Purdue Northwest Sports Information Department Earns National Honors

PNW-Sports-Information-Department-Earns-National-HonorsThe Purdue University Northwest Sports Information department earned mutiple honors in both College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and NAIA-SIDA publications and media contests for its work during the 2015-16 academic year.

In total, the department placed in 10 categories across both CoSIDA and NAIA-SIDA contests, highlighted by its "Best Cover" awards -- one in the CoSIDA Baseball Guide category and another in the NAIA-SIDA Winter Brochure category, with its men's basketball entry.

PNW also earned a pair of third-place finishes in the NAIA-SIDA contest. In the Feature Stories category of the Walk McAlexander Publication Contest, Assistant Athletic Director Nicole Watkins' story on Purdue Calumet 2016 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Sandy Love-Todd titled HOF: Sandy Love-Todd's Competitive Spirit Made Her One of Program's Best, placed third, as did Watkins' infographic on Purdue Calumet's Academic Report in the Infographic category.

In the NAIA-SIDA Game Notes category, the department's men's soccer NAIA National Tournament notes garnered sixth-place honors, and its men's basketball (eighth) and women's basketball (10th) notes also placed in the Top 10 out of 49 entries.

The department's baseball media guide, created by Watkins and Sports Information Graduate Assistant Jon Newcomb, also placed in the NAIA-SIDA Top 10, earning ninth in the Spring Brochure contest.

In the Digital Media Production Contests, a student-produced video created by Evan Frystak, Sam Michel, Monica Trejo, Trevor Tslils, featured on men's basketball player Andis Malahovskis earned 10th-place honors in the Video Publicity Contest to round out PNW's NAIA-SIDA honors.

Finally, in the CoSIDA Publications contest, the men's basketball poster created by Watkins and photographer Mike Patton snagged eighth-place honors out of 41 entries in the College Posters category.

The sports information department has been successful in the growth of its social media outlets, as Twitter (+144%); Facebook (+117%), and Instagram (253%) all experienced exponential growth in the past two years. The creation of post-game graphics, videos, and more — plus the inclusion of social media training for student-athletes to encourage proper use and engagement — has skyrocketed the PNW brand into the social media world. The addition of embedded video highlights/feature pieces into the PNW Facebook page also produced more than 30,000 views over the course of a six-month period from December to June 2016.

The PNW Sports Information Department consists of Assistant Athletic Director of Sports Information Nicole Watkins, Graduate Assistant Jon Newcomb, Student Assistant David Bork, and Video Coordinator Ben Cowart. The department recently released its newly redesigned web site, PNWathletics.com through Streamline Technologies.