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Jimmies sports information department could see changes with potential move to NCAA D2

maxwell o'neill, the jamestown sun, n.d.
·4 min read

Sep. 29—JAMESTOWN — When and if the University of Jamestown's move up to the NCAA Division II level is official, Sports Information Director Ryan Mikkelson's job could be impacted in a multitude of ways.

The Jimmies submitted an application to join the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference earlier this year. The Jimmies would be the league's 16th member if the University of Jamestown is accepted into the conference.

The 15 current members each have at least two media-focused employees, whereas the Jimmies have Mikkelson and graduate assistant Molly Dockter. Jimmies Athletic Director Austin Hieb said if the move becomes a reality, the athletic department will add more staff, including for the sports information department.

"I know a lot of the D2 schools will have ... larger staffed departments but I don't know if that's necessarily an NCAA requirement or more how the institution runs things," Mikkelson said. "So ideally, it would be great if we had some more full-time positions in that department should we make the move. We've done quite a bit with what we've had since I've been here."

Mikkelson is currently in his 10th year as the sports information director with the Jimmies. Mikkelson's job duties as the sports information director include but are not limited to keeping the website updated, using the athletic department's social media, compiling statistics, writing game stories and making sure home games are photographed.

Mikkelson said the necessity to have a big footprint online has increased. In the future, Mikkelson said artificial intelligence could continue to grow in terms of its impact on his job.

"There's been a lot more things to do in terms of online coverage or being an online presence," Mikkelson said. "The quality of our webstreams has gotten better. We've added more elements to those. There's been advancements in website features, mobile app features, that's probably been the biggest change. From year to year and sport to sport most everything is pretty much the same. You're telling the stories of your teams, updating the website, things like that."

Prior to Dockter, Mikkelson had a part-time assistant and work-study student staff, which he also still works alongside. Mikkelson said he has thought about the costs associated with increasing the staffing in his department but that actual dollar amount would be decided by the university.

He said an assistant would help the athletic department by being another voice to come up with ideas to help teams. Mikkelson said having a larger staff would help him spread game coverage and game responsibilities to another person. He said having a full-time assistant would enable him to give the individual more responsibilities.

In his current role, Mikkelson does not travel to a lot of Jimmies regular season games, which he said would probably continue despite the majority of the road games being closer than the current road games in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. Currently in the GPAC, Mikkelson and the Jimmies' closest road trip is to Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota, which is about four hours away. The furthest road trip is more than eight hours away to Doane University in Crete, Nebraska.

Comparatively, the closest trip in the Northern Sun for the Jimmies is to the University of Mary in Bismarck, and the furthest trip would be to Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, which is about a seven-hour trip.

As of Sept. 24, the Jimmies broadcast their games on YouTube with one camera in a wide view and a scoreboard graphic. The department does live stats for baseball, softball, football and soccer through PrestoStats and volleyball and basketball through DakStats.

According to the Northern Sun's Network Handbook, all member teams are required to broadcast their games on NSICNetwork.com. The handbook also says all football and basketball games must have a play-by-play announcer and all sports must have at least one camera that is manned and at the center of the playing surface to broadcast the games. There also must be a scoreboard graphic.

Hieb said there will be minimal additional costs to the school with the switch to the conference's streaming service.

"The broadcasts actually won't be impacted at all," Hieb said. "It will be easier for people to find. What's nice about it is all the conference games are located on one app so they're easy to find. They're easy to get to, they're all online, whether you're using a browser or ... if you're using the app on different devices."

Mikkelson said he won't have a separate record book on the Jimmies website if they make the jump to the NCAA Division II level.

"We would probably make some sort of notation in the program history but in terms of career records and things like that," Mikkelson said, "I don't foresee a separate NAIA list, NCAA list, you know things like that. I think each accomplishment ... whether they were conferences or national organizations, they're all worthy, they all deserve to be recognized."