The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association has announced the winners of two awards honoring outstanding publicity efforts during the 2013-14 season by its member schools – the Hartman Writing Award and the Renner Associate SID Award.
Bobby Lee, director of sports information director at Albion College, has been named the recipient of the Hartman Award, while Haleigh Daniels, a student assistant in Trine University’s sports information office, has been chosen to receive the Renner Award.
Bobby Lee
Bobby Lee has served as sports information director at Albion College since 2001. 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. Until recently, Lee also oversaw all news and information functions for the college.
Lee is receiving the Hartman Award for the second consecutive year. He is being honored for his story on Albion cross country student-athlete Theresa Hencsie, who is balancing her studies as an accounting major and running on the Britons’ women’s cross country team with her service to her country as a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserves.
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).
Haleigh Daniels
A native of Hamilton, Ohio and graduate of Hamilton High School, Haleigh Daniels worked in Trine University’s sports information office for the past two years. She fulfilled numerous responsibilities during her tenure, including writing game recaps, fulfilling official scorer duties, taking photos, posting updates on social media and managing the schedules of student workers assigned to Trine athletic events.
For a short period of time last fall, Daniels functioned as Trine’s sports information director during a transition when the school’s previous SID resigned to take a position at a nearby school. She also played an invaluable role when the university hired a new sports information director, assisting in that transition.
"I doubt most student-workers could take on the tasks Haleigh did and excel at them the way she did," Trine SID Matthew Vader said. "She ensured that the office kept functioning when there wasn’t an SID - a tough situation to be thrown into in the height of the fall sports season."
Daniels also played a significant role in the upgrade of Trine’s athletics website, assisting with the creation of roster and schedule pages, posting photos and transferring content from the previous website.
In addition to her SID duties and carrying a full load of classes, Daniels was also a key player for Trine’s MIAA champion softball team this season, hitting .409 with four home runs and 35 RBIs. A shortstop, she was a second team All-MIAA selection and was an All-Central Region selection by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. She was also recently named the recipient of Trine’s Cheryl L. Cooms Award, presented to the school’s outstanding senior female student-athlete who best embodies the values of citizenship, leadership, academic achievement and athletic accomplishment.
Daniels graduated from Trine in May with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and psychology, and plans to work as a graduate assistant at the university in the fall while she pursues her master’s degree in forensic psychology.
She is the daughter of John and Lori Daniels of Hamilton, Ohio.
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 served as SID at the college for 47 years and as MIAA publicist for 41 years, and still serves the league as its historian.
The Hartman Award honors outstanding writing in a sports information capacity, either by a sports information director or assistant, while the Renner Award honors outstanding efforts by student assistants in sports information offices at MIAA schools.
Here are links to other stories considered for the Hartman Writing Award:
Second Place: Jeff Febus, Calvin, feature on Calvin and Hope volleyball teams teaming up for an "Amazing Race"-style race prior to last season - http://www.calvin.edu/sports/news/comments/calvin-hope-volleyball-squads-team-up-for-preseason-race-through-holland/
Third Place: Jeff Febus, Calvin, "Staying in the Moment" - how Calvin's volleyball team kept its focus in rallying to win last year's national championship - http://www.calvin.edu/spark/past-issues/staying-in-the-moment
Fourth Place: Bobby Lee, Albion, feature on Albion softball player Alex Yaw and her work in a medical program for the poor in Honduras - http://www.gobrits.com/features/Alex_Yaw
Additional entries:
Feature on Albion men's lacrosse student-athlete Carl Pressprich
Story on Albion women's basketball student-athlete Brett deBear after scoring her 1,000th career point
Story on two sets of twins who were members of Calvin's women's cross country team
U.S. Olympic swimmers visit Calvin swimming and diving teams
Story on Calvin men's track and field brothers Erik and Eli Holstege
Feature on Calvin women's lacrosse student-athlete Mary Hoogstra
Story on Olivet's women's golf coach Bill Maas
Story on Olivet women's basketball record-breaking season
Story on Olivet softball posting best season in school history
