College Sports Information Directors of America

Amy Yakola – ACC Deputy Commissioner/Chief of External Strategy

CSC Hall of Fame Class of 2024 and Arch Ward Award recipient

By Tim Bourret, 2017 CSC Hall of Fame inductee and 2019 CSC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient

One of the research axioms I leaned on during more than 40 years in the sports communications profession was creating finite lists that set our student-athletes and coaches apart from others.

A similar exercise was appropriate for this profile of Amy Yakola, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Deputy Commissioner and Chief of External Affairs. Among the hundreds of student assistants we had at Clemson, there was certainly something special about Yakola.

Indeed, as this month she becomes the first woman to be inducted into the College Sports Communicators’ Hall of Fame in the same year she receives the organization’s Arch Ward. The Arch Ward honor is presented annually to a CSC member who has made outstanding contributions to the field, and who, by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession.

Yakola is the sixth person so honored simultaneously, joining the late, great Lawrence Fan of San Jose State in 2012, and my good friend Bill Hamilton of South Carolina State won both in 2009.  

Prior to Hamilton, you have to go back to 1984 when the legendary Bill Esposito of St. John’s went in the Hall of Fame and won the Arch Ward Award.  The other two to receive both honors in the same year were Charley Thornton of Alabama in 1974 and Wilbur Evans of the Southwest Conference in 1969.  

It is with great pride that I write this piece because Amy Yakola (then Amy Moore) got her start under my direction (and the then-retired but still involved Bob Bradley) in 1996.

When I retired from full-time status at Clemson in 2018, I went through my list of former student assistants and determined there had been 56 who had gone into the sports publicity profession in some area, 32 women and 24 men. Many have gone on to long careers, including Annabelle Myers, who is in her 26th year as hall of fame worthy director at NC State.
 

Amy is the first to be inducted into the CSC Hall of Fame and to receive the Arch Ward.

I would not have thought that would be the case when she matriculated to Clemson in the fall of 1994. She didn’t really work directly in our office her freshman year. But she earned great reviews from our volleyball coach, Jolene Hoover, as a chief statistician.

“I had been a three-sport athlete in high school and wanted to continue to be involved when I came to Clemson,” said Yakola. “My parents had always been involved in sports and took me to sporting events in Michigan when I was growing up.

“I had other interests too. People were surprised at Clemson when I told them I could play the violin. I came to Clemson from Michigan (Saline) and didn’t know anyone. I had some time on my hands so I went by Jolene Hoover’s office one day and asked if I could help out in some capacity.”

“It was my second year at Clemson, and we needed some help with the statistics,” recalled Hoover. “So I talked with her about it and she obviously knew the game. And, plus she was a math major, so I knew volleyball statistics were something she could handle.”

Yakola hit the ground running and allowed me to cross volleyball statistics off my list of things to worry about when it came to overseeing all the SID responsibilities for all sports. During her sophomore year, Yakola came to me to see if there was something else she could do in our office. I remember her telling me she had played softball in high school and liked baseball.

A big selling point was her stating that she could keep a scorebook. “Wow, a girl that can keep a baseball scorebook,” said Brian Hennessy, kiddingly. Hennessy, today Clemson’s baseball SID, was one of the student assistants at the time.

Yakola then told me she had been an umpire in summer league games in Michigan and had been the person who organized the umpire schedule for the entire league while she was in high school.

I was sold, we needed to involve this young woman in more than just volleyball.

Soon Yakola was contributing in everything from football to basketball to baseball to all the sports. She was always willing to help, no matter the task, a humble work ethic that continues to serve her well.
 

In the spring of 1998, Yakola was about to graduate with a bachelor of science degree in math and was trying to decide what she wanted to do from a career standpoint. I told her there was an internship at the ACC office in Greensboro and that she should look into it. I had had other students make that move right from our office and they had gotten good jobs the following year.

“Before I found out about the ACC internship, I thought I would coach in high school and teach math,” said Yakola. “I visited the office, interviewed and got the job. It was a great year working with outstanding people. I could see it was like a family at the ACC office, similar to what I had experienced working at Clemson.”

