College Sports Information Directors of America

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Todd Wetmore – Liberty University, Associate Athletics Director for Communications

CSC 25-Year Award

by Jeff Hodges – CSC Secretary // CSC Special Awards Committee chair

A Liberty University graduate, Todd Wetmore has overseen the Liberty athletics communications efforts since December 1999 at his alma mater. He specifically oversees and coordinates all media efforts for the Flames’ football and men’s golf programs.

He began his athletic communications career as a student assistant at Liberty where he oversaw softball media relations as a student.

Wetmore joined the department’s staff full time in August 1997 as an assistant sports information director. His promotions included the title of sports information director in December 1999, to assistant AD for communications in July 2005 and in November 2012, to Associate AD.

Wetmore has a long record of award-winning publications work and has earned nine “Best in the Nation” honors from CoSIDA/CSC in its annual Creative and Digital Design (formerly publications) contests. Heavily involved in committee work for Liberty, Big South Conference and ASUN Conference, Wetmore has also served on CSC’S Academic All-America® Committee since 2009.
 

You got into sports information as a student, working with the Liberty softball team and working alongside your dad Paul, who is a Hall of Fame coach. Did he recruit you into the field or was it something that you were already interested in?
TW: Yes unknowingly to him, my dad did end up recruiting me into the field, but neither of us knew anything about Sports Information/Athletics Communications at the time. My dad was hired as our head softball coach before my freshman year of college.

I had always kept the stats for other teams he coached and I wanted to do the same for his new job. When my dad asked about me keeping the stats for his team, our AD told my dad to have me talk with the sports information director. I came to Liberty University as an accounting major and I wanted to work in the accounting department for the Boston Red Sox (my favorite sports team). However, a volunteer job keeping the stats for my dad’s team turned into an interest in a new profession that I never knew existed, which has led to a very rewarding career that I could have never imagined.
 
And what was it like working with your dad?
TW: Working alongside my dad has truly been the most rewarding part of my professional career. My dad is the person I look up to the most in my life and you can’t ask for anything better than to have a front row seat to watch your hero live out their own dream. When my dad was hired, Liberty University was reinstating its softball program, so he was hired without a field to play on or a bat or ball for practice. I watched him take the program from nothing to winning two conference championships, making two NCAA Regionals and him becoming Liberty Athletics’ all-time winningest coach in any sport and a Hall of Fame member over his 20-year career. I could work for another 25 years in this great profession and nothing will ever replace my No. 1 favorite day on the job: working in the press box and scoring the game when my dad led our team to its first-ever Big South Conference championship in 2002 and our first-ever trip to the NCAA Regional.

What has it been like to have spent more than 25 years at Liberty watching the University and athletic program grow into the power that it is today in numerous sports?
TW: Spending more than a quarter of a century at Liberty University has truly been a blessing and an amazing story to watch play out during my last 25 years. I had the privilege of attending Liberty University when our founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell, was still alive.  I often heard him share his dream of Liberty University becoming a world class evangelical university that offered the same experiences, including athletics, as BYU does for the Mormon faith or Notre Dame provides to Roman Catholics. I have seen the school go from near financial ruin back in the 1990s to that thriving and growing world class university he dreamed about. I’ve been a part of an athletics program that struggled to break into the NCAA Division I ranks to now becoming one of the fastest rising athletics programs in the country and winning nearly 200 conference championships. It has been quite the ride and I can’t wait to see where it goes in the future.

Also, as a person of faith myself, it has been truly rewarding to play a part in telling the amazing stories of our student-athletes and coaches as they live out our motto of being a Champion for Christ. I’ve helped provide a platform that allows them to not only talk about their success on the athletics field, but also the purpose behind why they are successful.

You specifically coordinate all media efforts for the Flames’ football and men’s golf programs. What has been like to see the success of the football program at the FBS level in the fall with four bowl appearances and three bowl wins, then covering a golf team that has made 13 NCAA appearances in the spring?
TW: From a football standpoint, Liberty has dreamed of playing at the top level of collegiate football since it was founded in 1971. Outside of Dr. Falwell himself, I don’t think anyone could have dreamed of Liberty having so much success quickly at the FBS level. Going to four straight bowl games in our first four years of being bowl eligible has been an amazing journey and to win three of those games has brought a lifetime of memories – especially beating our old Big South rival Coastal Carolina in the 2020 Cure Bowl.
 
On the golf side of things, I’ve loved the sport of golf my entire life. Covering the sport of golf has provided me the opportunity to watch Liberty’s golfers compete and thrive at the highest level against the best up-and-coming athletes that are going to grow the sport I love so much. I’ve had the privilege of walking on the course during 11 of our 13 NCAA Regional appearances and at all four of our NCAA Men’s Golf National Championship experiences, including a 10th-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Championship played at the famed Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., a place that has so much history in the game of golf.

Top memories?
TW: Although the team’s success on the field has created so many memories, the things that I cherish the most are the relationships I’ve built with the coaches and student-athletes while on the football field or the golf course. Experiencing these events with people that have now become lifelong friends has been amazing.

You have been involved in several CoSIDA/CSC committees over the years, including Academic All-America®. Why is involvement in CSC committee work important to you?
TW: I’ve been blessed with mentors in our business like Mike Montoro (former SID at Liberty/now an Assistant AD and football communications director at West Virginia) and Kevin Keys (first-ever SID at Liberty). These individuals instilled in me during an early part of my career the importance of our CoSIDA/CSC organization and that I needed to get involved as a part of my professional growth. Getting involved in committee work allowed me to network within our organization outside of the football and golf SIDs that I regularly worked with and develop lasting professional and personal relationships with so many great working people within our organization from all around the country.

Additionally, having the privilege of working on the CSC Academic All-America® committee has provided me with the opportunity to play a small part in recognizing so many outstanding student-athletes for the tremendous work they do in the classroom and away from the field of competition.

Talk a little about the changes that you have seen in the profession in your quarter century in the field?
TW: I’ve seen so much change in college athletics and in the area of how we tell the story of our teams, coaches and student-athletes. I have gone from sitting by the fax machine waiting for a box score so I can call the local newspaper to report on a game to using all the available tools (website, social media, video platforms) to tell so much more than just the stats. The stories we are allowed to tell now, and the way that we tell them, often inspire and change the lives of those who read/view/watch them.

In your opinion, what is the impact of CoSIDA/CSC as an organization for communicators and creatives?
TW: I’ve seen how CoSIDA/CSC has come alongside us to not just help us develop professionally, but also help us develop as a person outside of the office. During my 25 years in the business, I’ve learned so much at the (CoSIDA/CSC) convention about life in and out of the office and I love that we continue to see more and more sessions about work/life balance, physical and mental health, etc.

I’m blessed with a loving, supportive and understanding wife, Kristy, who is not a sports fan, and two wonderful daughters, Artemis and Chloe. They mean everything in the world to me and I don’t think I would enjoy the life I now have with them without the changes I’ve seen in our profession over the last 25 years.