< Previous18 | • ‘I’m persuaded that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. Because of that, I want to talk about this history of enslavement and of native genocide and of lynching and segregation, not because I’m interested in punishing America. I want to liberate us. I really do believe there is something better waiting for us. I think there’s something that feels more like freedom. There’s something that feels more like equality. There’s something that feels more like justice that we have yet to experience in this country.’ • ‘There’s no way forward at this moment in our history that doesn’t involve some discomfort and doesn’t involve some inconvenience. And you just have to find the capacity and the courage to embrace that.’ Stevenson is a leader in social justice in the United States. In addition to this interview, read his book Just Mercy and check out his work with the Equal Justice Initiative and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. READ/LISTEN Bryan Stevenson on how America can heal by Ezra WATCH Critical Conversations: The Intersection of Race and Athletic Communications. A Professional Development Initiative from the CoSIDA Executive Board of Directors Moderator DeWayne Peevy (University of Kentucky) was joined by fellow CoSIDA members Jessica Poole (Chicago State University), Kenisha Rhone (Belmont University), Scottie Rodgers (Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic) and Kyle Serba (North Carolina Central University) for a discussion about race and our profession. This should be required viewing for all CoSIDA members to help us understand the challenges some of our colleagues face and to learn how we can create more equitable and welcoming work environments. Check out some of the highlights below. Jessica Poole: Don’t let your fear of the unknown keep you in the same space that you are. We have to move forward. There’s no option to not move forward. You need to do what you’re comfortable doing but don’t let a fear of saying the wrong thing or not being well received stop you from advancing yourself, advancing your institution or advancing our profession. We each need to be one percent better today than we were yesterday. If you want to diversify your department, take a step back and look at the climate in which you’re bringing people into. Make sure that you’re doing the work on the front end, and making CoSIDA Race & Social Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, author of Just Mercy and a clinical professor at the New York University School of Law, recently appeared on the Ezra Klein show to discuss truth and reconciliation in America. In the interview, Stevenson stresses that until we know and understand our actual history, we will be unable to know how to repair and undo the damage that has been done. While much of the interview focuses on the history of racial injustice in the United States, Stevenson’s ideas and principles can be applied to any institution that we belong to, including the institutions of higher education that employ CoSIDA members. Here are a few of Stevenson’s highlights from the interview: • ‘If you don’t know your history, you can’t really begin to understand what your obligations are, what your responsibilities are, what you should fear, what you should celebrate, what’s honorable and what’s not honorable.’ • ‘I believe colleges and universities need to have their own truth-telling process to document the ways in which they contributed to the history of racial inequality, the history of white supremacy. If you were a college and university functioning in the first half of the 20th century, there are things you should acknowledge you did to sustain racial inequality.’ Bryan Stevenson “It’s time to step up.” “I need to do more at my institution to combat racial injustice.” “Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Empathy is free. Get 1% better every day.” “That we all need to be doing what we can to talk about racial justice in our conference/institution. Don’t wait for black colleagues to do so.” “Don’t let your fear of the unknown keep you in the same space that you are in.” “Don’t be afraid to speak out. If this issue isn’t addressed, it can truly overtake an organization.” “Make sure to utilize minority organizations when posting job searches.” You Said We asked CoSIDA members, what was your biggest takeaway from the “Critical Conversations” discussion?CoSIDA 360 | SEPTEMBER 2020 | 19 your mind and heart so you can feel the stories. It will make you a better person and you’ll have more compassion. Step up, speak up and be anti-racist. I was living in the middle; I need to step up my game, too. Kenisha Rhone Amplify the voices of those who you know are doing good work on racial and social justice issues. Move beyond being allies, and be a champion for others. Get them involved in committees. People of all ethnic backgrounds need to help. In addition to making sure our student-athletes are heard, we should help them find productive ways to use what they have at their fingertips. Social