| Title: | Assistant Athletic Director/Media Relations |
|---|---|
| Email: | mschmitt@scu.edu |
| Phone: | 554-2114 |
| Experience: | 5th Season at SCU; 23rd Year in College Athletics |
| College: | