With COVID-19 putting live sporting events on hold, the Cascade Collegiate Conference wanted to take the time to highlight families within our #ThisIsTheCCC community. Many of our member institutions have administration, coaches and student-athletes family members competing together, making the CCC truly a family affair.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – If you’ve been to the
College of Idaho athletics website, you’ve seen the Saffords’ work. Mike Safford, the Coyotes’ Director of Athletic Communications, usually writes the words you read, while his wife Liza Safford takes the photographs for the website.
It’s fitting since online is where their love story began too, before online dating was even a thing. Mike was working at The Evergreen State College at the time and saw an ad Liza had placed in the Hotmail Classifieds that caught his eye.
“I still remember our first date after exchanging messages and talking on the phone,” said Mike. “We shared two McDonalds cheeseburgers (I think it was 39-cent cheeseburger day) and an Oreo McFlurry.”
The two hit it off and will celebrate 20 years in September, with athletics being a consistent fixture in their relationship. They got engaged at halftime of a men’s basketball game between The Evergreen State College and Western Oregon University, and were married on a bye weekend of Puget Sound’s football schedule – Mike was doing their color commentary at the time.
Liza, who is the manager of the Mail & Copy Center at C of I, works the games with her husband as a way to spend more time with him. She even worked as the official scorer for a professional summer baseball team when Mike was working the games so they could be together.
“The best part of working together is getting to hang out with him,” said Liza. “For as many sports as we have, if we didn’t work at games together, we would just be two ships passing in the night.”
Mike and Liza’s 12-year-old son PJ has also been a big fixture of the Coyote games since he was three days old.
“It’s truly a family affair at all of our games,” said Mike, who was named the 2020 Cascade Collegiate Conference Sports Information Director (SID) of the Year. “He used to dress up as super heroes at games (especially Batman) – created himself ‘BatYote’ and even dressed as a mini Yote since we had no person to wear the mascot. In fact, when the CCC presented the Mascot Challenge winner in 2016, it was PJ in the Yote outfit that got the award from Commissioner Rob Cashell.”
Liza always loved taking photos and started shooting the Coyote games when the YoteAthletics.com website was launched in 2012. Athletics has given her a new vantage point since she’s shot different sports like cross country, track and football, even leading Liza to shoot on bigger stages, like the University of Utah and Boise State.
“She has taken it to the next level with her work,” said Mike. “I love when big things happen in the game and I have the opportunity to see a smile on her face knowing she captured the moment perfectly. She truly is the rock star of our family and is a rock star for the CCC – providing free photos to all the SIDs for games in Caldwell, which is always one of the biggest things SIDs need – road images.”
Just as the games can be stressful, however, it can be stressful at times for Mike with his wife on the sidelines as well since he’s protective of her.
“I’ve gotten nervous a couple times that she’ll get injured – she got drilled with a line drive shooting baseball a couple years ago and nearly got rolled up in a tackle at football,” said Mike. “But she knows the game and has great instinct as to where she needs to go/move. I do get annoyed with officials who try to make her move – but she stands her ground.”
After working so many games together, the Saffords have shared in some amazing moments over the years, even coming in clutch for C of I at times.
In 2014, Mike was handling play-by-play for the CCC Volleyball Championship Tournament at Eastern Oregon University and Liza was taking pictures. It turned out to be an epic weekend as the fourth-seeded Coyotes upset EOU in a five-set victory in the semifinals and went on to win the championship.
“It was an amazing trip, with C of I forgetting the CCC trophy after the match,” said Mike. “So we brought it home.”
Liza even once took stats on Mike’s laptop at a basketball game, inputting off his play-by-play because there wasn’t anyone at the game to take stats.
The two are the ultimate team players, not just for the Coyotes, but also to each other as evident by their 20-year love story. Mike and Liza just want to spend whatever time they can together, even if that means a sporting event is going on at the same time.
“Above all, I love just being there with her,” said Mike.