McDermott Honored as CCC Sports Information Director of the Year
LA GRANDE, Ore. – Southern Oregon University's Josh McDermott has been named the Cascade Collegiate Conference Sports Information Director of the Year, the league office announced Monday.
The annual award is voted on by the sports information directors of the CCC, recognizing outstanding work in promotion, work with CCC and NAIA championships events, publicity and marketing efforts since 2002, when SOU's Rich Rosenthal won the inaugural award.
McDermott, who took over as the SID at SOU in the fall of 2013, this year covered nine teams that advanced to their respective NAIA Championships, generating over 450,000 more page views at souraiders.com compared to the previous school year with his game notes, news and recaps. He increased SOU's social media followings on Twitter by 98 percent, on Facebook by 63 percent and on Instagram by 229 percent, ranking in the NAIA's top 10 in all three categories.
McDermott also helped lead hosting and promotional duties for Cascade Conference Championships in track and field, men's basketball, women's basketball and volleyball, as well as football and volleyball NAIA Championship events. He created weekly promotional graphics for home events and newspaper advertisements, and in the two weeks prior to the NAIA football title game helped coordinate over 40 stories covering the Raider football team.
"The Cascade Conference SIDs have been extremely helpful and patient with me as I've attempted to familiarize myself with this position over the last two years," McDermott said. "This has been a fun time in the Raider athletic department, and I'm very grateful that Matt Sayre and Bobby Heiken have allowed me to be a part of it and that SOU's coaches and student-athletes have been so easy to work with."
A product of Ashland High, McDermott played for the SOU men's basketball team from 2005-09 while majoring in journalism. He spent three years as a reporter at the Roseburg News-Review, where his work was recognized by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association and the Northwest Society of Professional Journalism. His father, Brian, has been the SOU men's basketball coach since 1996.