media is a tool. Showing them the best ways to use utilize this tool could be opening a doorway for them to a great internship or a great career that they hadn’t even considered. DeWayne Peevy If you’re not digging deeper into looking for a more diverse applicant sure that your environment feels good for a minority to step into any position on your campus. Scottie Rodgers We have to make a change. If you’re at a school or a conference right now, and you are fortunate to have a position that you’re trying to fill, and you don’t try to seek out somebody to help diversify your pool, then you’re not doing that one percent. Make that extra phone call. There are people out there. When should you do something? Yesterday. Get used to being uncomfortable with these conversations. If you are not knowledgeable enough, seek out the diversity and inclusion staff on your campus or a professor that knows about these issues. Show that you can tackle tough issues. Kyle Serba As a white person, step outside your comfort zone. Expand your network, include a diversity of people. Once in that environment, listen. Open up pool, you’ll prevent yourself from meeting some very talented prospective employees. Peevy also highlighted the work of the McLendon Foundation, which provides postgraduate scholarships for minority students who intend on pursuing an advanced degree in the field of athletics administration. Learn more at The CoSIDA Diversity & Inclusion and Advocacy committees are committed to continuing this conversation about racial injustice and what we can do to make ours a more diverse and inclusive profession. For a follow up to this article, we’re asking CoSIDA members to submit examples of when they’ve faced discrimination (microaggressions, subtle racism, blatant racism, etc.). We would also like CoSIDA members to submit tips and helpful hints on how we can be champions in supporting minorities in our profession. Go for information about how to submit your stories. “In this profession of athletic communications on the college level, there’s a lot of work yet to be done in opening doors of opportunity for people of color. Also, for those who have already stepped into that door, much remains to be done to treat those individuals with a level of respect that is given to other employees at their institution.” “There is a difference between being an ally and a champion.” “This is not about a strategic plan, this is about an action plan.” “The fact that your ally doesn’t have to look like you. Also when you are recruiting minorities look around you and make sure you’re not bringing them into a hostile environment.” “I think it’s important that this discussion happened and I think it’s even more important to encourage even more colleagues who are not minorities to be in attendance. I’m excited for a future that can continue to change more positively, and better represent and be an asset to our student-athletes.” “Step up, speak up and be anti-racist. I was living in the middle; I need to step up my game, too.” Kyle Serba20 | “This was the first year we had teams,” Rosenthal said. “I think the team component really helped bring people together and give them people to engage with, especially during the quarantine. I think people found motivation and also because of the quarantine had a little more flexibility in their schedules to be able to get out of the house and be more active.” The success of the first Challenge — won by the team called Cirque de Sore Legs, captained by San Diego State’s Maddie Heaps for those keeping score at home — and the on-going work-from-home situation allowed for a second competition, with interest growing and the number of teams increasing from five to six and individuals from 80 to over 100. Each team has 16 individuals and the first team competition was calculated by most minutes per person per team over the 10 weeks. Within the first Challenge was a competition during the Virtual 5K, also won by Cirque de Sore Legs. The second leg of the Team Challenge now has six teams and the team that was at the bottom of the standings the first go-round — Better at Running up a Tab, captained by Olivia Coiro of Syracuse and Chelsey Chamberlin of LSU — is now leading the second round. The feeling of camaraderie among teams, who have Zoom sessions together or use WhatsApp to text, as well as the fun-loving trash talk has taken it to a level Rosenthal did not expect. “It has meant a lot to me to see how much everyone has embraced the challenge,” he explained. “My goal was to create a community of support and encouragement around fitness and it’s been fun and uplifting to see the enthusiasm people are bringing to this challenge.” The ability to have a place to share your goals and to find people who would help encourage you as you moved toward your goals are among the reasons the Challenge has been so embraced by its members. Some people joined to help continue something they had already started, some to start something new, some to get back to a better sense of health. More than anything, they all joined