COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Colorado Mesa athletic communications staff was announced as the 2023-24 J.W. Campbell/Con Marshall Sports Information Department of the Year on Tuesday (Jun. 18) morning by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
The award is bestowed upon annually to the athletic communications staff in the conference that has made the biggest impact during the most recent academic year. The award is voted on by the 15 conference SIDs who provide their top three choices without voting for themselves.
 
This is the third time Colorado Mesa has claimed the award with the others coming at the end of the 2017-18 season and the 2020-21 season. Assistant Athletic Director of Communications Dave Jahnke has headed all three of those departments and sports information assistant Chris Day has been a part of all three honors and claimed three honors of his own as the SID at Adams State.
 
Graduate assistant Paxton Ritchey rounds out the staff and has served the last two seasons in the role. He has been the primary contact for men's and women's soccer, men's basketball and men's and women's lacrosse during his time. He has also assisted in the broadcast booth as a play-by-play commentator for the RMAC men's lacrosse championship and RMAC baseball tournament.
 
The staff successfully provided media coverage of eight RMAC Championship events and two NCAA Regional tournaments including the third round and national quarterfinals for women's soccer for the first time in school history. As a part of those championships, the Colorado Mesa staff assists in statistical coverage, video streaming, and post-game press conferences and interviews.
 
Colorado Mesa had a banner year in terms of awards as they claimed nearly 300 All-RMAC awards, over 60 All-American honors, and nearly 250 academic All-RMAC honors. The Mavericks claimed eight individual RMAC Summit Award winners as having the highest GPA at the championship site and were honored with 12 (and counting) CSC Academic All-American awards.
 
The staff had the huge help of a pair of individuals this year in former Daily Sentinel sports reporter and CMU beat writer Patti Arnold and the first full year with Assistant Athletic Director of Creative Content Theo Smith. Arnold assisted with the coverage of all sports and wrote several student-athlete features this year which featured members of several of the Maverick's championship winning programs.
 
Smith has been integral in growing the social media presence of Maverick athletics through his award and gameday graphics and the ever-popular post-game video recaps. He also teamed with Arnold for the student-athlete features adding a video component to those stories.
 
The team is also supported by several student staff workers, interns, and part-time workers that assist in photography, play-by-play and color commentators, and gameday operations.
 
The SID Department of the Year award is named after two RMAC Hall of Fame sports information directors. J.W. Campbell who was a long-time SID at Western Colorado University (WCU) and Con Marshall who spent 36 years as a Sports Information Director at Chadron State College (CSC).
 
The Colorado Mesa will accept the J.W. Campbell / Con Marshall Sports Information Department of the Year at the annual RMAC Hall of Fame banquet on July 11 in Colorado Springs.