Best in D2 - Athletic Communications office receives 34 honors in CSC Digital Design Contest
ORLANDO – Carson-Newman’s Athletic Communications office raked in a whopping 34 awards in the College Sports Communicators Creative and Digital Design Contest, the organization announced last week.
ORLANDO – Carson-Newman's Athletic Communications office raked in a whopping 34 awards in the College Sports Communicators Creative and Digital Design Contest, the organization announced last week.
The 34 honors are the most among NCAA Division II institutions and third-most among schools nationwide behind the University of Oklahoma's 45 and Carthage College's 38. The competition is divided into University (featuring exclusively Division I schools) and College Divisions (DII, DIII, NAIA, Canadian institutions, two-year colleges and high schools). Oklahoma, Carthage and C-N were the only three institutions on the plus side of 30 recognitions.
"I am gobsmacked and grateful," Associate AD for Athletic Communications/External Operations Adam Cavalier said. "The credit goes to Ian, Andrew and CJ for their commitment to excellence and their award-winning work. I know Ryan, Tyler and Jay were on the cusp of hardware too. Their efforts as graduate assistants positions us as an office to produce content of national merit."
The office had two entries named Best of College Division and three named Best of Division II, those numbers lead both divisions.
For a third straight year, the office produced the organizations video of the year for the College Division and for Division II. Adam Cavalier and CJ Newton's collaboration for the men's basketball team's two-overtime win at Lenoir-Rhyne. The video did score an upset on the football program's entrance video, which had won the category the last two years.
The Video of the Year Category was especially prolific for the office, with Cavalier, Newton and Ian Johnson occupying four of the top six places in the category.
Johnson's Frosty Awards Intro finished third; Cavalier and Johnson's collaboration for the football team's entrance video finished fifth, while Johnson's recap of the baseball team's win over Lenoir-Rhyne finished sixth. The Frosty Intro video won the silver medal for Division II.
The other Best of College Division win came in the game notes category. Cavalier's football notes package took the top prize as the best among small colleges and NCAA Division II. Five of the top 13 places in that category went to C-N. Cavalier's men's basketball notes package finished third, while Andrew Rogers brought home eighth, ninth and 13th places with his women's basketball, baseball and women's soccer notes, respectively. Cavalier and Rogers went one, two, four, five in the Best of Division II section. Rogers soccer notes were eighth there.
Carson-Newman had its third Best of Division II honor in Long Form Videos/Recaps/Features. Cavalier and Newton's recap of the football program's season-opening win over Reinhardt came in first in Division II. Johnson finished third for his recap of the Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball series, while Cavalier and Newton placed fourth for the football recap of a Mountain Division clinching win at Tusculum. Those entries finished in second, sixth and seventh, respectively in the College Division. Cavalier and Newton also placed eighth in the College Division for the recap of the EKG Eagles comeback at Mars Hill.
In the short form videos/reels category. Johnson was lauded with seventh and eighth place in the College Division for his swim reel from a win over Mars Hill and Emmanuel, and the KSAC Weightroom reveal. He finished third and fourth in Division II for those two entries, with a fifth-place finish for Division II as well for his cinematic recap of the volleyball program's win over Limestone.
Cavalier's gameday football program finished second in Division II for best Gameday Program. Johnson's women's basketball schedule posted was voted 10th in Division II among posters.
Finally, in the hype/pregame videos contest, Johnson and Newton came in fifth in the College Division for the women's soccer hype video, and third in NCAA Division II.
This marks a fifth straight year the institution has finished inside the top 10 nationally for the most awards in Division II and the first time it has led the division.
These accolades bring the department's overall national awards total to 98 from CSC (formerly CoSIDA) in the last nine years.
Johnson led the department with 15 honors, bringing him to 20 for his career. Cavalier brought in 14, taking his career total to 45. Rogers now sits at four for his career, with his haul of three. Newton won the first 10 awards of his career.
In addition to the current crop's haul, Will Myer, a C-N alum and Athletic Communications Office product, helmed Converse to 13 awards. While Danielle Whaley, who worked at C-N from 2017-22 picked up an honor at Villanova.
The 2024-25 contest set records for the second year in a row with a 33.5% participation increase from the previous year and tallying 2,160 total entries, including 930 entries from the University Division and 1,230 entries from the College Division. A total of nine contest categories saw increased participation year over year, while the Portfolio Contests saw an enormous increase with 173 total entries along with the addition of two more contests. Over the last two editions of the contest, participation has skyrocketed more than 125% overall from 957 entries in 2023-24.
Finalists for the Designer, Photographer and Videographer of the Year Contests were honored Wednesday at the Special Awards Luncheon with two contest winners in attendance as Lynchburg's Micah Adams and Wayne State's Zack Belsky were named Videographer of the Year and Designer of the Year respectively in the College Division.
More than 250 institutions and conference offices were among the participants this year, with more than 650 total individuals having been named on an entry. A total of 435 places were recognized in the overall contest results while 307 entries garnered "Best Of" honors for each level in the College Division. 930 entries made up the 17 contests in the University Division composed exclusively of Division I institutions. The College Division was headlined by Division II with 571 total entries followed by Division II with 447, the NAIA with 170, Canadian Institutions with 17, two-year colleges with 16 and high schools with nine.
A total of 123 different institutions and league offices were among those recognized along with 229 individuals who either submitted solo entries or collaborations from their communications and creative staffs.
The number of places awarded for each contest was determined by the number of entries in each category. For the College Division, "Best Of" honors were bestowed upon the top finishers from each subdivision also based on the number of entries received.
