April 20, 2009
PHOENIX - Texas A&M assistant media relations director Chris Harrell was recently recognized by Swimming World Magazine as the recipient of the publication's third annual SID of the Year and Media Guide of the Year Awards.
Harrell, a College Station native in his 11th overall year in the A&M athletics department, is the primary media relations contact for women's swimming and diving and equestrian. The 1997 UTEP graduate most recently served as the host media coordinator for the 2009 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships held at the Texas A&M Student Recreation Center Natatorium on March 19-21 in College Station. Harrell was also an integral part of the agreement between the university, the NCAA and ESPN, which allowed Swimming World to stream nearly the entire NCAA Championships for the second-straight season.
"Chris is an outstanding young man who has a passion for any sport he works with, and has shown a great love for the sport of swimming and diving," Texas A&M associate athletics director for media relations Alan Cannon said. "He develops an excellent working relationship with his coaches and student-athletes. He does a great job of getting the information out to the media and promoting the sport. I am lucky to have Chris on our staff here at Texas A&M and I believe he is one of the very best swimming SIDs in the country and worthy of any accolades that may come his way."
Swimming World Magazine annually honors the best of the best among the sports information profession. Sports information directors (SID) not only facilitate interviews between members of the media and student-athletes, but work countless hours to promote their programs. With this in mind, Swimming World looked into how well SIDs throughout the world facilitated media requests, as well as how each of them worked tirelessly to promote their own programs.
"Chris does such a great job as our SID," Texas A&M head women's swimming coach Steve Bultman said. "He takes pride and has a passion for what he does. It's not just a job for him. He really enjoys what he does and wants to see our swimmers and divers succeed. He gets the results and articles on them out in a timely manner, and cares how they are portrayed. Chris has come a long way from not knowing much about the sport when he started with us 8 or 9 years ago, to really understanding times and scores. It is a well-deserved award."
Other SIDs across the country were named honorable mention for the award based on their strong professional work including Texas A&M associate media relations director Brad Marquardt who serves as the media liaison for the men's swimming and diving team which is headed up by Texas A&M head coach Jay Holmes. Marquardt is in his 20th year with the SID office on campus and also works with the Aggie football team.
Harrell was also honored for his work with the 2008-09 Texas A&M women's swimming and diving guide which was selected as Media Guide of the Year by Swimming World. It was written, compiled, designed and edited by Harrell, while the cover and graphics were created by Texas A&M publications specialist Cyndi Mousner with editorial assistance provided by student assistant Tia Buchanan. The guide, printed by The Insite Group, included images by Glen Johnson of Johnson Photography in Bryan, Texas, as well as Patric Schneider and Michael Zwierzykowski.
Each submitted guide was judged on a 100-point scale derived from the following point values: 30 points for record section, 30 points for history section, 15 points for athlete bios, 15 points for coach bios and 10 points for the overall look and design of the publication.
"Year-in and year-out Chris does an outstanding job of putting our media guide together," Bultman said. "It always presents our program in a good light and is a great plus in recruiting."
Texas A&M emerged at the top of the guides this year due to its balance throughout the structure of the grading scale. While other guides have begun to include progressions and chronologies of school records, A&M's treatment along with the balance of the rest of the attributes of its guide put it over the top.