From the Desk of Tim Volkmann - Director of Athletic Communications

My name is Tim Volkmann and I have been the Director of Athletic Communications at RIT since November of 2019.

Gosh, Tim – that sounds like a cool job. What exactly does the Director of Athletic Communications do?

Well, let me tell you. Just about every intercollegiate athletic department in the country, no matter the size, has an “SID,” or Sports Information Director. Originally, SIDs were typically in charge of working with the media who covered collegiate sporting events, keeping track of statistics, records and rosters so newspaper reporters could tell an accurate story about the teams and student-athletes they were writing about. However, the profession has changed dramatically since the days of typewriters and calculators thanks to the multitude of ways fans can now access information about their favorite teams. I can’t even imagine what my job would be like if there wasn’t a website to maintain, live statistics to produce, or social media to update – things a good majority of fans these days have never been without!

Being an SID sound pretty great. How did you get into it?

I grew up in nearby Fairport, N.Y., and started out as the sports editor of my high school newspaper. I was also the manager of our cross country team and kept track of all the times and results for our runners. (I know what you are thinking – and no, it didn’t really get much cooler than being me in high school). From there, I attended SUNY Cortland where I started as the sports editor of the campus newspaper and worked pretty closely with the SID to get information to include in the paper. He really piqued my interest in the profession and let me complete an internship my senior year on my way to a communications degree. Since then, I’ve been lucky to work in some great athletic departments over the last 20-plus years, before jumping at the chance to come back home and join the team at RIT.

RIT is indeed an awesome place to work. How has it gone since you started?

Whelp, a lot has happened to say the least. I recall the day before what would have been my first playoff hockey game after only four months of being on the job. The world all but stopped spinning due to the coronavirus pandemic and, for a guy who makes a living covering athletic competitions, there wasn’t much to write about. However, fast-forward a couple months to when my wife and I welcomed a baby daughter into the world. The sports world started coming back to life, while I was literally in charge of a new life.

Holy moly. How has it all been since then?

I feel like, in a lot of ways, this has actually been my first year at RIT. Not being around to get to know the student-athletes face-to-face was a challenge, and I’m really looking forward to having the opportunity get to know the department even better going forward.

With that said, I’m lucky to be a part of some great teams at RIT. Our Associate Director of Athletic Communications, Steve Jaynes, has been here for almost 20 years and brings a wealth of institutional knowledge to the office every day. We also have a 10-month employee in our office named Mark Jagord, and he’s has done a great job as our AComm Assistant since joining us last summer.

Our office actually reports to University Communications in the Division of Marketing and Communications, and we get to work with some amazing folks who are awesome resources when it comes to spreading the word about athletics. There is also no bigger fan of RIT sports than my boss, AVP for Communications Bob Finnerty (he legit bleeds orange). We also obviously get to work within the Athletics Department as well, along with a great team of coaches and administrators. And if you haven’t had the chance to meet the new Executive AD, Jackie Nicholson, make some time. She is a shot of energy for sure.

What is your favorite part about being an SID?

It is the people I’ve gotten to be around and the relationships I’ve built through the years. We work a lot of long nights and weekends, but being able to work with so many incredible people makes it worthwhile. It all goes back to storytelling as well. Whether you use a typewriter or a laptop, there aren’t many jobs out there better than being able to tout the student-athlete experience at a place like RIT.

Go Tigers!

Drier Days Ahead for RIT Softball

There have been huge changes to the RIT Softball program this spring, taking the shape of a new artificial turf field.

It is amazing to me thinking back to being a freshman on this campus in 1998 and trekking out to the softball field that was only a chain link backstop and two metal benches. In 2010, the year after I started coaching here, we undertook the original field renovation, which included new clay, drainage, irrigation, fencing and dugouts. That lasted 10 years until the northeast winter…I mean spring, became too much of a battle to fit in our home games. Now in 2021 we said goodbye to our clay and are halfway through our first season with turf. There were many memories made on that clay along with tears shed, games won and lost.

Our freshman class this year consists of 10 players accounting for more than half of our team. They will never know the experience of tarping and un-tarping the field multiple times a week or knocking the clay off of their cleats. But they have an amazing starting point to make new memories, and I hope that they can grow and develop in the way that I have seen our field evolve over the years.

The energy this year’s team bring to the game is refreshing to all. I can’t help in feeling nothing but pride for this program and its future.

Go Tigers!

Rebecca Stryker - RIT Softball

An Update from RIT Men's Lacrosse

Due to COVID, the last two years have been a real challenge with our season cut short in 2020 and an abbreviated 2021 season with lots of red tape. Luckily we have great support here at RIT and a resilient group of young men who fought through it all and won the programs first ever National championship! With this, we have had to face some new challenges this year for our team...welcomed ones!

Other than some minor COVID restrictions in the fall, the 2021-22 season has finally felt like a normal one. The one big difference is managing all of the praise and compliments that come our way from last year. It's humbling and amazing seeing all of the people who care about us, are fans of the program, or are local and just love good lacrosse. We are blessed and thankful for it! With that comes a responsibility for us to carry ourselves like champions but also to learn how to move on and focus on the here and now. Our team has done a fantastic job keeping their eyes in front…understanding that it is a new team and a new year and we need to focus on each and every opponent. Without that predator mindset, we may have had different results this year!  

We currently sit at 12-1 and our success has a lot to do with a wonderful group of fourth- and fifth-year seniors, who have been instrumental in keeping this team focused, working hard and still having fun. They are a gritty and an experienced bunch who know what it takes to win. With that said, we have an equally impressive group of underclassman who continue to push their teammates and give practice great energy. With a challenging schedule, that leadership and tenacity has been instrumental in guiding us to three top-10 victories and a number of other wins against ranked foes. We hope that success will continue this week versus Geneseo and Skidmore, then we will round out the regular season with a road trip to No. 10 St. Lawrence in a huge league matchup. Stay tuned!

The team has set high standards and lofty goals for themselves. If we continue to stick to who we are, keep improving, and stay in the right mindset, we believe we have a great chance of fulfilling those goals! 

Thank you!

Jake Coon - RIT Men's Lacrosse

Tigers In The Crowd