for a sense of camaraderie and a feeling of normalcy. During this unprecedented time in the world and unprecedented time in college athletics, the one thing everyone has craved is a sense of normalcy. We want to get back to our offices, back to our practices, to our interviews, to our games, to our travel and to our non-stop hours on weeknights and weekends from September to May that are commonplace for all sports information directors. College athletics came to an abrupt halt in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and since then, life hasn’t been the same. Indiana University assistant media relations director Jeremy Rosenthal, a life-long runner who has completed four marathons and has championed the annual CoSIDA 5K run, stepped in and wanted to do something to help out. Because of the success of the annual 5K run at the convention each year and the interest that had been generated through the Fitness Challenge in the last two years, he wanted to come up with a way to keep people together and motivated as many were quarantined at home. That sprang the first CoSIDA Fitness Team Challenge, which began in late March and culminated with the June Virtual 5K. Success Stories The CoSIDA Fitness Challenge team competition has been a highlight for many SIDs whose lives are being changed for the better, 10 weeks at a time. by Mex Carey | Michigan State University, Associate Director Athletics Communications | Goodwill & Wellness Jeremy Rosenthal of Indiana (pictured with his parents) is the organizer of the CoSIDA Fitness Challenge. Photo provided by Jeremy Rosenthal.CoSIDA 360 | SEPTEMBER 2020 | 21 everybody and what you’re doing, no matter how many minutes you’ve logged, the fact that you’re just trying and putting in effort, right now, that’s all you can do. And honestly, it’s nice to have people comment. It makes you feel good about what you’ve done.” Canfield has been staying at her parent’s house in Vermont during part of the quarantine and has added fitness work in their pool in addition to healthier eating, Beachbody workouts and walks. She’s lost 25 pounds since June and is more than a third of the way to her goal of losing 60 pounds. The whole process has allowed Canfield to feel better about herself in several different ways. “It’s not just physically, it’s also mentally,” she said. “Physically, it’s that nice burn after a workout that I never really appreciated before. I find myself doing things that I couldn’t do before. Just being willing to put myself out there, that has not happened in the last couple of years. “It’s made me take a really good look at things. All of this has been building a better me.” “If I put my mind to it, I can do anything.” Alan Babbitt, the sports information director at Hope College in Michigan, was already on his own journey when the team portion of the CoSIDA Fitness Challenge began in March. His weight-loss journey is one that has seen him lose almost 76 pounds and most of that was through diet. Babbitt admitted that he has never really been an active person, but the idea of joining a group of his colleagues was intriguing. “I needed something to push me over the finish line and I had already looked at doing a couch to 5K,” Babbitt said via Zoom. “I started that when I was working from home and when this (Challenge) came along, I knew I could continue it, that this would be a way for me to have some fun and meet some people as well. Babbitt, who has been at Hope for eight years, trained for his 5K by running a three-block loop through his neighborhood in Western Michigan. His wife and two daughters were out on the street with encouraging signs and draped a medal over his neck at the finish line. “There’s nothing that beats that feeling,” Babbitt said. “My wife and daughters were proud of me and supported me along the way. It’s hard to beat that feeling. It just felt really good.” Babbitt’s team, Better at Running up a Tab, has had ongoing conversations on WhatsApp in order to keep everyone connected and together, and to help encourage one another. “Our group, the conversation is never-ending,” Babbitt said. “We’re having fun with what we’re doing, what we’re trying to do and just checking on each other. There’s that accountability that helps each of us. We can encourage each other and when we had “All of this has been building a better me.” Sometimes you need a friend to help you along the way and Vassar College sports information director Amie Canfield found just the right person when her venture started. Canfield was sitting in her apartment one day and saw an ad on TV for a cost-effective membership for six months for Beachbody on Demand, so she signed up for it. Soon after, Canfield was on a Facebook group page and Amanda Radtke of North Florida, the co-captain for her Weapons of Fat Destruction team, mentioned that she was part of the program as well. “The two of us were connected, I changed my whole subscription, she became my coach and walked me through the whole process,” Canfield said. “She got me into that and pushed me to want to do