College Sports Information Directors of America

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Mike Scala – Montclair State University, Director of Sports Publicity

CoSIDA 25-Year Award

by Ira Thor – New Jersey City University, Assistant Director of Athletics for Strategic Communications and Marketing

Every SID can relate to the feeling of crossover season. It’s like pushing a van uphill. For most people, that’s a metaphor for the challenges of the athletic communications profession. Not for Mike Scala, the Director of Sports Publicity at Montclair State University in New Jersey. A 2020 COSIDA 25-Year Award recipient, Scala actually knows what it’s like to push a van uphill.
 
As a sophomore at Montclair State in September 1989, Scala was a student assistant for then-Montclair SID Al Langer. They were passengers in a van coming back from a contest at Central Connecticut State. Scala, who has a gift of remembering precise details — a photographic memory of sorts — remembers the trip with a laugh. 
 
“We just crossed over into New Jersey on the very top of the [Garden State] Parkway and all of a sudden the van started to cut out. The gas gauge said we had plenty of gas, but we got off the road, realizing we had little. We followed signs for the gas station; back then there's no GPS, no Google Maps. As we got to the top of a hill, whatever gas was in there kind of tilted back.
 
“The thought process of Al was, ‘let's push the van back into the street where the gas will level out. We’ll start it, gun it and get over the top of the hill to the gas station.’”
 
“All  I heard was ‘push the van,’ so my natural instinct was to get out and run to the back of the van, thinking I was going to push this thing up the hill and get us over. I was 19 years old. I thought I was all world, all strong.”
 
“As [Al Langer] tells the story, he jumps out of the van then looks at the other people in the van and says, ‘oh, you GOTTA see this.’ And there I was struggling with all my might trying to push this van up the hill. But you know, it was kind of funny. That's me.”
 
 
Langer notes that “Mike earned the nickname "microchip" because of his uncanny ability to remember facts and figures off the top of his head like a computer. To this day, still sends me texts reminding me of things that I misremembered or completely forgot!“
 
That’s one of the joys of being friends with Mike Scala. Great stories from an amazing man with a vast memory and an even bigger heart. He’s a man loyal to his family, which includes his wife Jamie and their three children Jenna (15), Michael (12) and Joelle (10), his friends and his alma mater. 
 
This past October, nearly a dozen of his athletics communications colleagues heard the van chronicles and other timeless stories when Scala was inducted into the 2019 Montclair State Red Hawk Athletics Hall of Fame as a contributor. He’s spent more than a quarter century at Montclair State, one of the most successful athletic programs in NCAA Division III. The work he has produced makes him one of the most respected in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) and throughout the New York market at any level.
 
“I realized Mike's potential immediately when I met him. He was a 17-year-old freshman walking into my office as Montclair State looking for a job,” said Langer. “Mike exceeded every expectation I had for him as a student. He became my graduate assistant, then eventually came back and was my successor when I left for Columbia University. Over the last 31 years since Mike walked in my office, I've hired hundreds of people at various levels and for different positions. To this day, my very first career hire, Mike – is still the best hire of my career.”
 
Graduating in 1992 from Montclair State where he worked as a student assistant and graduate assistant, Scala began his career as the school’s first assistant SID. Scala left MSU to serve as the Director of Athletic Communications at Division I Monmouth for two years, was Director of Media Relations for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for two more years before returning to his alma mater in 1999. Along the way, he also spent eight years as the NJAC’s Assistant SID and also was a bureau manager for ESPN SportsTicker.
 
In the two decades since returning home to succeed Langer, Scala has hosted numerous conference and NCAA Tournament games, including the 2009 Division III Softball Championship and 2012 Division III Women’s Lacrosse Championship. 
 
Scala said being inducted into Montclair’s Hall of Fame was overwhelming. 
 
“Last June, we're sitting there [at the Hall of Fame meeting] to discuss our next and someone brought up my name. They said ‘so what about you?’ and I'm like “what about me?” I'm not one to push my own candidacy,” Scala noted. “As we were voting around the table, I worried that I was going to be the tie-breaking vote to put me in or not … with the scary part being I wasn't sure if I wanted to vote for me!  
 
“When you look at all the people who have ever been part of [the school] as an athlete, as a coach and an administrator, to be in that group is an unbelievable feeling, knowing that you are part of a small, small collection of people and a historical figure in the history of the program.”
 
Scala is a pro’s pro. It’s not only how well he does his job, or his remarkably thorough record books, or his attention to detail that demonstrate it, but also in how he genuinely treats others. 
 
"I've known Mike for almost 25 yers, and he's a textbook example of an individual who demonstrates professionalism, selflessness, a tireless work ethic, and a desire to do everything possible to promote the student-athletes and coaches,” said Terry Small, Commissioner of the NJAC, and himself a CoSIDA 25-Year Award recipient a year ago. “He is one of the most important people in the history of Montclair State Athletics. When you think about those associated with MSU athletics, such as Sam Mills and Carol Blazejowski, that's really saying something. Mike has been able to link the present and the past in terms of MSU athletics. Those of us who have had the privilege to work with him over the years know how lucky we are to have him as a colleague and a friend." 
 
