College Sports Information Directors of America

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25-Year Award
Presented to College Sports Communicators members who have completed 25 years in the athletics communications profession. Vetted and voted on by the Special Awards Committee. 

Jeremy Kniffin – Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Director of Athletic Communications

Career reflections from Jeremy Kniffin, 25-Year Award Recipient – "I’ve been fortunate to have some varied experience in the industry, starting out spending five years at Division II, and then 15 years at Division I and 10 at Division III. It’s been interesting observing how similar the experiences are. There may be more eyeballs on the Division I basketball tournaments, but every student-athlete at every level has their own journey and their own story to tell that makes the athletics communications role both valuable and rewarding."
   
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Head Women's Golf Coach, Jodie Burton – "Jeremy Kniffin came to us with a vast amount of knowledge, a work ethic second to none and an enthusiasm to make each and every sport feel special. He has succeeded. We have live streaming highlight clips, interviews after contests, numerous photos, etc. on our websites. This is not an easy task! We have 21 sports that are all extremely successful and make Jeremy’s job even more demanding.

He still supports all equally and fairly. As an example, Jeremy drove an hour to get current quality photos for women’s golf at a tournament on what should have been his day off. Our program’s exposure has increased dramatically with Jeremy leading the department. We would not be as successful without him!"

JEREMY KNIFFIN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CAREER TIPS

• I would say the two biggest pieces of professional development advice I could give would be to find your own voice as the narrator in someone else’s story, and to be adaptable. 

• The biggest way this industry has changed in my tenure is that you used to feel like your job was done. After a game, you’d write the story, call the paper, update the website, send out the email (or fax once upon a time) and be finished. You’d work hard on media guides during the week, but they would eventually be done and printed. Now there’s almost always more you can do - more graphics, more videos, more photo galleries, more website content, more highlights, more features on your video streams; and, if you are at a small shop, you need to play to your strengths and not necessarily try to do it all. 

• You often have to change with the times in order to find the best way to reach your audience, but the voice behind the narrative - whether it be verbally or in or how visuals are portrayed, is always yours alone, and I think that is where your career is going to have the biggest impact, and where you will feel the most rewards. If you try to just keep up with what other shops are doing and not find your own voice, you’ll work yourself into the ground and never feel much personal gain.