It was a warm, bright Saturday afternoon in early September 2017 in Shawn Medeiros’ office on Endicott College’s Beverly, Massachusetts campus.
Endicott’s Division III football team was away, playing their second game of the season against Medeiros’ alma mater, Bridgewater State University, as he was watching the game on his computer.
With under a minute left in regulation and the Gulls trailing the Bears 28-22, Endicott quarterback Joe Kalosky threw a deep pass to wide receiver Brendan Johnson who made a highlight-reel 51-yard one-handed catch to keep the game alive.
Then, Endicott scored the game-tying touchdown and made the extra point, winning in near-walk-off fashion in a final score of 29-28.
“I was sitting there thinking, ‘There is no way this happens, but I definitely have a SportsCenter Top-10 play to promote tonight no matter the outcome’”, said Medeiros.
“Then, we tied it.
“Once the extra point went in and we won I remember texting our staff and saying, ‘Football just completed an improbable comeback, we have something here and we need to focus on this today’.”
Being Endicott’s Sports Information Director, Medeiros immediately went on a mission to promote a potentially viral event as much as he could through the various Endicott athletics social media accounts.
“From there, we posted the catch and the comeback on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pretty quickly,” said Medeiros.
“My plan was to get it trending on Twitter, so I started tagging a bunch of popular accounts with different types of tweets.”
“We were picked up by outlets such as ESPN, SportsCenter, USA Today Sports, Colin Cowherd, influential Endicott College alumni such as Jared Carrabis, Pete Blackburn, & Steve Perrault, and so on.”
In the following days, the catch and the comeback itself was featured on SportsCenter Top-10 Plays on ESPN, on Colin Cowherd’s television show The Herd on FOX Sports, and even the television show ESPN AM in which a handful of Endicott’s playmakers were interviewed.
Medeiros and his team within the Sports Information Department even conducted an in-depth data analysis of the local and national media coverage the videos of the catch and the comeback received.
September 2017 marked the start of Medeiros’ third academic year as Endicott’s Sports Information Director, and this particular event had easily been the most thrilling to date.
Now, there’s a good chance you’re asking yourself: what is a Sports Information Director? Allow Medeiros to put it into layman’s terms.
Medeiros described himself as being “the ESPN of Endicott”.
“If you think about what ESPN does as a whole, that’s what we do,” said Medeiros.
“Social media, short- and long-form journalism, video highlights, broadcasting, public relations, media relations, crisis communication, etc. If someone has no idea what ESPN is, I just tell them that I am the public relations person for Endicott.”
The Fall River, Massachusetts native graduated from Bridgewater State University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Communications and received his Master’s of Arts in Education (curriculum and instruction) with a focus in Sports Information from Castleton State University in 2011.
“I originally went into undergrad wanting to be a sports broadcaster,” said Medeiros.
“That changed dramatically my junior year once I realized I had a knack for writing…At Bridgewater, I went from being a general writer to the sports editor rather quickly and held the sports editor role for at least three years. I then turned that into some local writing gigs before I joined the Boston Globe as a student writer.”
Medeiros didn’t necessarily realize that a profession in sports information was a plausible career path until after he graduated college, with the help of one of his best friends.
“I took a gap year-and-a-half before I went to Castleton to be the athletic department’s sports information graduate assistant,” said Medeiros.
“During that time, I realized sports information was a legitimate career path because one of my closest friends was already doing this job at Worcester State University. We had a candid conversation one night and through that conversation, we both understood why I would enjoy it.”
While Medeiros had finally discovered his dream job, landing that dream job was the biggest challenge.
“I applied to over 100 jobs before being accepted to the graduate assistant position at Castleton,” said Medeiros. “It was the only offer I ever received.”
Medeiros landed an internship with a New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) team located in Keene, New Hampshire that he remained with for over four years, beginning in his sophomore year of college and lasting into his time at Castleton.
“I broadcasted for [the Swamp Bats], served as their media relations representative, started all of their social media channels, and even worked for the local newspaper in town, the Keene Sentinel.
“I would work a morning shift at the Keene Sentinel, go home around 2 P.M., prep for that day’s broadcast and/or the stories I was going to write about the team, and then went to the ballpark around 5 P.M. to get set up, work the game, and complete all of the postgame responsibilities at hand.”
During his time with the Boston Globe as a student writer after graduating from Bridgewater State, Medeiros served as a “pseudo” high school cross country and track & field beat writer.
“I covered many of the top-tier high school events, including nationals at the Reggie Lewis Center,” said Medeiros. “My writing has certainly gotten better,” he joked.
His first collegiate job in the sports information field came with Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts where he served as the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications from 2011-12. Here, Medeiros was the primary contact for both of Stonehill’s nationally-ranked cross country programs.
In November 2012, Medeiros accepted his first Sports Information Director position at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. He recalled his memorable first day on the job:
“I had to cover a women’s soccer NCAA tournament pod on my first real day. Talk about being thrown into the fire!”
Medeiros looked back on his days at Wheaton fondly, noting his dedication to expanding the Lyons’ athletic communications.