better. Her always being there for me was a huge part of it.” Canfield was in the midst of her first 21-day session with Beachbody when she read about the Team Challenge and joined in, figuring she was already in the process and this would give her another group to share with and to encourage her in the process. “It’s huge,” Canfield said of the encouragement provided by being part of the challenge. “For me, especially being alone from January until July, this has been helping me have that accountability. Yeah, I could skip a workout, but is that the best thing for me?” Canfield is part of two other Facebook groups, one created by Radtke, and another that is specific to Beachbody and shares her workouts and progress on those pages. “I’m not just doing it for me, but I’m doing it to give hope to others that were just like me a couple of months ago, that didn’t think they could do it, didn’t think they could get through a 30-minute routine,” Canfield said. “Just being able to see Join The Next 10-Week Challenge (Starts September 14) Step 1: Email Jeremy Rosenthal at to be placed on a team. Step 2: Join the fun St. Louis area members came together in June to run the Virtual 5K. Ph ot o p ro vi de d b y C hr is M itc he ll.22 | “Looking at everyone on my team, they’re all in better shape than I am,” McIlwee said. “It hasn’t been discouraging to see that I can’t keep up with them. It’s actually been a confidence builder because I know I’m not doing as much as they are but they’re rooting me on as if I’m running marathons every day. McIlwee’s start to workouts were originally campus walks with his swim coach, Ned Skinner. Since he’s been working from home, he and his wife, Morgan, have been walking and doing videos through a group called Body Project. “We’re hitting this together,” he said. “We’ve been in this since Day One. We’ve talked about it that we’re influences on each other. If I have a bad day, I’m a bad influence on her and when we have good days, we end up being good influences for each other. “And when I post my workouts, to see people giving me congratulations from all over the country, saying great job or that I’ve inspired them…never in my life have I ever considered myself an inspiration as far as fitness. To see that just makes me realize that we’re all in this together and the bigger picture is that we’re all trying to make each other better and to push each other and support each other.” The Best He’s Felt in Years Jim Powers, the Coordinator of Athletic Communications at Maryville University in St. Louis, has been a high school basketball referee for 10 years. He had taken a couple of years off from running up and down the court because of work and during that time, he put on weight. He came back to the court two years ago, but he wasn’t feeling like he used to. In January of 2020, he made a commitment to start getting back into shape. And like many of his colleagues, when the winter and spring athletic seasons were canceled, he needed an outlet. someone who was hurt, we’d try to make up for them. “The best part is we had a mix of people like me, who were just starting doing it, and some people who had been doing it forever and we just help each other in that way. That makes it more fun and it’s not a drag to do an hour of exercise, it’s the feeling of excitement to help the team out.” Babbitt, who was so encouraged by his running that he pushed himself and completed a pair of 10K runs during quarantine, plans to continue this whenever life begins to get back to normal. “I feel better when I do it,” Babbit explained. “Mentally I feel better, physically I feel better. I don’t want to yo-yo and it’s really easy to do and I’ve done it before. “The best part of all of this is that it was a reminder that I can do anything I put my mind to.” The Start of a New Journey For Justin McIlwee, sports information director at Hollins University in Virginia, the CoSIDA Fitness Challenge was sort of the start of a journey, as he will be going through weight-loss surgery next summer. “My weight is something I’ve battled with my entire life,” McIlwee said. “I’ve always been a big guy. There wasn’t anything I had to do prior, but it was just starting getting into that better lifestyle where you’re working out five, six, seven times a week and eating better. “I’m very competitive and having the support of everyone on the team, it’s helped me get into that lifestyle. I’m working out 25-30-40 minutes every day knowing that in a year from now, I’m going to lose all of this weight.” has become not only a place to post your workouts or what you’re doing, but it’s also a motivating factor. “When I post something about a workout, I know I’m going to get support from 10 or 12 of my teammates or 10 or 12 other people in the competition,” he said. “It’s given me this confidence that I can go out and do this stuff and I don’t have to be a world- class athlete to do it. I’m just going out and doing my best.” McIlwee, who was an assistant at Millsaps College in Mississippi in 2018, had been diagnosed with diabetes before