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In a stadium full of fans and championship banners hanging on the walls, the men’s basketball team fights for victory as University of West Florida Sports Information Director Matt Rowley watches another athletic game.
“A typical day for an SID begins in the morning like most jobs but continues through to the end of the night when the games are ending and media outlets are reaching their deadlines,” Rowley said.
His day starts off by checking e-mails, voicemails and general requests from the day before. More common requests are from the media asking for press releases, interviews and information about the athletics at UWF. After that, predesigned game day publications such as programs for fans and notes for broadcasters are prepared.
“Following the game, the SID is in charge of reporting the results to local, regional, and national media,” he said.
Due to rapidly changing media outlets, Rowley is faced with the pressure of producing statistics and results much faster than before.
“There have also been trends in the industry for athletic departments to produce more of their own content that would traditionally fit into external media, including video and audio broadcasts of their events,” he said.
Although his life is revolved around UWF sports now, he did not always know what his future would hold. Growing up in a sports-oriented family led him to where he is now.
“I grew up playing almost everything I could, and in middle school and high school I was on school teams at some point for football, soccer, cross country, track & field, basketball and baseball,” he said.
It wasn’t until he landed his first steady sports job that he realized that being an SID would be his future. After sending his resume to potential employers all over the country, he landed his first job at Rollins College in Orlando as an assistant SID.
“After two years at Rollins the job at UWF opened up,” he said. “It was a step up for me, as I had been an assistant at Rollins and this was a director position.”
A successful record in athletics including one of his favorite sports made the decision an easy one.
“I loved the idea of working here at West Florida because the teams have been so successful in sports that I love, including soccer,” he said. “I applied for the position and fortunately I was offered the spot.”
After a lot of hard work put into the Building Champions for Life athletics awareness campaign, Rowley hopes that the time and money invested will result with significant improvements.
“Along with the staff from Marketing Communications, we’ve tried to help boost awareness of the success this athletic program has had over the years, which we hope will result in better attendance and more community support,” he said.
In a recent State of the University Address by President Judy Bense, the idea of UWF having a future football team was brought up by students who attended. While Rowley does see a football team in the future for the university, he is precautious about taking away resources from the currently established sports.
“A huge strength of the current athletic department is how successful the teams have been across the board, and the university takes pride in that,” he said. “Football takes as much or more resources than any other sport, and the university must be careful not to disrupt the current overall success of the department by pouring resources into one team.”
After a carefully balanced plan for the future, football may become another asset of UWF’s success in athletics.
“I do see football in the future at UWF, but that comes with the realization that significant investments must be made before it comes to fruition,” he said.
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