CORVALLIS, Ore. – For the first time in the history of the award, a woman has won the Cascade Collegiate Conference Sports Information Director (SID) of the Year award., announced Thursday.
In Lewis-Clark State College’s first year as a full member of the CCC, Alisha Alexander picked up the CCC Mike Booth SID of the Year honor for the 2020-21 year. Booth was the conference/district SID for many years and after he passed, the CCC sports information directors decided to name the award after him.
“Congrats to Alisha on being the first woman to be named the CCC SID of the Year,” said CCC Director of Communications Sammi Wellman. “Alisha is an elite SID and her hard work and dedication to the field are evident. It is an honor to work with her.”
The sports information directors of the CCC vote on the annual award, recognizing outstanding work in promotion, work with CCC and NAIA championships events, publicity and marketing efforts. Warner Pacific University’s Abby Wilson – another talented woman in the field – was the runner-up for the honor.
“I am so grateful to be working in a conference with such talented SIDs,” said Alexander. “I’d like to thank the LC State administration, our entire athletic department staff, my awesome interns and our incredible student-athletes that make this job fun. I am very lucky to work at a place where success is ingrained in the culture. Thank you to my peers that nominated and picked me for this award, and for making it an easy transition into the Cascade Collegiate Conference. Also, a big thank you to my friends, family and fiancé for putting up with my crazy schedule and supporting me every step of the way!”
Alexander is the only full-time SID at LC State in charge of media relations, social media, website development, video production, graphics and so much more for the Warriors’ 12 sports. This year has been extra challenging for all sports information departments, especially, with all of the seasons overlapping at the same time due to coronavirus.
The Southern California native handled the challenges with grace, never letting any sport lapse in coverage. She also oversaw a full website redesign that launched in December. She provides stats and quality photos to visiting SIDs, as well as the conference office. Alexander also oversees all graphic designs produced by her and her student interns, all of which are created from scratch in Photoshop.
This year, Alexander started producing weekly videos – “Warrior Wednesdays” – to showcase who the student-athletes are away from the field of play. Alexander also led the video production of two major feature video packages: one on women’s basketball player Jansen Edmiston and another on the five baseball players that graduated from Lewiston HS together.
Next week, Alexander hosts one of the biggest postseason tournaments in the NAIA, the Avista NAIA World Series. As part of her responsibilities for the tournament, she is in charge of creating the 60-plus-page program, scheduling all of the press box workers, collecting commercials and creating graphics for the video board/social media. She says the “week is filled with long days and nights but is the highlight of the year.”
Earlier this year, after a late location change, LC State hosted the 2020 CCC Cross Country Championship Meet, presented by U.S. Bank, and implemented live streaming of the event.
To cap off the school year, Alexander works with the LC State SAAC committee to put together an annual award show, the LCSPYs. She produced the video content for both the video board and the live stream. It was held out at Harris Field for student-athletes to attend and livestreamed it for those who could not be there. Alexander ordered the awards, created the cards with the winner’s names and helped with the script.
It is Alexander’s first conference SID of the Year honor, coming in a big year as she is set to get married this summer.