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CoSIDA.com/ThankYourSID
This feature is part of our series of profiles showcasing members throughout the CoSIDA membership during the celebration of CoSIDA Membership Recognition Week for 2018. See more features at CoSIDA.com/ThankYourSID.
Jake Miller – Lees-McRae College Assistant Sports Information Director/New Media Manager
by Scott Eddy – St. Bonaventure, Director of Athletics Communications
Receiving his master's degree at Coker College on
Dec. 17, 2016 with his girlfriend Kristina Van Tine.
"My favorite part of being an SID is it doesn’t feel like work to me. To be at a college sporting event, to see kids out there having fun and doing what they do and to see my co-workers doing what they love, it really is special."
- Jake Miller
Every SID can attest to the lack of a user’s manual for day-to-day work in the field. Nearly everyone in the business also has a story of having to “figure it out” when something unexpected happens at the most inopportune time.
For
Jake Miller, he has just such a story – one involving a snake, a group of terrified press box staffers, and a lacrosse game while he was a graduate assistant at Coker College in Hartsville, S.C.
“One of our student workers hears what she thinks is a buzzing bee and then looks up and shouts that it’s a snake,” Miller recalls. “The student doing stats for me heard the word snake and immediately leaves the stat computer and runs out. Sure enough, I turn around and the thing was looking right at me.”
Miller’s first instinct took him away from the snake – and the stat computer – but the job at hand brought him back.
“The intern won’t come back in, so he’s standing at the bottom of the stairs of the press box calling plays. I’m punching in the codes and keep turning around to make sure the snake isn’t getting closer.”
Even amidst the chaos and a very unwelcome press box visitor, Miller found a way to cover the game.
“Our stats weren’t as bad as you would think,” he laughs. “It was a terrifying 15 minutes, but we still got the job done.”
Perseverance and dedication to his field has led Miller up the athletic communications ladder – moving from a student assistant during his undergraduate years at Bloomsburg University, to Coker, then back to a full-year internship at his alma mater, to his current position as Assistant Sports Information Director/New Media Manager at Lees-McRae College where he works alongside head SID Andy Fisher.
The first full-time assistant SID at Lees-McRae, Miller is the primary contact for the Bobcats’ women’s basketball, women’s lacrosse, soccer, tennis, track and field and cycling programs.
Along with his traditional duties, Miller is helping Lees-McRae break new ground with new social media and video initiatives. This was a big reason the position was too inviting to pass up when he accepted the job this past August after working with several programs including football and Division I wrestling at Bloomsburg.
Working a 2018 Bloomsburg University basketball
game with student worker Jake McDonnell.
“Being the first person to be in this role at Lees-McRae, I knew this would be a clean slate for everyone. It has been very rewarding because it’s something that wasn’t always here before,” stated Miller. “Student-athletes have told us it is a great improvement and that’s tremendous to hear because ultimately we are here for them. We strive to be among the top of the conference and the Southeast region and being able to improve the social presence of our program.”
Getting involved in athletics as a career has been a lifelong goal for the Shrewsbury, Pa. native. Putting in extra hours at events while a student at Bloomsburg was never an issue – he was at the games anyway.
“I was at every sporting event as it was just about, so I knew I wanted to be around sports,” he said. “The opportunity at Bloomsburg helped me get my feet wet; I was a part of a lot as a student worker. That experience proved very valuable because it gave me a background in a lot of different aspects of sports public relations as a whole.”
After graduating from Bloomsburg, Miller completed an internship with the Coastal Plain League, a summer baseball league in North Carolina. He then moved on to Coker where he completed a master’s degree in college athletic administration while being responsible for nine sports. He then spent the 2017-18 academic year as an intern with Bloomsburg before accepting the position at Lees-McRae.
Though still relatively new to the business, Miller has no doubt he’s in the right field.
“My favorite part of being an SID is it doesn’t feel like work to me. To be at a college sporting event, to see kids out there having fun and doing what they do and to see my co-workers doing what they love, it really is special,” Miller noted. “I’ve been around sports all my life and I can truly say this is what I’ve always wanted to be a part of.”