arriving at Hollins in 2019. By the time the first set of the Team Challenge had been completed in early June, he was below the threshold and no longer diabetic. “Getting into this and working on the lifestyle changes little bit-by-little bit has really helped,” McIlwee said. “I’ve always loved sports and playing football and baseball and that’s actually the goal, to get down to a weight where I go back and play in a baseball or flag football league, but being in this group has given me the push I needed.” His team, Weapons of Fat Destruction, captained by Amanda Radtke of North Florida and Danielle Percival of Piedmont College, has been a key part of his participation in the challenge. Goodwill & Wellness Alan Babbitt of Hope College was cheered on by his daughters as he completed the CoSIDA Virtual 5K. Justin McIlweePowers found it in the CoSIDA Fitness Challenge. “This year, I was really slugging and I just knew I couldn’t continue this cycle,” Powers said. “That was the point where I said, I’m 52-years-old and I just can’t carry this much weight.” Powers had lost 10 pounds between January and through the end of February before COVID-19 hit. The fact that he had to work from home was a blessing in disguise for him because it allowed him to create time in his schedule to take care of himself. He began by walking in his neighborhood, taking 30-minute jaunts. And then started doing workouts through his local Planet Fitness, taking advantage of on-line offerings to do his work at home. When his gym opened back up, he began to head over there to hit the treadmill and started adding weights into his workouts. “It was really then that I started to see some of the effects, toward the end of April as we were in the first Challenge,” Powers explained. “I put a button-down shirt on and normally it was a little snug, but now it was loose. I realized I’m doing something right.” Indeed he was. Powers had lost 27 pounds and, into August, he was down 41 pounds. “It’s turned into a habit,” Powers said. “It’s my daily routine. Normally, when I’d go to the gym, it was begrudgingly. Now it’s like I’m racing to the gym.” The support of his teammates — Quarantine Dream — and his athletic director at Maryville, Lonnie Folks, has helped him The Fun of Competition and Camaraderie by Mex Carey – Michigan State University, Associate Director of Athletics Communications Being part of a team was what drew Union College (Ky.) Director of Strategic Sports Communications Jay Stancil to the CoSIDA Fitness Team Challenge. Stancil was working the NAIA national tournament for the Bulldogs men’s and women’s basketball teams when the shutdown started and when he returned home, it was to a feeling of “what’s next.” “Being part of the team, in all honesty, with everything that’s happened this year, that’s been one of the best things to have, is this team competition,” Stancil said. “It’s been good to have a goal, good to have people you can communicate regularly with just to have the interaction. I’m not going to lie, when everything went down in mid-March, it got dark pretty quickly.” Competitors in the CoSIDA Fitness Team Challenge got into it for a variety of reasons — some to start a fitness plan, some to continue one, others to get back on track. But the common thread for almost everyone was the camaraderie. Stancil, who has run six marathons and completed a pair of 50K (just over 31 miles), joined for all of those reasons. “It’s been really good especially for my mental health, to help me focus and give me a little more drive to work out,” Stancil said. “It’s helped get my running back on track and my overall fitness and well-being back on track.” Stancil, co-captain of the Home Bodies team, has enjoyed being part of the team and the networking aspect of the challenge. “It’s been neat because we’ve all become friends,” Stancil said. “We’ve got this group of teammates cheering us on and supporting us. When the teams were handed out, I only really knew one person, but it’s allowed us to meet and interact with people you may not have had the chance with otherwise.” Always a runner, one of the aspects that Stancil has enjoyed hearing is the variety of activities people are doing, from yoga, to weightlifting to rucking (Dave Walters, formerly of Guilford College) and hiking. “I’m not going to lie, one of my weakness has always been weights,” Stancil said. “Because I’ve had free time and my daughter is home, our family has started going on hikes together and it’s been great to share that with them. Not everyone is a runner so it’s good to see people doing different things and sharing all of these experiences with one another.” CoSIDA 360 | SEPTEMBER 2020 | 23 become a better him. And he doesn’t plan on stopping. “It feels really good,” Powers said. “It’s the best I’ve felt in years. A lot of it is the support I get, everyone on our team, everyone in the Challenge, everyone at Maryville — it’s a real motivating factor. “There’s no doubt that having the group and seeing what everyone else is doing is helping me. There’s a whole dynamic