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Nominations for the 2024 Special Awards open through Dec. 11
CSC Special Awards: New deadlines & best practices in nominations
Learn more about the CSC’s highest honors — our annual Special Awards — as Special Awards Committee vice chair Blake Timm also shares how-to’s to enhance your nominations. The deadline to submit a nomination is Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.
Blake Timm is vice chair of the CSC Special Awards Committee. A 2020 CSC Hall of Fame inductee, he has successfully nominated many CSC members for awards. Timm is currently associate director of communications for Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Even for a profession whose members often relish the opportunity to stay in the shadows, receiving a College Sports Communicators
Special Award is a crowning achievement.
A recent article published by Prowly, a media monitoring firm,
emphasized the reasons why those in the public relations industry (which includes athletic communications) should pursue awards. They prove credibility, acknowledge outstanding work and show how far you have truly come as a professional. It also has the added plus of a great networking opportunity when you attend CSC Unite to receive your honor.
The time has never been better to nominate for a CSC award. At CSCUnite23 in Orlando, 60 individuals were honored across the organization’s slate of 17 awards.
In my 24 years as a full-time college athletics communicator, I was fortunate enough to be honored three times. Each moment was an opportunity to step back, take a pause to appreciate all that the profession has given to me and appreciate the kudos that those in our position don’t often get.
So what makes for a solid, impressive nomination? Here are some tips to make your awards nomination stand out and catch the eye of our committee members.
Dec. 1 deadline — the times are a changin'
This year, CSC is adopting earlier deadlines to help make the awards selection process more efficient for the Special Awards Committee, which selects most award winners.
This year, the deadline for all Special Awards nominations is Friday, Dec. 1. This is nearly two months earlier than in past years. This means that if you intend to nominate someone for one of the honors,
now is the time to get started.
For our 25-Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards, which celebrate longevity in the profession, CSC encourages self-nominations. If you are reaching the quarter-century milestone or will be retiring, visit the
CSC Awards Portal to submit your information. If you miss the Dec. 1 deadline, or if you announce your retirement or exit from the profession AFTER Dec. 1, the Special Awards Committee and CSC will accept nominations for these two awards on a case-by-case basis.
Know the award and the criteria
Take time to gain a clear understanding of the different CSC special awards that are out there. A full list of the awards slate and descriptions for each award are available on the
CSC website.
Think about how your nominee fits the description of the award. For the Warren Berg and Arch Ward Awards, for example, how has the nominee’s overall body of work in athletic communications brought dignity and prestige to the profession? Does your nominee have a solid track record of civic engagement to warrant a nomination for the Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award?
Most of the award descriptions are self-explanatory. Others might be a little confusing. Most notably, the Bud Nangle Award and the Bill Esposito Backbone Award are often confused for being the same thing. (Note: These two are awarded
only when the committee deems the candidate meets all criteria).
The Nangle Award is presented to an individual who embodies the ideals of intercollegiate athletics by showing ethic, integrity, compassion and/or bravery in a singular act or under and unusual or stressful personal situation.
This Esposito Award is presented to a CSC member who displays sound judgment and unusual courage in guiding their institution, conference office or organization through a difficult public relations situation. While the Nangle honors someone who is working through personal struggle, the Esposito recognizes someone who guides their organization through struggle.
Four of CSC’s special awards are not open to nominations by the general membership. The Keith Jackson Eternal Flame Award is selected by the CSC Board of Directors. The Dick Enberg Award is selected by the CSC executive board and Academic All-America Committee members; the Lester Jordan Award is selected by the Academic All-America Core Committee. The President’s Award, as the name implies, is presented by the CSC president.
The why's and how-to's of nominations: Who is outstanding in the field?
The online nomination form gives you the chance to make your nomination stand out. Take advantage! Articulate why your nominee is worthy for the award you are nominating them for.
A good nomination not only goes into who the person is but what makes them uniquely qualified for the award. As the nominator, your role is to distinguish your nominee. What makes them special? Why are they the perfect person for the honor?
It is not unusual for nominations to have the nominee’s bio copied and pasted into the “reason for nomination” field. This does nothing to set them apart and increases the chance of the nomination begin passed over by the committee.
What makes your nominee a Rising Star? How has your nominee distinguished themselves to be a Warren Berg nominee? How has your media nominee served college athletics in such a way as to warrant a nomination for the Jake Wade Award?
Be specific about your nominee’s credentials for the award. Just because someone has been in the profession for a long time does not automatically make them a great nominee for the Warren Berg or the Arch Ward. If you are nominating for the Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award, what has your nominee specifically done to further diversity in the profession?
It's not all about you
The more people that can speak to an awards nominee, the better. Take the time to solicit letters of support from colleagues at other institutions, coaches, administrators and even past and present student-athletes.
This is especially true for CSC’s major awards, such as the Hall of Fame, Arch Ward and Warren Berg awards.
Make sure you have the nominee’s resume and bio information on hand. Some letter writers will ask for this to help provide context for the letter.
As a member of the Special Awards Committee, I am more likely to take a nomination seriously if I see multiple letters of recommendation. It shows that not only that the nominator put time and care into the nomination but shows that many people truly support the nominee for that award.
Pro Tip: The CSC awards nomination portal only allows you to upload up to five supporting documents. To work around this limitation, combine all of the supporting materials into one PDF and submit them as one document.
To tell (or not tell) the truth
When you nominate someone for a CSC Special Award, should you tell them or keep it a surprise? There is no hard and fast rule here. For some people, the element of surprise makes the announcement that much sweeter. If your nominee doesn’t like surprises, then you may be better off asking them if you could nominate them for the award.
In either case, if their name is announced during Special Awards Week in January, it is sure to be a special spring of 2024 for them.
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