A shout out and a thank you to two outstanding sports information professionals...
This blog would like to honor two sports information professionals who have helped me immensely since I started this ten years ago as a lark.
On Friday, July 6th, Washington State University track, cross country and volleyball media contact and assistant director for media relations Linda Chalich (left/photo courtesy WSU Athletics) retired from her position with the school.
After graduating from WSU in 1975 with a degree in education, she returned to school and earned a second degree in communications in 1977.
In the summer of 1977, Chalich was named as the assistant sports information director at WSU under Rod Commons.
After one year in Pullman, the Spokane, Wash., native was named sports information director at Eastern Washington. She worked in Cheney for two years.
After moving to San Diego to start a family, she returned to the business in 1988 as an assistant director of media relations at San Diego State.
Four years later, she returned to Pullman as an an assistant athletic communications director, where she was responsible for the day-to-day publicity of the WSU track and cross country teams, as well as the women’s volleyball squad.
My first interaction with Linda came in the mid-1990s during my time as the head coach/team manager of Club Ballard, when I requested photos of WSU alums Gerald Edwards and Bill Ayears. She also used some bio information about one of my high school club athletes, Kolleen Faires for the WSU media guide.
As I transitioned from being a club coach into a writing/blogging role with Northwest Runner and this site, Chalich became a go-to source for information, not only about the Cougars, but also neighboring schools, and other teams in the Pac-12.
Linda will still continue teaching at Washington State as an adjunct instructor in the sport management program.
The Excellence in Communications Award recognizes those athletics communications representatives at conferences and/or schools who have committed to outstanding coverage and support of collegiate track & field. Winners were selected by the communications staff at the USTFCCCA National Office after a long nomination period.
Former University of Washington head track & field coach Mike Johnson, who is currently the head coach at Western Oregon University, wrote about Timm, “Blake is always providing up to date and well-written spotlights on track and field. Blake is a true ambassador for the sport and the region. No other individual possesses and displays his variety of skills, professionalism, and attention to detail than he does.”
Timm’s attention to detail comes through every time you go through the GNAC track and field and cross country pages.
When you visit the site at any given time, you can quickly search a recap of what every school in the conference (including Washington schools Seattle Pacific, Central Washington, Western Washington, and Saint Martin’s) did the previous week, as well as where each school’s upcoming meets are, along with a link to each school’s TFRRS profile and team specific web site.
Believe me, the job of putting out information for this web site would be a lot tougher without the assistance and insights of professionals like Linda and Blake.
NOTE: The sports information offices at Washington State University, the USTFCCCA, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and CoSIDA provided content for this post.
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