The MIAA has announced the winners of two awards honoring outstanding publicity efforts by its member schools – the Hartman Writing Award and the Renner Associate SID Award.
Bobby Lee, director of news and sports information director at Albion College, has been named the recipient of the Hartman Award, while Mitch Blankespoor, a student assistant in Calvin College’s sports information office, and Forrest Tarsa, a student assistant in Hope College’s sports information office, shared the Renner Award.
Bobby Lee
Bobby Lee is the director of news and sports information at Albion College. Lee came to Albion in the summer of 2001 as the college’s sports information director. He oversees all athletic publicity functions for Albion’s 22 intercollegiate sports, including design and development of athletic publications, coordinating of sports photography and statistical updates. He also oversees all news and information functions for the college.
Lee was honored for his story on Albion football student-athlete Zach Brewer, who caught a game-winning touchdown pass in an upset victory over Wheaton, Ill. last fall. Brewer dedicated the game to his late mother, who died in a traffic accident two years ago. The Wheaton game fell the day before Heidi Brewer’s birthday.
A native of Gahanna, Ohio, Lee came to Albion from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he had been sports information director for four years. He was in charge of publicity for 17 varsity sports with the Muskies, and served as host SID for three NCAA regional and seven Ohio Athletic Conference championship events. He previously was a graduate assistant in the Ohio State University athletic publicity department. While there, he was editor of the Ohio State football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball programs that received publication awards from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
The second-place entry for the Hartman Award was a story by Calvin sports information director Jeff Febus on the history of the college's field hockey program, while the third-place entry was a feature on Albion men's lacrosse student-athlete Kevin Riley, who took a year off from school to help care for his best friend, who had been paralyzed in a swimming accident.
Click here for the Calvin field hockey story
Click here for the Kevin Riley story
Mitch Blankespoor
A native of Cutlerville, Mich. and graduate of Grand Rapids South Christian High School, Mitch Blankespoor has worked in Calvin’s sports information department for four years, most recently as a student intern during his senior year. He is being honored with the Renner Award for the second consecutive year.
Blankespoor has fulfilled numerous responsibilities in Calvin’s SID office, including writing game stories, producing feature stories for the college’s sports website, overseeing student statistics crews for home athletic events, and provided play-by-play broadcast coverage in numerous sports. He took on the role of teaching both professional staff and student crews proper statistical procedures for both volleyball and lacrosse during the past year.
Blankespoor served as the lead broadcaster with the Calvin volleyball team as the Knights captured the NCAA Division III national title in 2010, and was lead broadcaster and writer for volleyball and basketball during his senior year. He served as a play-by-play broadcaster for Calvin road basketball games on WFUR-FM (102.9) in Grand Rapids.
Blankespoor also volunteered to work at several NCAA national championship events, including the 2012 and 2013 Division III women’s basketball finals in Holland, and assisted other MIAA sports information directors during the past year, traveling to providing volleyball statistics assistance at several schools, and also to the MIAA cross country championships.
Blankespoor, who graduated in May from Calvin with a degree in sports management, is the son of Curt and Carmen Blankespoor of Cutlerville, Mich.
Forrest Tarsa
A native of Cedar, Mich., and graduate of St. Mary High School in Lake Leelenau, Forrest Tarsa worked in Hope College’s public and community relations office as a sports information assistant for nearly all four of his years at Hope.
Tarsa was responsible for coordinating schedules of other students who worked in Hope’s sports information office, trained students in keeping statistics, and managed the press box at home athletic events. He worked on numerous MIAA championship events and also provided support to professional staff when Hope hosted the 2012 and 2013 NCAA Division III women’s basketball championships and the 2012 NCAA Division III volleyball championships. He spent one summer at Hope determining all-time school records in several sports.
Tarsa, who graduated from Hope in May with a degree in economics, was an active member of the student body during his time at the college and as a senior received the college’s Dean of Students Greek Leadership Award. He will begin a job as a sales associate for the Chicago office of Good Harbor Financial in August.
He is the son of Stephen and Diana Tarsa of Cedar, Mich.
The awards honor two sports information directors who have given many years of service to the MIAA – the late Robin Hartman of Albion College and Tom Renner of Hope College, who is concluding his SID position at Hope after 47 years on July 1.
