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Albion honored for publicity effort

By Jack Copeland
NCAA.org

A feature story from Albion’s news and sports information office is the first honoree in a new quarterly recognition program jointly sponsored by the NCAA and the Division III College Sports Information Directors of America (D3SIDA).

The article, “Kruppe Finds Right Mix for Chemistry, Baseball,” was published on Albion’s college website. It was judged by a panel of sports information directors representing D3SIDA as the best work portraying the Division III model of intercollegiate athletics during a three-month period beginning in December 2011.

The article features Chris Kruppe, an Albion chemistry major who has appeared in eight games this season with the Briton baseball team but took time to travel in late March to San Diego, where he presented research during a poster session at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

“Having a coach like Scott Carden, who understands it is a whole other animal to balance a hard science major and trying to play a sport, (is essential),” Kruppe says in the feature. “It is about losing some sleep (when baseball is in season), and I wouldn’t be able to make it work if I wasn’t passionate about it.”

The recognition program is jointly sponsored by Division III and D3SIDA, as part of the Division III identity initiative.

“We currently are celebrating the inaugural Division III Week, in recognition of our model of intercollegiate athletics that encourages student-athletes to ‘follow their passions and develop their potential’,” said NCAA Division III Vice President Dan Dutcher. “This recognition of outstanding work by Albion’s sports information office is a fitting component of our celebration of the week.”

Two other articles nominated for consideration in the program received honorable mention.

The articles are “Student>Athlete: How Do 700 Student-Athletes Find the Time,” appearing in St. Thomas Magazine at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), and “Chanel Madson: A Double Major Beyond the Classroom,” appearing on the Northwestern College (Minnesota) athletics website.

The recognition program seeks to honor the best work – including news releases, feature articles, videos, blogs and other materials -- produced by Division III campus and conference sports information offices.

The next award will be presented in late June for work produced during the three-month period that began March 1. Nominations for recognition are encouraged and may be submitted via the d3identity@ncaa.org email address.

Jack Copeland is a consultant to the Division III identity initiative.