Freeland, Mich. -- The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association announced the 2017-18 honorees for the Robin Hartman Writing Award and the Tom Renner Associate SID Award.
Calvin Sports Information Director Jeff Febus has been selected as the recipient of the Hartman Award, while Alma's Harrison LaLone was named the Renner Award winner.
The awards honor two long-time public and media relations directors and their service to the MIAA: the late Robin Hartman of Albion College, and Tom Renner of Hope College.
Jeff Febus - 2017-18 Robin Hartman Writing Award
Jeff Febus' feature story on former Calvin women's soccer standout and All-American Tara (Dyk) Wegner competing for Grand Rapids FC during the summer of 2017 was selected as the winning piece for the 2017-18 Robin Hartman Writing Award. It marks the second time Febus garnered the writing award since the award's inception in 2008, receiving the honor for the 2009-10 academic year.
Febus is in his 24th year as the Sports Information Director at Calvin College, his alma mater. Along with overseeing the athletic communications staff for Calvin's 20-sport athletic department, Febus was named the Division III Great Lakes Region recipient of the AVCA's Grant Burger Media Award in 2013.
Robin Hartman served as Albion's sports information director from 1987 to 2001 and is remembered as a pioneer in small college sports information with the introduction of one of the first athletic websites. Hartman forged the path of using the internet as a source for streaming audio play-by-play. Hartman passed away in 2006.
The Hartman Award honors outstanding writing in a sports information capacity, either by a sports information director or assistant.
Harrison LaLone - 2017-18 Tom Renner Associate SID Award
Harrison LaLone recently graduated from Alma College after three years as a student assistant for Paul Thomas in the Sports Information department. Initially joining the department as a sophomore working on broadcast capabilities, LaLone's work at Alma grew to include sport assignments, video broadcast play-by-play for women's basketball, and traveling as the secondary contact for the Alma baseball team.
LaLone's work in broadcast for Alma helped the Scots in hosting the 2016 and 2017 NCAA Division III Softball Regionals, as well as improving video and graphics quality for Alma's home sports broadcasts. LaLone was a key component in hosting both home wrestling dual meets and tournaments, and also did public address for soccer, baseball, and softball.
By LaLone's senior year he was an integral part to Alma's game day staff, including statistical inputting and assisting with training fellow students in both statistics and video production. LaLone, who also worked for Central Michigan University on their baseball statistical crew and was a media services staff member at the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball First and Second Rounds in Detroit, was recently hired as a graduate assistant for Athletic Communications at Southern Indiana.
LaLone is the fourth consecutive Alma student assistant to receive the Renner Award and fifth since the award's inception in 2008.
Tom Renner served as Hope's sports information director for 47 years before stepping down from his position in 2013. For 41 years, Renner was also the MIAA publicist (1967-2008) and still serves the conference as the league's historian.
The Renner Award recognizes outstanding efforts by a student assistant in MIAA member schools' sports information departments.
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