about the group. Why do the minimum when we can push ourselves. That’s the biggest thing. I never concentrated on me and now I am.” 24 | graph, or chart to users who are visually impaired. Multiple avenues for multimedia Supply multiple avenues for multimedia content (e.g., audio with a transcript, video with captioning). Video, audio, and interactive media requires captioning or an alternative method to deliver the same information. Rationale: Captions and transcripts benefit a wide variety of users, including non-native speakers, users who are deaf and hard of hearing, and users in sound- sensitive environments. Making links and text more understandable Use descriptive titles, headers, and link text to provide added context. Link text that describes what you are linking to, which helps readers scan and anticipate where they will go when clicking a link. Link text such as “Click here” provides little context to where the link is actually going. Instead, use “Click here to see the complete bracket” with all of the text hyperlinked. Do not solely rely on references to shape, size, or position to describe content. Web Accessibility is the inclusive practice of making websites and web applications usable by people of all abilities, including people with disabilities. The goal is for all users to have equal access to information and functionality. are developed through the in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally. For PrestoSports clients, find links for and its (login required) at PrestoSports.com. For SIDEARM Sports clients, find links for its and at SIDEARMsports.com. In addition, your institution’s IT or disability services department can be a resource for website accessibility. Below are some general tips and online tools to help anyone get started with digital accessibility. Some items refer to a software program that allows blind or visually impaired users to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer or braille display. Diversity & Inclusion 10 Things You Can Do To Improve the Accessibility of Your Website Your goal should be equal access for all users to information and functionality. by Mindy Brauer Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Assistant Director of DAPER Communications, Promotions and Marketing // CoSIDA Diversity & Inclusion Committee member Text and contrast for graphics and web pages Check that text has a strong contrast against the background. Providing enough contrast between text and the background enables content to be read by those with moderate visual impairments and in low light conditions. Rationale: Contrasting text and background colors make the text more readable for color-blind and low-vision users. Conveying information through text styles and color Don’t use color alone to convey meaning. Use icons, written content, and other visual elements to reinforce clear communication of the content. Test what it’s like to view your designs through a color blindness simulator. Rationale: This helps color-blind and low-vision users recognize where you are emphasizing specific text. Alternative text Provide alternative text for images, graphs, and charts. Descriptive alt text explains what is being illustrated and is read when using non-visual browsers. If images are decorative and don’t directly relate to the content, add a null tag <””> to the alt text. Rationale: Screen readers “read” the images, graphs, and charts using the alternative text that you have provided. This explains the purpose of your image, 1 2 3 4 5Heading styles Use descriptive heading styles to designate content organization. Using headings (e.g., Heading 1, Heading 2) indicates the hierarchy of content. Predefined style headings in text editors allow readers to more clearly understand the structure of your document or web page. On long pages of content, consider using a table of contents to help readers jump more quickly between headings. Rationale: Screen reader users skip through the outline of a web page to find out where they want to go. Headings provide screen readers with this information and help visually impaired users navigate through your content more quickly. List styles Use bulleted or numbered list styles to denote list structure. This also ensures consistent formatting and helps screen readers understand content structure and organization. Rationale: Screen readers have to be given instructions to know how to organize content. Formatting lists provides screen readers with this information and helps visually impaired users navigate through your content more quickly. Well-formatted web pages also are easier to read for users with any cognitive disabilities. Tables Format and use simple tables with column and row headers. Split nested tables up into simple tables, and don’t use tables to control layout. Rationale: Complex tables can be difficult for readers to follow and comprehend, especially for screen reader users who have to remember the headers. Capitalization Use capitalization sparingly. Capitalizing all letters in a word or sentence can be