Thiessen, St. Ambrose Team Earn CCAC SID of the Year Honors

CHICAGO --- Led by 13-year veteran Brian Thiessen, the St. Ambrose University Sports Information Office has been named the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Sports Information Department of the Year for 2020-21, it was announced by the league office on Wednesday.

Thiessen was joined by assistant sports information director Haley Fox and graduate assistant Evan Wild in earning the recognition in what was an unprecedented 2020-21 season for college athletics. The three-person crew provided media coverage for 29 sports teams with 27 of those squads competing in the condensed five-month spring season. The Fighting Bee program includes better than 900 student-athletes.

"At one point, we had 25 sports going simultaneously," pointed out St. Ambrose director of athletics Mike Holmes. "And not once did I feel like our coverage suffered or lapsed. The response of our SID team set them apart from all others."

Not only were there the 29 sports teams to cover but also hosting NAIA national championship events in competitive cheer, competitive dance and men's golf, as well as holding NAIA regional competitions for competitive cheer and competitive dance and putting on conference championships in men's and women's cross country, men's and women's indoor track & field and men's golf. With neighboring states facing stricter COVID 19 restrictions, St. Ambrose also organized an unmatched four home cross country meets and six home indoor track & field meets.

Hosting national championship events also required national media coverage with Thiessen and his team facilitating and assisting Mediacom to livestream the NAIA Competitive Cheer & Dance National Championships, a broadcast that was shown throughout the state of Iowa on Mediacom channels, as well.

Other media coverage included the first-ever livestreamed cross country meets in school history highlighted by a two-camera handling of the league championships. The St. Ambrose media team also had two of its highlights make the NAIA's Top Plays of the Week, including one at No. 1.

At one point, St. Ambrose's sports information office produced 100 livestream events over a ten-week period from mid-January through the end of March and went the entire month of February without a day off. Another stretch of unparalleled numbers made up the busy months of March and April, as well.

The St. Ambrose SID team also increased its social media presence on all platforms by gaining over 1,000 new followers in the past year, started a YouTube channel to feature event highlights and initiated a "Facility Fridays" segment on social media to spotlight the department's athletic facilities. This was besides the department's regular newspaper and television coverage in the Quad Cities from the Quad-City Times, KWQC-TV, WHBF-TV and WQAD-TV.

"I have always been amazed by the work that Brian and his staff does," stated Wendy Reid, the director of athletic communications at Trinity Christian College and the league's social media coordinator. "What they did this past year and, in particular, this past spring was amazing, and to do it so flawlessly was absolutely incredible."

If that wasn't enough work for Thiessen and his staff, they also resurrected the athletic department's Hall of Fame with the first induction ceremony in seven years, started work on an interactive kiosk to feature all of the hall of fame recipients and began the process of a website redesign that will be unveiled in the near future. They also started developing plans to enhance the overall webcast experience for out-of-state families and fans with professional-level camera cuts and broadcast coverage for the 2021-22 academic year.

This was all on top of the normal sports information responsibilities of recaps for every event, features on student-athlete and department accomplishments and game programs and livestreaming for home events. Among the many features highlighted was the women's basketball program becoming just the fourth NAIA women's hoops team in the history of the sport to capture 1,000 wins.

Thiessen also worked with the SAU athletic department's Leadership Academy, which allows student-athletes to attend personal growth seminars and participate in community service events.

"Brian and his team are what athletics in higher education should be about – the experience of the kids," closed Holmes.