New Sports Information Director Looks To Elevate Boxer Athletics

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With the hiring of Pacific’s new Sports Information Director, Michael Smith looks to elevate the athletic programs and give them the exposure they deserve with the knowledge and skills he has in the realms of sports media.

Smith is from Osawatomie, Kansas​ and graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. After graduating college, he Worked as Sports Director at small market radio station, KNZA Inc, in Northeast Kansas for 7 years, where he worked as the play-by-play voice for high school sports, while doing weekly coaches shows and reporting on sports. The past two years, prior to coming to Pacific, Smith served as the first ever Sports Information Director at Highland Community College in Highland, Kansas. He developed the live stream to be one of the best in the KJCCC (Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference) and NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association), while evaluating the coverage of Highland athletics through social media, website work and more. 

“I found Pacific on CoSIDA’s website. I did a pretty extensive interview process that impressed me because I was on five zoom calls in one day with so many different people here on campus. The next day, I got the opportunity to get the offer,” Smith said. 

Every Sports Information Director is different and brings specific strengths to the role. Being a Sports Information Director for Pacific revolves around managing our website/ social media presence, promoting our programs, reporting competition results and directing our official game day operations (stats, scoreboard, game officials, etc.) Smith is responsible for the overall administration of sports information, communication and promotions for Pacific University’s varsity and junior varsity programs, which includes (but is not limited to), media relations, game management (game statistics), GoBoxers.com website and social media content, publication/promotions, tracking and submitting honors and awards for student-athletes.

“Mike is a fantastic addition to the Boxer Athletics family. He has already made an impact by re-branded our Boxer Sports Network and creating the Boxer Spotlight series,” said Pacific’s Senior Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator Lauren Brownrigg.  

She added, “We look forward to utilizing Mike’s video production and graphic design talents to improve our visual content on GoBoxers.com, social media platforms and in-game live stream productions.” 

Pacific Athletic Director, Keith Buckley said, “Mike has been a great addition to the athletic department thus far and is spending much of his time preparing for the spring when we will be hopefully competing in all of our sports in a single semester – which will be a tremendous challenge for our entire department.”

COVID-19 has brought a great deal of stress on Pacific and all of its athletic programs. It has affected Smith’s scheduling and his overall plan to record and highlight different things for different teams. Close contact and face to face conversations have been put to a halt due safety constraints. However, Smith looks forward to all of the sports to hopefully start playing games when the spring semester comes. He said he is, “Looking forward to what is expected to be a busy spring. I will welcome the business, because if I’m busy, that means we are playing sports,” 

“I want to be able to develop relationships, not only to enhance the athlete’s experience while they’re playing sports here. Allowing them to have an experience that’s elevated a little more with what I can provide, as far as coverage, pictures, social media, and other fun stuff to enhance the memories as an athlete,” Smith said. — Todd Takeuchi

Photo: Canon T6 Rebel capturing the details of the Boxer Baseball Hat (Todd Takeuchi)

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