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2021 Special Awards Announcements
March-April-early May
Written feature stories on selected Special Awards recipients will be posted on CoSIDA.com, social channels.
May is CoSIDA Awards Month
A video series and feature stories highlighting 2020 and 2021 Special Awards honorees will be showcased on CoSIDA.com.
Plans are underway to honor the 2020 and 2021 CoSIDA Hall of Fame classes and the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame classes of 2020 and 2021, with pre-recorded video presentations during the June virtual convention.
The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) wraps up its week-long announcement of its 2021 Special Awards Friday by recognizing members receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards and 25-Year Awards.
The CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to members who have served at least 25 years in the profession and who are retiring, have retired or are leaving the profession.
Receiving their Lifetime Achievement Awards this year are:
- Norma Bertoch – BYU, Director of Media Relations - Women’s Basketball (retired)
- Debbie Copp – Oklahoma, Director of Publications and Awards (retired)
- B.L. Elfring – Southern Maine, Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance and Athletic Media Relations
- Greg Goings – Bowie State, Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
- Jerry Hanson – Clarke University, Sports Information Director
- Tom Nelson – St. Cloud State, Assistant AD of Strategic Communications (retired)
- Kevin Ruple – Baldwin-Wallace, Director of Athletic Communications and Public Relations (retired)
- Jim Thies – Wisconsin-River Falls, Sports Information Director (retired)
The CoSIDA 25-Year Award is presented to members who have completed 25 years in the profession, with 16 members recognized with a 2021 honor. A complete list of 25-year Award recipients is below.
A closer look at the individuals honored today:
CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award
Presented to individuals who have served at least 25 years
in the sports information profession (as of July 2021) who are retiring or leaving the profession.
Voted on by the Special Awards Committee.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Norma Bertoch – BYU (Director of Media Relations - Women's Basketball, Retired)
Long-time media relations professional and BYU women’s basketball SID
Norma Bertoch concluded her career at BYU this fall, a career spanning more than 30 years. She held her BYU position from 1983 through November of 2020. She was the women’s sports information director from 1995-2020 and the broadcast media coordinator for five years in the BYU's university relations office.
She is receiving both a 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2021 25-Year Award from CoSIDA.
Her duties included all media relations work for women’s basketball while supervising and coordinating student interns handling men's and women's cross country, soccer, men's and women's tennis, and softball. Bertoch also worked in the broadcasting lab in the BYU School of Communications ad at KBYU-TV.
In 2013, Bertoch received the BYU Athletics department’s Cougar Paw Recognition honor. She also received the 1995 Administrative Excellence Award from the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications.
Earning five national and district awards for her CoSIDA publications, Bertoch also served on the former CoSIDA Olympic and International Sports and Women's Sports Publicity committees.
Prior to her time at BYU, Bertoch worked at the Cable News Network in Atlanta, Georgia and for United Press International in New York City.
A native of Santiago, Chile, she received both her bachelors and masters degrees from BYU.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Debbie Copp – Oklahoma (Director of Publications and Awards, Retired)
A multi-award winning CoSIDA professional,
Debbie Copp is the former Director of Publications and Awards for University of Oklahoma Athletics. She served in that role from May 1990 until September of 2020.
Prior to that, she was OU’s assistant sports information director from August 1977 until her appointment as publications director. Debbie joined the Sooner staff as a student in 1975 during the first year that women’s athletics were a part of the department. She went to full-time status in 1977 and worked events in 19 of the 21 sports that OU sponsors.
She received four CoSIDA honors in her career, highlighted by her induction into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2012. She also received the 2015 President’s Award for her committee service, the 2008 Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award and a 2001 25-Year Award.
Active in CoSIDA throughout her career, she served as the CoSIDA Committee on Committees’ chairperson for six years. She has also been active on the Special Awards Committee and the former publicists for women’s sports, publications awards, and computer committees. She helped welcomed women and minorities into the profession and mentored many as an active member of FAME (now WoSIDA).
As the director of publications for OU Athletics, Copp worked on and coordinated numerous award-winning publications, including CoSIDA Publications and Digital Design Contest national award winners for football, post-season, softball, track and field, soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, and wrestling media guides. Copp also received numerous CoSIDA Stabley Writing Contest awards writing awards and numerous district publications honors.
