What can athletic departments do to obtain more media coverage for their unheralded athletes? This author provides some tricks of the trade.

By Jeff Brewer

Jeff Brewer is Founder of SportsInk, LLC, a sports communication and consulting firm in Akron, Ohio. The former Director of Athletic Communications at the University of Akron, he also worked in the sports information office at Penn State University. He can be reached at jeff@sportsink.com.

Some athletes get a lot of media attention, such as the quarterback of an undefeated football team or an All-America point guard. The long-standing tradition in sports news is to cover the most watched sports and the winningest athletes.

But what about your other student-athletes who deserve some recognition—the field hockey team that just won its first championship, the baseball team that raised money for a local charity, or the pole vaulter who competes with diabetes. Is there a way to get them into a media spotlight?

Whether you're a veteran sports information director or a high school athletic director who has never thought of public relations before, you should know that how you promote these unheralded athletes does effect the media's coverage decisions. The press is always hungry for good stories to tell, you just need to know how to sell them.

You should also know that the end result of media coverage provides many dividends. When a deserving athlete or team is recognized in the news, it can raise your entire athletic department to a higher level. The community better appreciates your program, athletes get a boost of self-esteem, and coaches know they are being supported.

But none of this can happen unless you have a gameplan. Just like with coaching, you'll need to do some scouting, recognize your leaders, understand the rules, and cover the details.

SCOUTING REPORT
The first step to getting your unrecognized athletes in the news is to understand how the media marketplace is evolving. In years past, the local sports page ruled the roost, but cable television, the Internet, and 24-hour sports radio stations have dramatically changed the landscape. The idea of a full-time college sports television network was unthinkable 30 years ago and now there are two. Web sites focused on less-popular sports are providing regional and national coverage. This means there are more places to tell your athletes' stories than ever before.

Still, there are many people and groups vying for media attention. Most newspaper sports editors feel they're short-staffed, and if you wait for them to come to you, you'll usually be left waiting a long time.

So before you begin to plan your media approach, you need to make sure to do your homework. A common mistake that even professionals sometimes make is pushing an unqualified candidate forward for attention. At best, you can turn into the "boy who cried wolf," if your athlete doesn't measure up to your hype. At worst, you can shine a bright light on someone who can't stand up to the glare, turning what should have been a positive experience into a negative one.

First and foremost, make sure you are confident that the student-athlete, coach, or team you are trying to pump up is worthy of the extra attention you are pursuing. Being objective about one of your own athletes can be hard for you and your coaches, so try to take a step back and think about your athlete's credentials in a broader context.

Also think about any negative ramifications of the idea. For example, an athlete may have academic or character issues or even legal entanglements you're not aware of. If there is any doubt about these issues, you're better off not going forward with extra publicity efforts.

Once you've determined that an individual or team is worthy, it's essential to be sure everyone involved is completely comfortable with your plan. Some coaches fear that focusing on one athlete will harm team chemistry. Furthermore, some athletes do not want the added attention or pressure that can come with media attention. Others may have personal problems they don't want exposed. Although it is rare, I had a college athlete once say "Thanks, but no thanks," after I outlined the promotional efforts we had planned for him. He simply was not interested in receiving any outside notice.

If a coach or player expresses reservations about drawing added attention, remind them that a feature story or promotional campaign could be beneficial not only for the athlete, but also the team and the entire athletic department. However, without the cooperation of the athlete and coach, you are finished before you start.

THE WINDUP
Once everyone is on board you can begin to plot a path to the media. The first step is finding a way to make your athletes' stories stand apart from the crowd. To start, think about what element of the story will best capture the attention of a reporter or editor.

Many people figure numbers will do the trick: a 1,000-point scorer in basketball, the first swimmer in league history to crack the one-minute mark, the school's new career passing leader. But every school has record holders and 1,000-point scorers. While those numbers may make an athlete special to your school, statistics alone don't usually impress a sports reporter unless they compare with the all-time greats at a state or national level.

One of the most important things I learned from former Penn State Associate Sports Information Director Mary Jo Haverbeck was to think of statistics as purely supplementary. Don't bury an editor with trivia and meaningless numbers. Good stories sell newspapers and magazines more than numbers.

"There are lots of national champions, but we had one who had defected from Romania," says Dave Wrath, Sports Information Director at Augustana (Ill.) College. "This athlete actually stepped off the course at the world junior cross country championships and into the arms of a policeman. Another national champion from Ethiopia had a father who was the king of the Oromian tribe and fighting a bloody revolution against the ruling government. Both stories received some good publicity."

How do you know if any of your athletes come with any interesting stories? If you haven't already done so, make time to get to know your student-athletes. Also, let parents and coaches know you are looking for intriguing storylines. Most colleges have student-athletes complete an athletics questionnaire to get background information, and it also serves as a consent disclosure statement. Your knowledge of the athlete as a person will be an asset when you pitch his or her story.

