2019 ECAC-SIDA Award winners announced

March 21, 2019

in Awards,

Pause All Rotators

Story Links

It is with a great deal of pleasure that the ECAC-SIDA executive board announces the 2019 ECAC-SIDA Award winners. This group of exceptional professionals will be celebrated during the annual Awards Dinner at the 2019 Workshop on the evening of June 6 at the Sheraton – Framingham.

Hotel reservations are open now at this LINK and Workshop registration will open in the coming days, so stay tuned for that announcement.

Below please find a brief look at our 2019 award winners. A more in-depth profile of each award winner will be posted in the buildup to the 2019 Workshop in June.

2019 Bill Esposito Memorial Award Winner – Anthony Rinaldi (Endicott College)

310 Anthony Rinaldi is currently finishing his undergraduate degree in journalism at Endicott College, where he works under 2019 CoSIDA Rising Star Award winner Shawn Medeiros. Rinaldi has served as an intern in the sports information office at Endicott since 2017. He also previously served as an intern in the Harvard athletic communications office during the fall semester in 2018 and spent time as the Editor in Chief and Sports Editor of the Endicott College Observer.

Rinaldi has handled a number of the responsibilities in the office at Endicott while balancing his athletic career as the captain of the men's tennis team. His leadership experience has not been limited to athletics, as he has also spent time as an Orientation Leader, an Orientation Assistant and a member of the Lighthouse Leadership Society at Endicott, which aims to inspire, guide, help and teach students. Rinaldi is also a member of the Lambda Pi Eta Communication Honor Society and plans to pursue a career in athletic communications.

2019 Monahan and Wallace Media Award Winner – Charter TV3 (Andy Lacombe and Kevin Shea)

Andy Lacombe and Kevin Shea This year's Monahan and Wallace Media Award will be shared between the two sports faces of Charter TV3 in central Massachusetts, Senior Executive Producer of News and Sports Andy Lacombe and Sports Director and Sports Anchor Kevin Shea.

The duo were nominated by multiple sports information offices in Massachusetts for their excellent coverage of collegiate athletics in the state, specifically for their efforts in covering not only the major Division I programs in the state, but also the many Division II and Division III colleges.

Lacombe has been with Charter TV3 since 2000, advancing through a number of positions at the station to his current position as Senior Executive Producer. He also serves as an adjunct professor in broadcast journalism at Assumption College and has been the public address announcer for Assumption College men's and women's basketball since 2001. In his current role at the station, Lacome co-hosts "Friday Night Football Frenzy" and serves as the analyst for broadcasts of the Worcester Bravehearts baseball club, Holy Cross football, the High School Football Game of the Week and as the play-by-play voice for Give Kids a Fightin' Chance Charity Boxing Night. He is a ten‐time NECTA Award winner and a three‐time winner of the Telly Awards.

Kevin Shea has been the Sports Director at Charter TV3 for more than two decades. He started working at Charter TV3 (formerly WGMC‐TV3) in 1997 as a Sports Director and Sports Anchor. Shea also serves as the play‐by‐play announcer or analyst for all of the Charter TV3 sports telecasts & co‐hosts the "Friday Night Football Frenzy." His work has contributed to three Telly Awards & several NECTA Awards.

2019 College Division Irving T. Marsh Award Winner – Paul Sweeney (Tufts University)

312 Paul Sweeney has served as the sports information director at Tufts University for 25 years and for the majority of that time has been a one-man shop at one of the largest and most successful Division III athletic programs. With 30 varsity athletic teams to oversee at a school that has numerous top 10 finishes in the Learfield Cup standings, Sweeney has managed to provide an outstanding level of support to thousands of student-athletes throughout his career thanks to his tireless dedication to Tufts University and bettering the experience of those students.

In addition to an exceptional level of service to the student-athletes at Tufts, Sweeney's dedication to the athletic communications profession is evident in the countless students he has mentored, several of which have gone on to become athletic communications professionals at other institutions.

One of the longest tenured sports information directors at a single school in New England, Sweeney's nomination for this honor was supported by multiple former Marsh Award winners, which speaks to his impact not only on the profession, but also on the ECAC-SIDA organization.

2019 University Division Irving T. Marsh Award Winner – David Alexander (The College of Saint Rose)

307 David Alexander has spent the last 27 years at The College of Saint Rose, where he now serves as Assistant Athletic Director for Communications. The Irving T. Marsh Award is the latest in a list of deserved recognition for Alexander, who is also a CoSIDA 25-year Award recipient and was honored in 2007 by The College of Saint Rose with the Service Excellence Award.

Throughout his career at The College of Saint Rose, Alexander has served as a host and media relations coordinator for more than 15 NCAA Division II regional championships and has covered numerous deep runs into postseason play, including a 2011 women's soccer national championship. In addition to his superior efforts at Saint Rose, Alexander has also been heavily involved with professional development and mentoring young athletic communications professionals. He served six years on the ECAC-SIDA executive board, including as the organization's president in 2011-12. He is also involved with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and recently concluded a three-year stint on the Board of Directors for the PRSA's Capital Region Chapter.

2019 Pete Nevins Award for Distinguished Achievement Winner – Dennis O'Donnell (University of Rochester)

309 The Pete Nevins Award is the one ECAC-SIDA Award that is not voted on by the executive board each year, but rather is voted on by the former winners of the honor.

There are perhaps no worthier candidates in the athletic communications profession than Dennis O'Donnell, who has served as the director of athletic communications at the University of Rochester since 1988. In his role at Rochester, O'Donnell has tirelessly covered the Yellowjackets' 23 sports with a level of commitment that has been recognized numerous times nationally, including as an Outstanding SID by the All-American Football Foundation.

O'Donnell has already been inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame, is a CoSIDA 25-year Award winner and was honored by CoSIDA as the 2010 Warren Berg Award winner. He has been a vocal supporter and active participant in ECAC-SIDA for decades, including serving as the Workshop chair in Rochester in 1999, and was honored with the College Division Irving T. Marsh Award from ECAC-SIDA in 2003.

We often talk about how special the evening of our Awards Dinner is each year at the Workshop, and it's pretty obvious with this list of honorees that this year will be no different. We hope that you'll join us in Framingham this June 4-7 for another exceptional Workshop and a chance to celebrate the accomplishments of these decorated award winners.

Book your rooms for the week at our special rate ($139) HERE and stay tuned for the Workshop registration link in the coming days!

Jon Holtz
ECAC-SIDA President
724.738.4925
jonathan.holtz@sru.edu

Print Friendly Version