As the awards coordinator for Oklahoma, she helped the Sooner student-athletes garnered numerous national recognition, including four NCAA Top VIII Award (now Top 10) winners; three NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winners; two NCAA Inspiration Award recipients; four NACDA McLendon Memorial Minority Scholarship winners ($10,000 each); six NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners since 2015-16; nine Big 12 Athlete of the Year honors (three sweeps in last five years); and four Big 12 Sportsmanship Award winners.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
B.L. Elfring – Southern Maine (Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance and Athletic Media Relations)
B.L. Elfring has had an award-winning 42-year career in athletic communications and will retire later this academic year from Southern Maine.
He was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2018. Elfring also was named the 2002 ECAC-SIDA Irving T. Marsh Award for excellence in sports information. He also received a 2013 NADIIIAA Transitioning Athletic Administrator Award and a University of Southern Maine Professional Staff Award (2001).
He has been at Southern Maine since August of 1995, starting as staff associate for ssports information, marketing and events for two years before moving into the SID/NCAA Compliance Coordinator role for nearly ten years. He was promoted to Assistant Director of Athletics for NCAA Compliance and Athletic Media Relations in April 2008.
Prior to his time at Southern Maine, Elfring was at the University of Lowell, serving as an intern for two years before assuming the SID role from June 1982 through August 1995.
Attending several CoSIDA conventions through the years, Elfring also served on the former CoSIDA Legislative Liaison Committee from 1989-1992.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Greg Goings – Bowie State (Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
Greg Goings has been in athletic communications for 29-plus years, serving at NCAA Division II Bowie State since 2003 with service at his alma mater, Virginia State University, prior to that (1988-2000). He will retire in May 2021.
Goings has attended 26 CoSIDA conventions during his 29-year career. He also served on the CoSIDA Board of Directors for a three-year term from 2011-14. He also is Past National President of the Division II Sports Information Directors Association (2010-2014). He was on the former CoSIDA Social Committee.
Among his other volunteer positions, Goings is a long-time member of the Black College Sports Information Directors Association (BCSIDA), Past President of the CIAA Sports Information Directors Association and a former member of the Harlon Hill Division II Football Player-of-the-Year Advisory Committee,
The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and the CIAA Sports Information Directors Association selected him as the "John Holley" Sports Information Director of the Year three times (1993-1994, 1995-1996 and again in 2008-2009).
In the summer of 1995, he was selected as a Press Officer for the United States Olympic Festival in Denver, Colorado.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Jerry Hanson – Clarke (Sports Information Director)
Jerry Hanson will conclude 42 years of athletic communications service upon his retirement this year. He has been Sports Information Director at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa from 1992 to the present. Before his time at Clarke, he served at his alma mater, Briar Cliff University (Sioux City, Iowa), for 12 years (1980-1992). Hanson was the college's sport information director for 18 years and coordinated athletic fundraising for seven years.
Hanson served as Clarke's men's golf coach for seven years.
Hanson was the 1994 recipient of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Clarence "Ike" Pearson Award for outstanding contributions to, and excellence in, sports information. He was a 2000 inductee into the Briar Cliff Athletic Hall of Fame.
In 2004, Hanson received his 25-Year Award from CoSIDA at the association's national convention in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Hanson received his bachelor of arts degree in communication from Briar Cliff.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Tom Nelson – St. Cloud State (Assistant AD of Strategic Communications, Retired)
An award-winning professional throughout his career,
Tom Nelson served as an SID since 1986. His tenure included time at Aurora University (1986-92), Saint John’s University, MN (1992-1996) and then at St. Cloud State University from 1996 until his retirement at in January 2021 with the title of Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Communications.
Nelson received the CoSIDA Achievement Award in 2015 and is a 25-Year Award recipient as well. Among his other numerous national and regional honors, Nelson was named Small College Wrestling SID of the Year (2014),
He was National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division II Central Region Coordinator from 2012-2020, served as media coordinator at USA Hockey Development Camps in St. Cloud for 15 years (2003-2018). He also was the Northern Illinois Intercollegiate Conference Publicity Director from 1987-1992.
From 1993-96, he also served at publicity director for the Gagliardi Trophy, an award presented to nation’s top Division III football player.
Nelson attended 20 CoSIDA conventions in his career and served on the former Site Selection Committee for nine years (2000-09).
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Kevin Ruple – Baldwin-Wallace (Director of Athletic Communications and Public Relations)
Kevin Ruple, a CoSIDA Hall of Famer, was named the sports information director at BW on March 1, 1983. He was promoted to Director of Athletic Communications and Public Relations in October of 2016 and has served in the capacity until his retirement in June 2020.