One of my favorites was a 27-year old student-athlete who had served four years in the Presidential Honor Guard. He appeared in the movie Clear and Present Danger and was a member of the team that conducted burial services for President Richard Nixon. Our head coach mentioned in passing that one of our football recruits had been in the military and performed burial ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. I asked some questions, got his full story, and pitched it to the media with great success.

The University of Northern Colorado was able to play the name game. "We had a basketball player by the name of Thanasi Panagiotakopoulos," says Colin McDonough, Northern Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations. "He was not the most talented player on our team, and he came off the bench all season. But with a little prodding to the Denver television stations, we got the NBC affiliate to come out and do a small piece on a player with a not-so-small name."

More serious stories may be difficult for athletes to tell and require delicate treatment. One year, our star quarterback's brother had been killed in a gun accident. Naturally, this story required sensitivity and, after receiving the go-ahead from the student-athlete, I pitched it to the writer who I felt would do the best job. In another situation, the story was the young man's home life, which included being raised by his grandparents. The key is to connect with your student-athlete before you try to promote his or her story.

THE PITCH
There are almost as many ways to sell a story as there are stories. Sometimes an informal approach works best. Since reporters are always looking for good stories to tell, a quick phone call, e-mail, or pre-game conversation mentioning your idea may be enough to pique a reporter's interest.

Other times, more formal tactics are needed. Having lunch with the editor or writer who covers your school is a time-tested method. Get together during the summer and lay out the coming school year, focusing on three or four good story ideas. You should also ask, "What can we do to help you better cover our teams and individual student-athletes?" People and procedures change over time, so you shouldn't assume what worked well last year will automatically work well again. Take the answer to heart and implement changes if necessary.

Regardless of the method you use, there are some basic rules to follow when making your pitch:

Timing is everything. When contacting the media, be prepared, choose a good time, and don't become a pest. Unless you have a game result, don't call on deadline. If you don't know the deadlines for the papers that cover your school, ask. Afternoons are generally a good time to call, since you can usually reach both people working a day shift or night shift.

Make your pitch far enough in advance to be helpful, but not so early that it is forgotten. Don't wait until the last game of the season to tell a reporter about your star pitcher whose uncle played in the big leagues, but don't bring it up after a football game either.

Know your local sports calendar. Even though you may have turned your attention from fall to winter, pitches for your basketball players may go unnoticed if another area school is in the middle of the state football playoffs. Others events, such as golf tournaments or auto races, may consume a sports staff's time for selected weeks, leaving little time for anything else.

Make sure you're pitching to the right person. In some offices, the editor makes all the coverage decisions. In others, the reporter has more freedom to decide which stories to pursue.

Don't rely solely on one method of communication. Use a blend of phone calls, faxes, e-mails, and good-old U.S. mail and know which method each media outlet prefers. Find out which e-mail address or fax number to use. Some offices may want feature ideas sent to one address and game results to another.

Although some public relations offices have done away with traditional mail, mailed pieces still have their place. For many years, a popular sports columnist in our area requested that information be mailed to his home address. We didn't crush him with the full run of our press releases, but sent him copies of selected ones so that he knew any mail he received from our office was important.

Be creative in finding ways to interest other journalists. If the story has appeal outside the sports world, ask your sports contact if someone at the local desk or features desk might be interested. Articles with a fundraising or financial angle might interest the business desk.

For college athletes, don't forget hometown media, including weekly publications. And if your story involves a coach, he or she no doubt has an alma mater that prints an alumni magazine. Media outlets in that community may be interested in what's happening with your coach as well.

There are many niche publications dedicated to specific sports, both in print and on the Web. While you may not read Inside Lacrosse or Wrestling USA, coaches and players do, and a story read by their peers may mean as much to them as one read by their neighbors.

Keep pitching. I've had more than one story fall on deaf ears with our local media. That's the nature of the business, especially in a medium to large market. But in one situation I believed the story was a winner, so I pitched it again, this time to Sports Illustrated. After the story ran there as a 200-word capsule, one local writer did call back to do a story for his paper.

It is possible to have three to five pitches in the air at any one time, but try to hit the same editor or writer with only one pitch at a time. One rule of thumb I followed was to not pitch the same feature story to competing outlets at the same time. Two rival TV stations showing up at practice to do the same story can be an awkward situation and the media's trust in you will quickly diminish.

Sometimes, it takes persistence to get your message heard in a major media market. "Many consider Denver a pro sports town with the Rockies, Broncos, and Avalanche dominating the headlines," McDonough says. "Then you throw in Colorado, Colorado State, Air Force, and Denver. You begin to wonder how you can get your head in the door when you're Northern Colorado. The task looks daunting, but patience and special athletes make a difference.