visually difficult to read, and it causes a screen reader to read each individual letter instead of the word. Keyboard navigable content Make sure content can be navigated via a keyboard. Keyboard navigation is the primary means used for navigating content on a web page by users who have visual or mobility impairments. Sources: American Foundation for the Blind, MIT Disability and Access Services, Michigan State University Web Accessibility, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative 6 7 8 9 10 The #CoSIDA2020 panel “Breaking the Stigma” touched on multiple topics around accessibility and working with students and fans with disabilities. It’s available to watch on-demand QUICK POLL What CoSIDA program has been your favorite since the pandemic hit? 46% #CoSIDA2020 Virtual Convention 16% CoSIDA Coffee Shop 11% Race & Social Justice Initiative 11% Listening & Leading Webinar Series 7% CoSIDA Salary Survey results, infographics and videos 5% CoSIDA Fitness Challenge 4% CoSIDA 360 Magazine “Can I have more than one? The Coffee Shops are great, the convention was great and I’m thankful for the Race & Social Justice Initiative.” - Judy Willson, LSU “I’ve truly enjoyed the on-demand ability with all of the convention and other professional development segments. Schedules have been changing constantly, but being able to go back and listen/watch something at my convenience has been the best part.” - Dan Ruede, New Haven CoSIDA 360 | SEPTEMBER 2020 | 2526 | After experiencing games with no fans, Bowman says she has a new perspective on how athletics communications professionals should approach their jobs, especially if college games are ultimately played without fans. “Storytelling is going to be crucial until fans are able to return to events. Not that storytelling wasn’t important before, but it was supplemental to what fans were able to experience themselves,” Bowman said. “Now we as SIDs, digital marketers, social content creators, etc., have an increased responsibility and opportunity to provide a different experience to our audiences, in place of their being in-venue. Our creative juices will have to overflow as we figure out different or new ways to showcase our student- athletes, coaches and programs.” Glon credits his experiences as an SID working events in Europe, Kuwait, Mexico and the Bahamas to helping him adapt quickly to the unusual circumstances. And, he has the following advice for fellow SIDs. “Be flexible and do the best you can with the situation that you are presented with. Limit your own mistakes, although they will happen,”Glon said. “Don’t worry about what is out of your control. Enjoy that you have a career in athletics — it beats the heck out of working for a living!” As live sports returned this summer, one of the first to do so was The Basketball Tournament, the annual competition of non-NBA, former major-college athletes in a single- elimination, winner-take-all format. This year’s event was held in Columbus, Ohio, in early July and included two college athletics communications professionals who experienced life inside the tournament ‘bubble.’ Tim Glon, the long-time Director of Sports Information at Ohio Northern University, and Monique Bowman, Associate Director/Digital Media, at The Ohio State University were confined to the bubble for 16 days from June 29-July 14. During that time, they were only allowed at the hotel, an outdoor courtyard fenced off from the public, parts of an adjacent convention center and the arena. “There was a lot of hesitation prior to going into the bubble but more so of being out of my routine and being away from home for that long,” said Bowman. “It was tough being restricted for that long. But TBT, the teams, the hotel and others involved did a great job of developing and maintaining the bubble and procedures to keep us safe and healthy.” Glon was tested seven times over 19 days beginning with a test at home five days before driving to Columbus, again when he arrived at the hotel five days before the games and five more times during the tourney. In addition, everyone involved did a temperature check each morning. According to Glon, there were nine positive cases (seven on day 1, two on day 3) once players and staff arrived at the hotel with all nine being asymptomatic, and no positive cases after day three. “The games were very different with no fans — you could hear everything the players, coaches and officials were saying which was entertaining to say the least,” he said. “The players’ benches were on one side of the court by themselves and all of the staff were on the other side to help with social distancing.” by Will Roleson CoSIDA Associate Executive Director SIDs Live, Work in the ‘Bubble’ at TBT Tim Glon of Ohio Northern and Monique Bowman of Ohio State served as statisticians for The Basketball Tournament in Columbus. Ph ot os c ou rte sy T im G lo n. Tim Glon and Monique Bowman inside the bubble.CoSIDA 360 | SEPTEMBER 2020 | 27 I’m proud of the job I have and the work I do, but I’ll always be the last one to bring it up. And I know