Dennis Switzer is a man of his words.

The nine-year director of sports administration and information at the South Atlantic Conference has written his way up the ladder – from his high school newspaper to a small-city daily to a Division II conference that sports nine members (Brevard, Carson-Newman, Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne, Lincoln Memorial, Mars Hill, Newberry, Tusculum and Wingate) and 14 championships.

Along the way he’s become an influential leader in the College Sports Information Directors of America and a change agent for a profession facing yet another evolution as the media guides for which SIDs are most known increasingly shift from print to online.

“I hate to see them go,” Switzer says of the printed guides he enjoys compiling and designing (a couple of his own have in fact earned CoSIDA accolades). “But I also understand how schools with big print runs would incur huge costs.”

Switzer and his DII colleagues are watching closely as Division I considers legislation to do away with the printed guides this year, but for now the Division II SIDs are more concerned about touting the division’s successful identity campaign anchored by community-engagement and game-environment initiatives.

“I enjoy seeing how DII has taken an active role in establishing its own identity and creating innovative efforts like the national championships festivals and community-engagement initiatives,” Switzer said.

At the SAC, Switzer is much more than a media-guide specialist. He’s also a Web site manager, a tournament and event administrator, and responsible for policy guidelines for the league’s 14 championship sports. It’s a familiar multi-task lineup for the Division II crowd.

But his first love is language, a niche he carved in high school, then at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, where as a sportswriter he experienced a Heisman Trophy winner (George Rogers) right off the bat and then, as he says, “some pretty down years in football.”

He matriculated from his metropolitan education to small-town coverage in his first newspaper job where he got a taste of Division II as the beat writer for Presbyterian College.

“Even though I went to a big school, I fell in love with the whole small-college feel,” Switzer said. “Though I was brand-new in town and didn’t know anyone, the Presbyterian coaches and staff took me under their wing and I felt very welcome.”

One work stop later, Switzer landed at The Herald in Rock Hill, South Carolina, covering a few Winthrop assignments and the Charlotte Hornets. That was in the mid-1980s, when Switzer said newspapers “were in their heyday.” The Herald, for example, was preparing to switch from its longtime status as an afternoon paper to a morning version and expand its sports staff from two to three. Switzer was the three. By the time he left, the staff had grown to eight. “Of course it’s down to about four now,” he said.

While at The Herald, Switzer got to know the guy he eventually replaced – SAC SID Matt Lawton, who also contributed high school football and basketball coverage to The Herald – and rekindled a relationship with SAC Commissioner Doug Echols, whom Switzer knew when Echols was an assistant AD at Winthrop.

Both relationships paid off when the SAC position opened. Newspaper hours had been wearing on Switzer, who was married by then with two young children. His wife, Nancy, had instructed him to “keep an eye out” for a new opportunity.

Ironically, Switzer saw the SAC ad in the Charlotte Observer, not The Herald (“Doug probably didn’t advertise in The Herald,” Switzer said).

It’s been nine years now since the successful interview, and Switzer has settled in to a routine in which he tries to promote all nine league teams equally. He also is looking out for his campus colleagues from a professional-development standpoint.

“We’ve tried to bring our campus SIDs into more of a leadership role as part of the management of conference operations,” Switzer said, noting that the league began including them as part of annual meetings that previously had been reserved for presidents, ADs, SWAs and FARs. “Our SIDs are not just number-crunchers and release writers, but an important part of conference leadership,” he said.

As for CoSIDA, Switzer serves as the national coordinator for the organization’s annual writing contest. He thinks too few SIDs submit their work, incorrectly thinking that game stories or other shorter items wouldn’t rate.

As for media guides, Switzer hopes they stick around a few more years.

“Most guides in Division I especially are designed to attract recruits, but as a journalist I also understand how valuable they are in my line of work,” he said. “I like having a hard copy. I know now that most big-time press boxes are wireless and you can pull up a PDF on your laptop – but that still seems more of a pain than pulling the book from your briefcase and flipping through.”

Spoken like a man of his words.