Sheila Stevenson of Rowan is the only SID in the league with a longer tenure than Scala.
 
“He loves this profession and is respected by his peers, coaches and student-athletes. I am fortunate to have Mike as a friend. He is my go-to person when I have a Statcrew problem or need clarification on a statistical question,” Stevenson said. “I admire how he balances the demanding hours of the job and his family, making the time to attend his children’s activities.”
 
When I was hired as the head statistician for the New York Jets in 2018, Mike was the first person I immediately thought of when we needed a deputy head statistician. Since then, our adventures have taken us to Houston, to the abbreviated 2020 XFL season and to several Pinstripe Bowls at Yankee Stadium. If you want to be successful, you surround yourself with great people. and Mike Scala is as good as they come.
 
Retired Montclair State athletic director Holly Gera describes Scala as an “old soul.”
 
“I mean this as the highest compliment. His knowledge of history—especially sports history—and appreciation of the past were unusual when I first met him in 1989. He was a second semester freshman who had already made quite an impression in our athletic department. He was reliable, knowledgeable, funny and loyal. He was MSU tried and true,”
stated Gera.
 
“Mike knows people. He really gets to know our student athletes, their family stories, playing history, and current interests. Mike’s connections extend beyond the walls of MSU. He has great friends in the industry and a tremendous network. This was evidenced in how many of his SID family attended his Hall of Fame induction.”  
 
“He is clever, creative, caring and consistent—and those are just the c’s,” Gera continued. “I have always enjoyed his company, crazy humor and big heart. I am so happy that Mike is being recognized for his contributions and service. His institutional knowledge is unparalleled and his love for and loyalty to Montclair State University are unmatched.”
 
Looking back at the story of the van in 1989, Scala can see similarities to the current profession and his own life.
 
“I look at it as pushing the van up the hill and reaching the top. Anything that I've ever done, I always felt like I could do it even if it was the impossible. I know a lot of people feel that way in this business. In our hearts and in our minds we always feel we can accomplish anything. I look back at that story because I was going to push that van up the hill no matter what. And every day that I go to work, I'm going to accomplish what it is no matter how difficult, because you know, it's what we do—take on things that are near impossible. I'm going to do it because in the end it's going to benefit somebody.”
 
It’s this positive, gritty attitude that is serving Scala well in the biggest roadblock of his life so far: colon cancer.
 
In December 2018, Scala sensed that something didn’t feel right with his body. He was 48. He saw his doctor who performed a colonoscopy, discovering a mass. During pre-testing to have it removed in January 2019, doctors found that not only was the mass cancerous but it had spread to spots on his liver.
 
“By the grace of God, I caught the biggest breaks. It was January 31st when he [the oncologist] told me [I had cancer],” Scala said. “To get that news, talk about shattering. There was a little bit of fear. The June before we had lost our men's lacrosse coach Mike Schambach to the same thing. We shared the same name, same initials, almost the same illness. It was scary to know how it took Mike. Between the support that I got—a lot of it starts and ends with my wife—and the people around me, I picked myself up.”
 
“I had the bracelet on that said “Keep Pounding” which was [former Montclair State and NFL great] Sam Mills’ motto. Never had it meant as much as it had through the years as it had at that point.”
 
A normal cancer marker should be in the 3-4 range. When Scala was diagnosed, he had a cancer marker of 2,219.
 
He began treatment on a Friday in February 2019 and was at a conference basketball playoff doubleheader the next day. A month later the 2,219 number had dropped to 1,300 and then to 111 the following month.
 
For six months, Scala was under dual care of oncologists in North Jersey and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. By August, treatment had progressed so well that he was ready for major surgery in October—two weeks before his Hall of Fame induction—to remove much of the tumor and install a chemo pump to treat his liver. In the hospital for 12 days, Mike was released on October 12 and was at his Hall of Fame induction on October 15.
 
Since then, Scala has been on regular treatments and his numbers have been steady. Today, the cancer marker is between 3-5—back in the normal range. All signs have been positive since the surgery and Scala is on the road to a full recovery. He will have a second surgery in the future once the pandemic is cleared up.
 
With this treatment, Scala has had a lot of time to process what the CoSIDA 25-Year recognition means to him.
 
“It says a lot about being able to adapt and displays a passion I have for this business. There's so many things that have changed over the 25 years-plus,” Scala noted. “{It’s] the ability to work with student-athletes, coaches and administrators and embrace new technology, always trying to advance something I've always been very deeply in love with.” 
 
Kimberly DeRitter, long-time Director of Athletic Communications at Kean University and Scala’s former graduate assistant at Montclair, summed up his impact. 
 
“Mike, you were my boss and now you’ve become my best friend in the business,” DeRitter stated. “During the season we talk almost daily comparing notes and venting, making the morning commute a more pleasant drive. This pandemic has made me realize that our talks each day are more important now since you are more like family than a colleague. This award is not that common; it doesn't happen to every guy, and it is a big deal!”