One of the administrators in the ACC office during Amy’s internship year was Bernadette McGlade, who spent 11 years at the ACC and is now in her 16th year as commissioner of the Atlantic 10.

“I was in senior administration at the ACC office when Amy was an intern and it was clear she was going to be a superstar in this profession,” said McGlade. “You don’t always have interns that can jump in and take on a full-time role at the end of the internship, but there was no hesitation on the part of Commissioner John Swofford to hire her.

“Amy was always dedicated and was willing to do whatever it took, no matter what the task. She was always willing to go above and behind what was necessary and was always interested in learning new things. She had a willingness to be innovative and grow in the job.”

As Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney likes to say, “grow where you are planted,” and Yakola has certainly grown at the ACC, where she has served for 26 years.

She has worked in myriad roles and currently oversees the external department that includes strategic communications, public relations, marketing and branding, social/digital and creative strategy.

Yakola has been involved in three league expansions, which have doubled league membership from nine to 18 schools. She was significantly involved in the August 2019 launch of the ACC Network, which televises more than 500 regular season and tournament games from across the league’s 28 sponsored sports, in addition to news and information programs, plus original programs that highlight the ACC’s 71-year history.

This past year, the ACC launched its new creative campaign, “ACCOMPLISH GREATNESS,” a multi-part brand campaign highlighting the vast success of the ACC’s athletics and academics alike. Yakola led the efforts in partnership with Wasserman and its creative agency Laundry Service. 

Much of the time she serves as the ACC’s spokesperson and oversees promotional efforts to prioritize the ACC, its nearly 10,000 student-athletes and its championships. She also serves as the conference office liaison to the league’s developmental directors.

Involved in the College Sports Communicators organization, Yakola was a member of the CSC Board of Directors for three years (2016-19) and has been a member of the Division I Cabinet since June of 2020.

She also has served as the College Football Playoff National Championship Game press conference moderator since 2015, including 2016 and 2018 when her alma mater won the national championship. That brought a smile to Clemson administrators who had worked with her.
 

In 2016, Yakola was named to the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 Class, an annual celebration of the country’s best young talent in sports business.

Much of the credit for her rise in the profession belongs to Swofford, who gave her the opportunity to grow from an intern to her current position.

“Amy soaked in everything during her year as an intern at the ACC office,” Swofford noted. “She took every opportunity to lead as an intern and we recognized that. There was no task too small for Amy to undertake. She learned from each, and she gained everyone’s respect early in her time as an intern.

“It has been such a pleasure to see her grow in the profession over the years. Today, she is a great example to the young people in her profession by staying on the cutting edge of the communications field. Amy has a great mix of traits to be successful in the profession, whether it be her personality, her loyalty to the organization, or her work ethic.

“Amy  has done all this while being a role model wife and mother to two children. She comes from a great family. I got to know her parents, and you can see where she got these positive traits.”

Now Yakola and her husband, Scott, who has also spent his career working in college athletics at Duke, pass these traits on to their daughter, Allender, and son, Holden.

Yakola spent her first 23 years at the ACC under Swofford and now is in her third year working with Commissioner Jim Phillips, who quickly realized her unique value.

“Amy is an integral part of the DNA of the Atlantic Coast Conference,” said Phillips. “She has spent over 25 years working in the ACC office, serving as a valuable piece of so much of the rich history of this conference and experiencing the growth of the league from nine members to our soon-to-be 18 schools. 

“Her relentless efforts and passion for the ACC and collegiate athletics are undeniable, as are her contributions to not just the ACC but the entire college athletics landscape”.

Yakola hasn’t reached her 50th birthday and still has much to contribute in this era of seismic change.

“I didn’t set out to be a lifer at the ACC,” she said. “But it is such a great place to work. Being a part of college athletics and this conference is a rewarding profession. I have been fortunate at each step of my career. Clemson was a wonderful place to go to school. I met incredible people there every day, people who helped shape my path to this profession.

“And that has continued at the ACC, as I work with a great team of high-quality people in the conference office, and with the administrators at now 18 of the best institutions in the nation. I appreciate receiving these honors and thank all the people who have given me great opportunities and direction so far in my career.”