateful for.”
Cooper and Kotila are two rising standouts in the new generation of athletics communicators who entered the profession at the height of social media. Part of their strengths and skill set is an understanding of using a multi-faceted communications strategy focused on creative content.
“I think we already see things transitioning with CoSIDA’s rebrand project,” Cooper said. “Nolan and I care a lot about social media because we understand the importance of it. It is going to be people like Nolan and I who are super passionate coming into this industry who are going to change the narrative behind what people find important in branding, content and communications.”
The duo feels a responsibility to not only educate those who have an interest in pursuing athletics communications as a career, but also advocating for the young talents within the profession.
“We’re the next generation and we’re the ones who are going to be paving the way for the new standard,” Kotila said. “The same way that our bosses taught us everything we know about writing, we’re going to teach the next generation what we learned from writing, but also how to share that on social media and what strategies to use to further grow. We’re going to be advocating for interns. They’re really the ones who make the wheels turn at the end of the day. In the next few years, I think there’s going to be change in how they are viewed and how they are respected. It’s learning to work with them and teach them.”
While it wasn’t evident to them at the time, looking back, it’s clear to see how two student ambassadors from Prattville, Ala., were developing the leadership skills as high school friends to begin to make a mark on their chosen profession.
“Both of us getting in this profession has probably made our friendship stronger,” Cooper said. “We’ve known each other and been around each other for so long, but now that we’re in the same conference with our universities being so close, it just adds an extra layer of things that we get to talk about.
This industry is hard, but it’s great to have somebody that not only knows you personally but has a very similar background as you. We probably talk more now than we did in high school. It was first a personal friendship, but now we can also talk about our jobs and help each other.”
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