COI's Mike Safford Repeats as Sports Information Director of the Year
LA GRANDE, Ore. – Mike Safford Jr., Associate Athletic Director and Sports Information Director at The College of Idaho, has been named the 2013-14 Cascade Collegiate Conference Mike Booth Sports Information Director of the Year.
Safford, a 1998 graduate of Pacific Lutheran University, wins the award for the fourth time in 13 years at C of I. Safford won last year, as well as, 2007-08 and 2002-03.
This past year COI hosted six Cascade Conference championship events including volleyball, cross country, men's basketball, women's basketball, golf, and track & field with Safford handling all promotions, publicity, and game management for the events. In addition, he also was the media coordinator for two NAIA Championship Opening Round events in volleyball and softball.
"All of us in the CCC extend our congratulations to Mike on being named the SID of the Year," stated CCC Commissioner Rob Cashell. "His standard of excellence in the field of Sports Information is highly respected within the conference and across the NAIA."
Added duties in 2013-14 was the promotion of the newly reinstated C of I football program in local/regional media, including a season ticket campaign that has netted over 1,500 season tickets for the upcoming season. Through Safford's efforts COI athletics has been included on a weekly segment on the highest rated sports talk show in Boise during the fall, two appearances on KTVB-TV (NBC) on their Sunday Sports Extra show, and multiple features on incoming football student-athletes (including year-long projects in both the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Press Tribune.
Under Mike's leadership Yotes athletics had a banner year in Social Media - doubling the number of Facebook followers @CoyoteAthletics, ranking No. 2 in the NAIA-SIDA contest results and nearly doubling Twitter followers. The COI YouTube channel had over 180,000 video views which was helped by a walk-off grand slam that was picked up by ESPN, FoxSports, CBSSports, MLBNetwork, and BleacherReport.
On the national stage, Safford served as a member of the NAIA Statistical Committee for the third-straight year and as a Contest Coordinator for the NAIA-SIDA Publications Contest for the eight straight season. He is one of three NAIA members of the RDMAC Committee for CoSIDA and continues as the Voice of the Boise Hawks.
Previous Winners
2012-13 Mike Safford, College of Idaho
2011-12 Barrett Henderson, Eastern Oregon
2010-11 Jason Dormeyer, Concordia
2009-10 Jason Dormeyer, Concordia
2008-09 Mark Colachico, Corban
2007-08 Mike Safford, College of Idaho
2006-07 Bobby Thompson, Oregon Tech
2005-06 Tim Smith, Western Baptist
2004-05 Tim Smith, Western Baptist
2003-04 Sam Ghrist, Eastern Oregon
2002-03 Mike Safford, Albertson
2001-02 Rich Rosenthal, Southern Oregon