PHOENIX, Arizona, April 7. ONE of the unsung heroes within the sports community is the media relations contact and sports information director (SID). These tireless workers put forth an incredible amount of hours to make sure that the best each organization has to offer is provided to the public and media.
Swimming World continues to shine the light on the best of the best with its second annual SID of the Year award. Texas' Travis Feldhaus has been named the winner of the second-annual award as the top SID within the sport this year. This comes a year after Feldhaus was named honorable mention.
For those not aware of the integral role SIDs play within the sports community, these people are the workers assigned by organizations within the industry to interact with the media for their respective sports. Many of the interesting facts and stats found within media reports usually come directly from the intense research done by SIDs.
With this in mind, the staff at Swimming World analyzed how quickly SIDs worked with us on the requests for information, images and interviews as well as how they did promoting their own programs.
This past year, Feldhaus did an outstanding job with the Longhorns. On top of working with the Texas men, who wound up taking second at the NCAA Division I Men's Championships, Feldhaus also had the pleasure of publicizing one of the top women's recruiting classes in the land.
Texas men's head coach Eddie Reese on Travis:
He is one of the best SIDs I've ever seen. He really takes everything about the sport seriously, and just does a great job. He also works well with the athletes as they all know and like him.
Texas women's head coach Kim Brackin on Travis:
He does a great job of covering our current team's accomplishments, and he takes the time to get to know each of the women on the team so that he has more perspective on the items he reports. Also, it is such an exciting year in recruiting and he did a great job of marketing the incomers and promoting them. He is as excited as we are to have that kick start next year.
Other SIDs were named honorable mention for the award based on their strong professional work. This year, we added media relations members of various National Governing Bodies to those up for the SID of the Year award.
Collegiate Ranks:
Matt Crouch (Auburn), Paul Goldberg (Southern California), Chris Harrell (Texas A&M), Jeremiah Hergott (Michigan), Jeff Keiser (Minnesota), Justin Kischefsky (Navy), Kendra Lee (Ohio State), Chris Macaluso (Purdue), Doug Meffley (Northwestern), Jessica Raber (Washington), Casey Self (Tennessee), Jakob Skipper (William & Mary), Ryan Sosin (Michigan).
National Governing Body Ranks;
Jamie Fabos (USA Swimming), Erin Greene (USA Swimming), Ian Hanson (Swimming Australia), Yana Ivanova (Swimming South Africa), Karen Linhart (USA Swimming), Martin Richard (Swimming Canada).
2007 Honorees:
SID of the Year: Doug Meffley, Northwestern
Honorable Mention: Travis Feldhaus (Texas), Paul Goldberg (Southern California), Chris Harrell (Texas A&M), Jeff Keiser (Minnesota), Justin Kischefsky (Navy), Kristie Le (Atlantic Coast Conference) and Jakob Skipper (William & Mary).
Click here for 2007 announcement.