“My favorite part about the job was that I finally got to call the shots,” said Medeiros.
“It was comforting knowing that I had an Athletic Director who supported my choices and knew that I tried to do my best in communicating what it truly meant to be a student-athlete through academic features, Q&A’s, pitching stories, and so on.”
Medeiros made the decision to leave Wheaton and accepted his current job as Endicott’s Sports Information Director in 2015. He liked what Endicott was doing upon his arrival as far as athletic communications goes, but he knew that he could take it even further.
“I left Wheaton because Endicott allowed me to run an office with more people,” said Medeiros.
“I was excited to take an already well-run product to a new level, and I believe we have done that.”
It is evident that Medeiros has a hefty resumé, which features a plethora of jobs he has had relating to athletic communications. However, he firmly believes that his situation at Endicott is different from the rest.
“What sets my job at Endicott apart from everything is the department’s philosophy,” said Medeiros.
“Everyone on staff is fully bought into supporting every pursuit our student-athletes have. Not to mention, it doesn’t hurt that we win a lot, either.”
Since 2015, Endicott sports teams have won twenty-five-plus conference championships as well as two club sport national titles.
This means that, essentially, Medeiros’ job never rests.
“There is never really an ‘average day’ as a Sports Information Director,” said Medeiros.
“I typically start at 8 A.M. from home, check my email, respond to important emails, take a glance at my week-long to-do list, double-check Twitter or Tweetdeck to see if I missed anything, more than likely post something to Instagram and Facebook, then get into the office somewhere between 9 A.M. and 10 A.M..
“From there, I could make gameday programs for that day’s games or games coming up, write some articles, double-check and execute our social media plan, have a multitude of coaches come into my office and disrupt my workflow with random requests or allow them to vent about things they want to get off their chest. Then, I will set up game files for games that day, discuss social media strategies, and/or talk about the work-study staff we have for that day’s games. Eventually, I will head out to those games, set up the press box, put out gameday programs, set up the webcast, complete stats for those games, and coordinate video and photo efforts with David Le and Nick Grace. Lastly, I complete the wrap-up of stats for the game(s), send the game files to the away Sports Information Director, write a recap, cut up highlights, figure out our social media plan depending on wins and losses, update record books, and eventually go home.
“One key point here is that my day-to-day is never the same, ever.”
Medeiros emphasized the fact that he is not just Endicott College’s Sports Information Director. While that may be his job title, he takes pride in the personal relationships that he has formed with the school’s athletic teams.
“I am very close with many of our coaches, trainers, student-athletes, etc.,” said Medeiros.
“As for the student-athletes, it is difficult to have close relationships with everyone. But the ones that I do, I cherish those every day. There’s nothing better than having a student-athlete pop into my office and having the ability to check-in with them on topics outside of their respective sport(s). It’s easily one of the best parts about my job and I will never take it for granted.
“When people say we are a family at Endicott, it is not a joke. At the end of the day, it all comes back to the caring environment we have at Endicott.”
Since 2015, Medeiros’ impact on Endicott’s athletics and their presence on- and off-campus is impossible to go unnoticed through his effective usage of social media channels and regional and national connections.
However, don’t expect him to stop there.
When asked if Medeiros sees himself at this job for the foreseeable future, he answered “yes”, but with a twist.
“Yes, I do, but I eventually want to get to a point where I am leading the strategy on everything but not having to work gamedays,” said Medeiros.
“Those Saturdays with twelve events to worry about – especially when you are working three, four, or five of them at home – start to wear on you. I want to be able to pull the strings from the top and navigate how we continue to help our coaches recruit, all while focusing more on social media and telling our story better, from a strategic standpoint.”
Perhaps Medeiros’ biggest accomplishment outside of Endicott as a Sports Information Director came one year ago when he won the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) Rising Star Award.
According to their website, CoSIDA is “a 3,100+ member national organization comprised of the sports public relations, media relations and communications/information professionals throughout all levels of collegiate athletics in the United States and Canada.”
At the end of this summer, Medeiros will become the NCAA Division III Sports Information Directors Association President and currently serves as the first Vice President.
“In that role, I will advocate for our members and our membership at the CoSIDA level, which I have already sat in on meetings for and provided my insight and knowledge into many topics that affect all NCAA Divisions and our profession,” said Medeiros of his upcoming presidency.
Medeiros also currently serves on the CoSIDA Continuing Education and Young Professionals committee, which serves in “developing year-round continuing education opportunities to help CoSIDA members excel as professionals and strategic communicators,” according to CoSIDA’s website.
While Medeiros is thankful that his work as a Sports Information Director receives national attention and praise, he noted that he takes even more pride in something more important.
“I’m most proud of the relationships I have built with my coworkers and colleagues across the country,” said Medeiros. “Our profession is so tight-knit.”
Medeiros added that Endicott’s student-athletes are consistently at the forefront of every decision-making process within the Sports Information Department:
“I want to be as proud of my work as our student-athletes are proud to be a Gull.
“I will cherish those relationships forever and they are more important than anything I have ever promoted.”
Photo Credit: Shawn Medeiros, Endicott College
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