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Goodwill & Wellness Committee
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Communicators Outside the Lines Feature Series
This is the next profile in a series entitled
Communicators Outside the Lines: Better Yourself, Better Your Community produced by the College Sports Communicators Goodwill & Wellness Committee. Read past profiles at
CollegeSportsCommunicators.com/CommunicatorsOTL.
WE NEED YOUR IDEAS!
If you have any ideas for this series, which will revolve around CSC member volunteerism and health and wellness, please contact Goodwill and Wellness Committee chair
Jeremy Rosenthal, University of Texas Associate Director of Communications, at
jeremy.rosenthal@athletics.utexas.edu.
Summer Fades
Chas Dorman, Patrick Duffy, Kristen Keller and Joe Prisco share how they took a pause from the grind during the summer to reflect and reenergize for the new academic year.
by Allison Hogue – Sacred Heart University, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant / Goodwill & Wellness Committee member
Summer is one of the most exciting times of the year, especially for SIDs. It’s a way to wind down after the athletic year and to take the opportunity for self-care. It’s an opportunity for SIDs to pause, reflect and to reenergize before the craziness of another athletic year begins. We look at four SIDs and how they spent their summer.
Chas Dorman, Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications at Princeton University, used his down time to play his favorite activity, golf. He picked up the sport during the pandemic and joined a golf course in his hometown of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. It gave him time to relax and spend time with friends he doesn’t get to see a lot.
Dorman is not the only one in his family that works in college athletics. His wife Emily works as an athletic trainer at Princeton. The couple celebrated their 10
th wedding anniversary and Chas’s 40
th birthday with a week and a half trip to Disney World and a cruise to the Caribbean. Later, he joined his wife, kids and extended family on a vacation to Cape Cod in July.
“It was a much needed vacation to wind down,” said Dorman. “I was able to focus on relaxing and spending time with my wife and celebrating everything that we had done. It allowed us to spend some time as a family and keep building those traditions.”
Chas Dorman playing golf in his hometown of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania
From a global perspective, Dorman believes the summer gave him an opportunity to appreciate how fortunate he is. Princeton did not play a full year of sports in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dorman says the break after the 2022 season gave him the time to reflect on how fortunate he was to get to work with student-athletes.
“We didn’t get to do our job to a full extent for a year and a half,” he said, “It goes to show how lucky I am personally to be in a position to lead a department and being able to think about the growth we want to make.”
Patrick Duffy, Sports Information Coordinator at Montclair State University, was another athletic communications professional that took advantage of the summer.
His favorite part was attending the first CoSIDA Convention in two years. Duffy got to reconnect with old friends and exchange emails with new faces. He also took up golfing as a way to enjoy the outdoors and have fun.
“Being able to take a step back and not be as involved with everything and not having to take work home is always a good thing to do during the summer,” said Duffy. “Getting home at a normal time rather than being here till 10 or 11 o’clock at night is huge.”
Patrick Duffy on his way to Las Vegas for #CoSIDA22.
Besides taking advantage of the down time in the summer, one thing he learned was how important it is to make lists. Duffy was not a fan of doing it at first but realized how it could help prioritize what he must do and building off of it. In addition to lists, he is also learning to prioritize himself. One of those scenarios is deciding what time to come into the office when it is not a game day.
“In the sports information world, there’s always something that pops up,” he said. “Something I am trying to do different this year is actually live more on the organized side. Just trying to do that and also take time for myself where if we don’t have a game on a certain day.”
Two SIDs spent their summer transitioning into new jobs in the profession.
Kristen Keller recently started a new role as Associate Athletics Director for Communications at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her summer consisted of moving across the country from Chicago to California. While making the transition to the west coast, Keller was able to make the most of her summer. She returned to her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania to visit her family and attend weddings of close friends. Keller also went on a cruise in St. Maarten with her partner, parents and brothers before officially settling in California.
“All the time with my family this summer really made it easier to move on the opposite coast,” said Keller. “It also helps me recharge to see family and friends. I loved spending time with my partner and our pup.”
During the break, she made it a habit to leave her laptop at work in order to take the evenings with her family. Keller also turned off her email notifications on her phone whenever she is on trips. As demanding as the profession is, she learned through it all about how crucial it is to have that separation between work and personal life.
Kristen Keller feeding iguanas while on a cruise in St. Maarten.
“The world isn’t going to end just because I don’t answer an email or text right away,” Keller said. “This summer really put that in perspective for me as I tried to enjoy the moments I had with friends and family before making a move across the country. Even though this realization came through a different context, it’s still important for me to carry that into the fall.”
Joe Prisco began a new journey in his career as Director of Strategic Communications at Tulane University. Not only did he changed jobs, but he also got married to his wife, Lauren.
“It’s definitely something that you look forward to not only as an SID but as a person,” Prisco said. “Especially in finding a partner who understands the long hours and the commitment it takes to work in this profession.”
Following the wedding, the couple went on their honeymoon to Jamaica. Prisco said it was the “first real vacation” he got to experience in 10 years since starting his career in the profession 15 years ago. Being connected to the world was a way for him to fully relax, unwind and get his thoughts before focusing on the upcoming athletic year.
Joe Prisco with wife Lauren on honeymoon in Jamaica.
These experiences taught Prisco the value of getting away and leaving work at work. The life lessons also played a role in his decision to change jobs. It gave Prisco a chance to step back and allow him to think what is truly important, including making choices for his life and career.
“It taught me that I’m capable of doing it,” he said. “When you are forced into that role, it allows you to figure out that you are capable of spending time away from your job this summer. It allows you to enjoy parts of your life that aren’t connected to your job.”
What these four SIDs experienced is a life lesson for all of us that it is okay to take time for yourself whenever you are not covering sporting events. Summer is a way to relax from the school year and recharge. Every SID should be capable of taking advantage of the long break before getting back into the grind.
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