"This year we had a wide receiver, Vincent Jackson, who ran a 4.48 in the 40 at the NFL combine, but it still took us awhile to get the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post to notice him," McDonough continues. "Each week I updated an 'In-Vince-able Jackson' piece and sent it as a PDF along with my weekly release to each of the Denver media outlets. Little by little, requests began to trickle in. Then after his 15-catch 227-yard game against nationally ranked Montana, they all wanted a piece of Vincent Jackson. Persistence is huge with bigger media markets."

Don't "big-time" your regulars. When you do get a big story that will draw national attention, don't bypass your primary media outlets. The local media will still be around long after Sports Illustrated and ESPN have covered the story. Everyone understands that you can't keep the big stories away from the major outlets, but make sure you take care of the local outlets at the same time. Regardless of who else comes calling, always work to maintain a good relationship with your primary media contacts.

FOLLOW THROUGH
You've finally persuaded a media outlet to do a story on your student-athlete or coach. You might think the hard work is over, but at this point, it's more like having the lead going into the fourth quarter. The game hasn't been won just yet. Believe it or not, many well-pitched stories have fallen into the abyss at this stage.

The first step is to prepare the subject for the upcoming interview. Your student-athlete needs to understand the responsibilities that come with being thrown into the public eye. A little bit of coaching in this area can go a long way to making for a successful story.

Appearance, punctuality, and enthusiasm are key ingredients. Nice, casual attire is recommended for press interviews. It may be dated, but I've never been a fan of hats being worn indoors or chewing gum. You don't want your student-athletes to act like somebody they aren't, but at the same time they should represent their school in a classy fashion. It may even help to hold a rehearsal interview so your athlete will feel more comfortable when the media arrives.

You'll also have to carry out the details behind the story, such as scheduling the necessary interviews and providing additional background information. In effect, you are the arms and legs for the sports writer or broadcaster. If the process bogs down at this stage, you could lose the story.

"If you are fortunate enough to get somebody from a major publication on your campus, as we were at Augustana during our run of four straight national football titles in the mid-1980's, be ready," Wrath says. "Put together an itinerary before they get on your campus. Know whom you want them to talk to. Ask the reporter what angle he or she is going after and help them out with other possible angles if they need any."

While you can't control the news, you can influence it by finding the stories worth telling about your program and spreading them to the media. The result will be increased positive attention for your student-athletes, which is always good news, for you.

Sidebar: CASE STUDY
College track and field generally does not command the media's attention. But, as a junior, Christi Smith had placed second at the NCAA Division I Championships, and it was apparent she would be a national-championship contender the next year. So we decided to put extra effort into promoting her at the University of Akron during the 2000 season.

We began our media efforts by talking to Christi and understanding her formative years, which including clearing far more hurdles in life than on the track. She and her twin sister, Crystal, were largely raised by their father, who worked two jobs in order to move the family out of inner city East Columbus (Ohio) to suburban Bexley. Their father, Perisa, died when the twins were in high school.

Christi also has a magnetic personality and was involved with the Student Athlete Advisory Council at Akron. We put together a short profile of Christi, weaving her life story into her present goals.

We then attempted to set the table for the NCAA Championships by reporting her results to key media throughout the entire season. This included our local newspapers, Cleveland TV stations, and Akron radio stations, as well as media outlets linked to her hometown, such as The Columbus Dispatch and two suburban weeklies. We tried to create a build-up for the NCAA meet by mentioning her goal of a championship in every release.

In addition, we called Akron, Cleveland, Canton, and Columbus media in the weeks leading up to the NCAA Championships. The purpose was to make sure that her participation in the NCAAs was on their editor's radar. Our message to each was straightforward: Christi Smith has an excellent chance to win the University of Akron's first NCAA championship.

We forwarded to media members earlier stories on Christi's youth and obstacles she and her sister faced growing up in Columbus. We also educated them on the heptathlon event. Finally, we offered to provide for them as much on-site coverage as possible during the championships.

I still get goose bumps when I replay in my mind Christi winning the title on the home stretch of the final event, the 800 meters. Her reaction, the tears, and the pure joy she experienced made it the highlight moment of my sports media career.

And, yes, the media strategy worked. Extensive print coverage appeared in the June 1-2, 2000 editions of the Akron Beacon Journal, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Canton Repository, and Columbus Dispatch. Cleveland WKYC TV-3 ran footage of her at the NCAAs, her AP photo ran on the general wire and appeared in June 1 papers across the country, and she was profiled on the CBS NCAA Track & Field show. She also was a top-10 finalist for the prestigious AAU James E. Sullivan Award.