The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has announced that Denison University’s Craig Hicks, assistant athletic director for athletics communications, has been recognized for the “best work by athletics communication directors portraying the Division III identity and student-athlete experience.” Hicks is the recipient of the NCAA 2018 Spring Division III and Division III College Sports Information Directors of America (D3SIDA) Recognition Award, for his story titled: “Denison All-American Hannah Rusinko refuses to let Tourette’s define her.”
The award honors the best work — including news releases, feature articles, videos, blogs and other materials — produced by Division III campus and conference athletics communication offices. “The story was exceptionally well done,” said Adam Skaggs, assistant director of Division III Governance Communications.
Nan Carney-DeBord, director of Athletics at Denison, commented, “Craig is extremely talented, professional and dedicated to telling our athletes’ stories. He recognizes the passion and determination it takes to be a competitive DIII athlete. These are students who are as talented in the classroom as they are on the field, and he honors their hard work by really getting to know them and telling individualized stories.”
She added, “About 25 percent of Denison students participate in one of our 23 varsity sports. Craig’s outstanding work affects each of them in such a positive way. I am very proud of him and grateful for this well-deserved award.”
In addition to the NCAA award, Hicks also was named as a winner in the 2018 Fred Stabley Jr. Writing Contest through the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). This is the third-straight year he was selected as the District 4 winner in one of seven categories.
This year, he received the District 4 award for best Season Preview or Recap for a Game of Thrones themed football preview titled “Game of Throws: Denison vs. Southwestern Sept. 2.” Last year, he earned the District 4 Event Coverage of the Year award for the story “Denison overcomes the odds in NCAC Championship.” And in 2016, his story, “Denison’s Grant Jones ‘88 earns a place in Academic All-America Hall of Fame,” nabbed the award for the District 4 General Feature of the Year.
Hicks has disseminated sports information at Denison since 2002. He has guided the department through three complete website redesigns and assisted in hosting numerous North Coast Athletic Conferences. Hicks oversaw the creation of the Denison Sports Network, organizing and training a team of student broadcasters to provide live audio and video play-by-play over the Denison athletics website.
Hicks also has promoted numerous Capital One Academic All-Americans and NCAA Postgraduate Scholars since 2002-03, helping Denison rank among national leaders in these two prestigious categories.
Hicks received his Bachelor of Science from Ashland University and graduated with majors in journalism/English and sports communication. He received his Master of Science in sports education, also from Ashland University. He is an active member of CoSIDA, serving as the Operations Coordinator on the Google Cloud Academic All-America committee. He also serves on the board of directors as the Region 3 representative for D3SIDA (Division III Sports Information Directors of America).