Willingness to Learn From The Best

Perhaps one of the most intimidating obstacles in the athletics communications profession is being assigned to a sport that you have no experience working with, or no knowledge of the sport, its rules and its culture at all. Inevitably, that is going to happen to everyone in this field at one point or another, often early in a career.

Whether its track and field, field hockey, swimming and diving, lacrosse or synchronized swimming, odds are, each athletics communications professional will be assigned to serve as a primary contact for a sport that he or she is unfamiliar with.

The natural human instinct - which is probably exacerbated with the growing disenchantment among talented athletics communications professionals - would be to use your inexperience and lack of knowledge of that sport as a crutch. That is - blame any failures on your lack of knowledge of that sport and your inexperience as a chief communications contact for that sport.

Excuses or actions like that are one of the things that are wrong with our profession.

Instead, look upon your new sport as an opportunity to learn and get better, which each of us should be striving to do on a daily basis.

I have given this advice several times over the past few months, so I felt it would be prudent to write a blog post about how to handle this type of situation. I am delighted that I’ve had the opportunity to give this advice and that there are so many new-to-sport SIDs out there who are eager to learn.

Upon being assigned said new sport, the first task that an athletics communicator should undertake is to find out who the best communications director for that sport is across the country. Ask your friends in the business who they feel the best contact in that sport is, search the web - see what communications directors in that sport have earned recognition, check the CoSIDA publications contest results - see which SID or school is consistently among the leaders in the annual contest. The best method is asking any communications professional in that sport - “Who is the best SID in your sport?”

Once you have identified that person, start studying their work as much as possible. How do they write their releases? What information is most pertinent in that sport? What charts do you like in their game notes and how can you adapt that information? Start modeling your work off of that person - if you need help on a post-game recap, find a recap that person wrote in a game situation very similar to your game and try to use their release as a template.

I’m not saying to be a copy-cat, but there’s no better way to learn (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?). Really, it doesn’t have to be just one person - it can be three of the nation’s top communications directors in that sport - with you taking what you like from each.

As the games/meets/matches go on, you will slowly develop your own style. It will be a combination of the expert communicator’s way of doing things, plus your own personal touch and style that you probably used with other sports that you have covered in the past.

Another great thing to do would be to reach out to that athletics communicator that you are modeling yourself after. Introduce yourself, say you are new to the sport, admire their work and look forward to meeting/working with them down the road.

More times than not, these “experts” are more than willing to talk the sport with you and, you will probably find that they will become a friend along the way. From time to time, if you have a question, your mentor would likely be willing to help in any way that he or she can.

There is no better way to become one of the best than to study and learn from the best. I am fortunate to have learned from the very best in the different sports I have covered and am so much better for the experience. Odds are, if they care that much about their sport, they’re going to be as much of a caring person in real life and you two will likely be great friends and colleagues for years to come.

From the minute you take on a new sport as the team’s athletics communications contact, immediately begin asking “Who is the best SID in your sport?”

And remember, it’s never too late to learn. Just because you have been a communications contact for a sport for several years, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the opportunity to learn from the best. We need to be constantly growing and evolving.

For instance, I was introduced the best athletics communications director in the sport of track and field at a chance meeting at the very first track and field meet I ever covered for the University of Kentucky in 2007.

But, in volleyball, I had been either a primary or secondary contact for the sport for five years at both Kentucky and Florida before I had the opportunity to interact (via e-mail) with the best athletics communications director in that sport. And those interactions, five years into it, have made me that much better.

We can always learn from people, no matter how long we have been doing that sport.

I urge each of you to embrace your new sport and strive to be one of the best in the country. Embrace and be thankful for your mentor relationships each day. Who knows, you may develop a keen understanding of that sport and find a deep passion for the beauty of that particular sport, and you may make life-long friends.

I know I did.