I’m just like many of you. We chose a role in athletic communications so we wouldn’t have to talk about ourselves or be the center of attention. We take joy in telling the stories of others and doing our jobs behind the scenes. But, just like any movie, sometimes the protagonist needs to emerge from the shadows and begin the journey to bigger things by standing up for themselves. In a half-serious effort to remind Sam Atkinson of what lies ahead after he virtually accepted the CoSIDA presidential gavel, I shared a quote from the movie A Bug’s Life that is offered by Hopper, the one-eyed grasshopper. “The first rule of leadership,” suggested Hopper, “is that everything is your fault.” The idea underscores the fact that there isn’t much difference in the responsibility of leadership whether you’re at the top of the ladder of CoSIDA or running things in the insect kingdom. In the case of CoSIDA, the total burden of overseeing how we function is not solely on the shoulders of the association president or the national staff. It’s shared by a team of officers and executive board members, an advisory council, those serving on seven divisional cabinets, committee chairs and just over 500 committee members. Our strength and effectiveness grows when we can get a consensus of leaders pulling the rope in the same direction. To be a strong, effective and — most importantly — a relevant organization we also need buy-in to the leadership responsibility from our entire membership base. That’s a critical component for any non-profit association to be successful. We all understand the painful dynamics that have been bombarding our jobs and lives over the past five months. It’s a world fraught with uncertainty. Those fears specific to our profession are breeding a growing anxiety about job security which, in some instances, signals the alarm for help. People want to pinpoint exactly how CoSIDA is looking out for their interests and advocating on their behalf. Which invites another important question. Do our members realize the scope of our commitment to the concept of advocacy? Advocacy is a core principal that defines our purpose and drives our mission as a nonprofit organization and will be for the foreseeable future. It’s a daily endeavor but not always visible to our members. Allow me to explain the reason why. Legendary basketball coach Dean Smith once said: “You Advocacy Understanding What CoSIDA Does Under the Heading of Advocacy by Doug Vance | CoSIDA Executive Director should never be proud of doing the right thing. You just do it.” By and large, that’s how CoSIDA often treats its efforts in advocacy. We don’t flaunt the many strategies we’ve designed on the advocacy front. We calculate what needs done and we do it. Also in play, I suspect, is that not everything we do to elevate our profession is clearly defined as being under the advocacy umbrella. Evidence to that fact can be found in the list of activities at the end of this story. Patting ourselves on the back for fulfilling the expectations of our jobs is not something on our checklist of duties. It never has been. And, I’m relatively certain it’s also not a goal for our members in performing their own work tasks. It’s a fair question to ask what CoSIDA does in the name of advocacy. It’s also not unreasonable for CoSIDA to seek an understanding of what its members are doing to advocate for themselves. It stands to reason that an SID — known for their skills as storytellers and gaining recognition for others — are the most qualified to tell their own stories when lobbying for enhancements to their jobs. We are known for our prowess in promoting student-athletes and our caution in doing the same for ourselves. Maybe that plays a role into why we are sometimes undervalued. How can we get our members to unmask this imbalance? Or, how do we take a weakness and turn it into a strength? CoSIDA has a responsibility to help our members grow their advocacy skills and build their own toolbox of resources. It’s not hard to envision the possibilities if we could harness our advocacy strength with the majority of our members putting their skills in a campaign for themselves and the profession. What I’m suggesting is that our advocacy punch could be most effective with the combined strength of a focused campaign at both the national and local levels. Making our members better advocates on their campuses is already on the radar of CoSIDA’s Advocacy Committee. It’s also been singled out as a vital strategy by both the CoSIDA staff and board of directors. One example to illustrate that emphasis was the compensation and career satisfaction survey data CoSIDA developed and unveiled in a five-part series just as the pandemic struck. That should prove to be a valuable tool for our members when they want to make the case for more resources and higher wages. Before coming to CoSIDA, I spent nine years as Executive Director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association. The job included serving as a sanctioned lobbyist and dealing Photo by Colin White.Next >