How SIDs are Working Through a Time Without Sports
The coronavirus has forced millions of Americans to make adjustments and form new social habits during an unprecedented time. For many of them, one of the biggest adjustments has been working from home. Teachers, real estate agents, lawyers, and many people in other professions are doing just that.
Sports information directors (SIDs) are in the same boat.
Although the Southeastern Conference has suspended competitions for the remainder of the 2019-20 athletic year, SIDs have continued to provide communication between the athletics department and its external and internal constituents.
Steve Fink, Diana Koval, Kent Reichert and numerous other SIDs and communications professionals work in the Athletics Communications and Public Relations department at the University of South Carolina.
Fink heads the department and works as Assistant Athletics Director under Athletic Director Ray Tanner.
The spring has not been any less busy for them. But it sure has been different. “What we don’t have is the day-to-day normal inter-office interactions where you bounce ideas off each other or share in each other’s successes and/or challenges related to their teams,” Fink says.
Fink says as long as he has his laptop, he can get a lot of things done.
“I’m involved with several communications meetings each week, done remotely, and just working from home,” Fink says. “Over my career, I’ve worked a lot remotely, either at home or from hotel rooms, so it’s not that unusual for me.”
Even though these SIDs aren’t spending time physically in the office at the Rice Athletics Center or being around and traveling with their team, they still have lots of work to do. They have continued working to increase awareness of South Carolina Athletics and publicize the Gamecocks student-athletes and teams.
Koval is the Director of Athletics Communications and Public Relations for the Gamecocks women’s basketball team.
After Dawn Staley’s team carried the No. 1 seed in 10 consecutive AP Polls, defeated the UConn Huskies for the first time in program history, and won the SEC Tournament, the team was at the forefront of media attention.
All SIDs are busy, but given the team’s recent success, 32-1 record, and status as one of the premier women’s basketball programs throughout the country, Koval was among the busiest. She says she and the department do their best to take care of local and national media as much as possible.
The last time Koval was around Coach Staley and the student-athletes was in the locker room on March 8 after they defeated Mississippi State 76-62 to win the SEC Tournament. Then the NCAA suspended the men’s and women’s national tournaments. Koval says she found out the same way many other people did: from the NCAA posting it on social media.
The cancellation of the national tournament did not mean Koval’s work was done or she could take her foot off the gas.
“Coach Staley is a national figure and prominent voice in women’s basketball, so once she was ready to do interviews, I’ve been working with a wide variety of media outlets to keep her voice in the national conversation,” Koval says.
Koval says her department and the women’s basketball program worked on a piece with The Players’ Tribune, organized a local media press conference via Zoom, did countless video interviews with local and national television, and scheduled podcast interviews. “We’re also taking this time to broaden the reach of our program, doing interviews with smaller or more niche media outlets that we may not typically have time for due to the playing season and Coach’s recruiting schedule.”
Koval says the student-athletes on the women’s basketball team were disappointed to not be able to pursue winning a national championship and that the freshmen were upset the seniors would not be able to end their careers the way they had hoped.
Two of those senior leaders, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan and Tyasha Harris, were on the Gamecocks national championship team during the 2016-17 season. Though they were not able to cut the down the nets for a second time, their basketball careers were not over. They were eligible for the WNBA Draft, which was held virtually on ESPN on April 17.
Koval says this year’s draft was not too different than usual for her. She and her department only attended the draft once before, back in 2018 when it was widely expected South Carolina legend A’ja Wilson would be the No. 1 overall pick to play for the Las Vegas Aces. This time around, Herbert Harrigan and Harris were selected back-to-back at sixth and seventh overall. Unlike drafts in previous years, players, media, and guests were not on-site.
Koval says the WNBA was great about providing the probable first-round draftees with the jerseys and hats of the teams to take photos. She adds that ESPN worked extremely hard to be connected to players to bring the fans the experience of sharing the selection with the players.
“For me, it was more business as usual being prepared with graphic and video elements leading up to and after Tyasha and Mikiah were selected.”
Koval is not the only SID from the Athletics Communications and Public Relations department who saw student-athletes they have worked closely with move on to professional careers beginning on draft night.
Typically, Gamecock football players eligible for the NFL Draft participate in the South Carolina Pro Day in March. With athletic competitions and on-campus events canceled, the weeks leading up to the NFL Draft were a little different for Fink, who focuses his efforts on the football program. But he says the cancellation of the South Carolina Pro Day originally scheduled for March 19 affects the student-athletes themselves more than anybody else.
“For them, Pro Day is like having a job interview with the top 32 companies that you would want to work for, and then not getting that opportunity to showcase your skills. They’ve worked so hard for years to have that once in a lifetime opportunity, then to have it taken away had to be disappointing for them.”
Even without the Pro Day, four Gamecocks were selected in the NFL Draft, with five others signing with teams as undrafted free agents. The San Francisco 49ers made defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw the first Gamecock to hear his name called by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during this year’s draft when they used the 14th overall pick on the 2019 Associated Press First Team All American.
Fink says after getting to know the Gamecock football players personally, he could not be any happier for them when they move on to the professional ranks.
“It’s a dream come true for them. They are all great guys who represented our University and the football program in a first-class manner. Obviously, Javon’s story is somewhat unique, so you can’t help but feel a sense of pride for him and what he has overcome. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for him growing up. But we saw him grow up before our eyes and he deserves everything he gets. I know he’s very humbled and appreciative,” Fink says.
Fink has never attended the draft in person. Like Koval, he says his virtual draft experience was not any different than any other year.
“My role didn’t change. I followed the draft like most everyone else and was prepared to send out information on our players when they were selected.”
The NFL and WNBA drafts went on as planned, but when it comes to the upcoming MLB Draft, there seem to be as many questions as there are answers.
On March 26, the 30 ballclubs and the players’ association reached an agreement that allows Major League Baseball to cut the draft from 40 rounds to as few as five this year due to COVID-19 delaying the start of the season and posing an economic burden to the sport. The draft’s date and length have not been officially set.
Reichert is the Associate Director of Athletics Communications and Public Relations for the South Carolina baseball team. He acknowledges that a shortened MLB Draft will bring a lot of signees that might have gone pro to South Carolina.
“We could have 50-plus guys on the roster in the fall. With the NCAA still mandating that you have to get to 35 (except for the seniors in 2020) by Opening Day of 2021, there are going to be a lot of tough decisions to make,” Reichert says.
Like Fink and Koval, Reichert has continued working throughout the spring, whether that has been by providing social media content for the baseball program, communicating with Head Coach Mark Kingston, or planning virtual press conferences.
He has had to make adjustments and be creative along the way, but he understands there are bigger issues than college baseball not being played on campuses across the country.
“It’s been tough because you have all of these things planned and then it all goes away. We also want to be sensitive to the fact that millions of people are getting sick, tens of thousands of people are dying, and millions of people are out of work,” Reichert says. Reichert has learned not to take anything for granted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The day-to-day grind of a baseball season can get tiring, but I think everyone would say that they would love to be there right now”.
Similarly, Fink has been reminded of one thing.
“We aren’t in control of things. No matter how much we plan, there are no guarantees in life and things can be taken away at any time. I think we all have had time to slow down a little a reflect on things that are most important to us.”
