A sports information director essentially works behind the scenes for an athletic program. He is usually responsible for covering all of the sports that a college or university participates in. This means big sports like football and basketball, as well as smaller ones like swimming and tennis. Some of the primary duties of a sports information director include attending and summarizing sporting events, recording statistics, arranging interviews and reporting to the media.
An essential aspect of this job is attending sporting events and providing a summary afterward. During each event, a sports information director is responsible for paying attention to player accomplishments. In addition, he will record the scores and overall happenings of the game. This information will be distributed to various media outlets afterward.
Another big part of the job is to consistently record accurate statistics from sporting events. For example, if a sports information director attended a baseball game, he would record information like each hitter's batting average and each pitcher's earned run average. If he attended a football game, he would record information like a quarterback's passing yards and touchdown completions. This information is valuable and can affect the future of both athletes and coaches. It's therefore imperative that everything recorded is completely factual and accurate.
Arranging interviews between the media and coaches or players is another responsibility of this position. Basically, a sports information director serves as a middle man between the media and athletic teams. To this end, he will set up a time for interviews to be conducted and provide media with statistics from each athletic event.
He is also often responsible for arranging any type of special event that involves the athletic department. Some examples include autograph signings and hall of fame inductions. In turn, this helps to publicize the athletic department's accomplishments and helps it to achieve notoriety. This is important because it can affect the department's budget. Getting attention, especially on the national level, can consequently help funnel more money into the school's program.
Additionally, consistently reporting to the media is common practice. Any pertinent information like player statistics, game scores and highlight plays are documented and shared with the media. Sometimes this information is distributed to a magazine, and other times to a website or online publication. If he works for a big name school, information might also be given to a television or radio show as well. As a result, it's important for a sports information director to be organized and possess effective communication skills.