Scots On Display
Busy Sports Weekend Keeps Sports Information Director Josh Ernst On The Run
You have to excuse Josh Ernst if he happens to look a bit frazzled this weekend.
Ernst, sports information director for the Alma Scots, stays busy
during any sports season. But this weekend in particular will extend
his limits to near impossible levels.
First, as softball champions of the MIAA, Alma College hosts the MIAA Softball Tournament
this weekend. For Ernst, that means compiling team photos, rosters and
information for the printed tournament program and making arrangements
for each team’s radio broadcast crew. He also regularly updates the
tournament Website, assists the news media in their coverage of the
tournament, serves as official scorer of every game, and supervises a
crew of student helpers.
Josh Ernst, on the job.
“In
the MIAA, the host team runs the tournament Website, so the MIAA will
link back to our site,” says Ernst, a 2006 graduate of Alma College.
“That means between every game I run back to my office, generate the
box score from the electronic game file, write a short game recap, and
post it all to the Web so fans from each of the four schools in the
tournament can access up-to-date information on the tournament.”
No matter how much planning takes place, the “monkey wrench” that could
throw the tournament schedule out of whack is inclement weather.
“If we have rainouts, then teams have to find a place to stay and
further logistics must be worked out,” he says. “Some teams can’t play
on Sundays, so that causes further complications. If there is bad
weather, then our busy schedules may extend into Sunday or Monday.”
To further complicate Ernst’s busy weekend is the fact that Alma College also is hosting the MIAA Track and Field Championships through May 2 and a home baseball doubleheader against Hope College on Friday (May 2) afternoon.
“I have a crew of six to eight students who can run the scoreboards and
do the public address announcing and three other students who know how
to do the computer scorebooks,” says Ernst, who prepared a 52-page
program for the track and field meet. “We have to rely on students in
all of the sports.”
The Athletics Department depends on Ernst a lot, says Athletic Director John Leister.
“As sports information director, he serves as ticket manager,
statistician, historian, event manager, supervisor of student workers,
Web editor and editor of sports programs,” says Leister, “He also
serves as an intermediary with the media, produces press releases and
hosts the MIAA commissioner and other sports information directors who
will be converging on Alma this weekend for all the league events.
“Josh is so much more than a sports information director; there are
probably about 50 other things he does that I don’t know about. How he
finds time to do everything and still be a husband and father to his
family is beyond me. But he does it with a smile on his face,” says
Leister.
Posted: Wed, April 30th, 2008 at 12:09AM