A key mentor and supporter as he developed young professionals in the communications career, Ruple also was a key advocate of the student-athlete philosophy. During his tenure, Baldwin-Wallace had 122 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-Americans, which ranks 11th amongst all Division III schools and first in the state of Ohio of all Division III institutions.
He is the recipient of three of CoSIDA’s highest honors. He was presented the Warren Berg Award in 2004, inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2008 and was awarded the Lester Jordan Award in 2011.
He was a member of the CoSIDA Board of Directors as a College Division representative from 1994-98. Ruple was a member of the Academic All-America committee from 1997-2017 and served as the national chair for the football and at-large programs.
For 13 years, he also served as the national coordinator for the Football Gazette Division III All-American committee. Ruple was the President of the Ohio Athletic Conference Public Relations Task Force and on both the Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio (SMACO) and the Cleveland Touchdown Club Charities, Inc. Board of Directors.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Jim Thies – Wisconsin-River Falls (Sports Information Director, Retired)
Jim Thies served as the Sports Information Director at UWRF for over 40 years. He was only the second SID to work at UWRF, having replaced his predecessor after one year.
In 1995 with the help of his then-student employee Brett Longdin, Thies set up the first website for the UWRF Athletic Department. This was notable as the UWRF athletics department, under Thies’ leadership, has the first website of all institutions of higher education in the State of Wisconsin.
For most of his tenure, Thies also was also UWRF’s assistant public affairs director. He was a member of several UWRF committees, including budget, public relations, academic staff council and Athletic Hall of Fame.
He was recipient of the 2020 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tom Butler Award for outstanding contributions to WIAC athletics. A year earlier, Thies was inducted into the UW River Falls Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019.
In 2012, Jim was recognized with a Chancellor's Award for Academic Staff for his exceptional service to the university community.
Thies received a CoSIIDA 25-Year Award in 2002. He served on several CoSIDA committees during his tenure. He has also been active in several other organizations in the community including Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the American Diabetes Association, the Hudson Hockey Association and St. Patrick's Parish.
25-Year Award Recipients
Congratulations to the following group of athletic communications professionals who have reached the quarter century of service to the profession!
Among these 16 professionals achieving 25 years of fulltime work in the profession are five females. This is the second highest number of female 25-Year Award winners in a single year, second only to six women who received this honor in 2001 – two decades ago.
The University of Wyoming now has four of its sports information directors recognized with a 25-Year Award, the most by any institution. Wyoming's four honorees since the award was started in 1991 are this year’s recipient (Amy Dambro) along with Tim Harkins and Diane Dodson (both honored in 2015) and Kevin McKinney in 1999.
25-Year Award
Presented to CoSIDA members who have completed 25 years in the sports information profession (as of July, 2020).
Vetted and voted on by the Special Awards Committee.
How do I calculate my 25-year service to CoSIDA?
To receive a 25-year award at the CoSIDA convention, you must have been in the sports information profession full time and/or an active member of the organization for 25 years, at the time of the annual June CoSIDA Convention. Your 25-year total must be met by July 1. Thus if you started full time work as of July 1, 1996, your 25 years would be completed in June of 2021 and you would receive the award this academic year - and be saluted with a feature story leading up to the 2021 virtual Convention. If you started in October of 1996, you would complete 25 years in September, 2021 and would receive your award at the 2022 CoSIDA Convention.
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Norma Bertoch
BYU
Former Director of Media Relations - Women's Basketball |
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Mike Cihon
Bowling Green
Assistant Director for Strategic Communications |
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Amy Dambro
Wyoming
Assistant Director of Media/Public Relations |
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Liza David
UCLA
Assistant Athletic Director, Athletic Communications |
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Sue Edson
Syracuse
Executive Senior Associate AD/Communications |
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Lonza Hardy, Jr.
MEAC
Media Relations & Research Consultant |
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Jim Heath
Hampton
Director of Sports Information |
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Brian Laubscher
Washington & Lee
Director of Athletic Communications |
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Adam Levin
Brandeis
Sports Information Director |
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Brett Marhanka
Wheaton (Ill.)
Athletics Communications Director |
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Kyle McRae
California
Associate Director, Athletic Communications |
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Mark Mentone
Felician
Sports Information Director |
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Clint Often
Mary Washington
Assisstant Athletic Director for Communications, Sports Information and Marketing |
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John Schild
Culver-Stockton
Assistant AD/Sports Information Director |
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Len Skoros
Hofstra
Director of Athletic Publications |
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Amy Villa
San José State
Interim Director, Athletic Media Relations |