When Fairleigh Dickinson University won their game in Dayton this week, my thoughts were not of coach Tobin Anderson and his athletes, it was of the support staff who would be going on a ride of their lives, and hopefully were able to enjoy and learn from it. After all, FDU, not far from home, is the breeding ground for two of the best in the storytelling business in decades, former Sports Info Directors Jay Horwitz and another longtime friend, Mike Elkow who had gone from FDU back in the day to a thriving nonprofit business.
How great would it be for the person now in the position. Then I found out through some colleagues that FDU did not have a fulltime head of sports communications, the job was unfilled and was being handled by a college student. My first reaction was that once again a school devalued the opportunity at using sports to tell its story. Here was FDU, a Division I school whose history had brought them championships in bowling and fencing, who had gone to The Dance under Greg Herenda a few years ago, whose women’s team was playing in the WNIT, and they had dropped all of this great opportunity in the lap of a young kid with not a lot of experience.
It was again a symptom, it sounded like, of a University devaluing the ability of strategic communications, not staffing and being in a position for success. You look at what UMBC did with amplifying their successful run, not just when they made history defeating The University of Virginia but in how they again inserted themselves smartly into the conversation off of FDU’s win on Friday, and you see how valued storytelling can be. My guess is FDU will ride this out, see the exposure that was brought and then recede back, much like what happened at St. Peter’s (although the Peacocks just hired a quality sports media pro who will do really well) where business in Jersey City around athletics became just another distant memory.
That’s the bad side of short sighted value in media relations.
Then there is the positive side, one which I can speak directly to. Back in the day through some lucky circumstances I was thrust into the head Sports Information job at Iona College at the ripe old age of 22. Their SID, Tom Didato, quit unexpectedly just two weeks before the college basketball season started, and I was recommended by my mentor Mike Cohen to Athletic Director Rick Mazzutto, who handed me the job almost by default. Now I knew a little about PR, but not much, and the Gaels of then were a mid-major yearly contender in the MAAC under Pat Kennedy in men’s hoops, so off we went. I commuted two hours from Brooklyn to New Rochelle every day (I did not have a car) for $19,000 but went on the educational ride of a lifetime, learning from stops at places like North Carolina (where I got to spend time with the legendary Rick Brewer) UNLV and other places. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and made LOTS of mistakes, but I was grateful for the chance. At the end of the hoops season my short contract ended and I moved on, but what an educational ride it was with members of the media and colleagues who I am still friends with today.
I thought of all the pain and pleasure that Iona ride was when I heard that the person at the helm of media for FDU junior Jordan Sarnoff. A student, still in school, learning and watching the biggest story so far of the year unfolding before his eyes. Young Mr. Sarnoff, who I know of through colleagues, seems to be a savvy, smart digital first storyteller with an appreciation of where he is, and hopefully he uses this experience to grow for years to come. He developed a good amount of relations I am told by attending broadcasting camps at Montclair State University as a high school student, learning valuable lessons from pros like Tim Capstraw, Ian Eagle, Dave Popkin and Dave Siroty. All of that experience at a young age seems to have been in his favor, as well as the help he is getting from senior members of staffs on site. After all, this is the easy part, FDU are the darlings so pick and choose. It won’t be like this come the fall, but lessons learned and relationships built with listening and respect now will benefit young Jordan as he grows in the business. It is all about people and places vs things right?
So is it great that FDU decided to hand their communications keys to a young student vs having a professional at the helm? No it’s not. It’s short sighted and silly. Is it great that a young person is getting the opportunity to seize the day? Sure is, but even Jordan could probably benefit from learning as much as doing in this amazing run. Too much, too young, too soon isn’t always the best, but building the plane while you fly it is an opportunity as well.
So keep going young Jordan, listen learn and enjoy the path you are on. FDU should not have left you out there by yourself, it’s a disservice to the coaches and athletes when the Madness ends, and hopefully the school decides to do what many Universities still fail to do…properly see the opportunity and fund their strategic communications jobs. We can hope and explain and document why can’t we? The opportunity is pretty clear, it doesn’t just “happen.” Want proof? Read Steve Serby’s story in the New York Post on a another young Sarnoff, the legendary Mr. Horwitz, and what he was able to do back in the day at FDU. Circle of communications life complete, especially when value and opportunity and ambition collide, like they have in Teaneck, New Jersey back in the day, and again this March.
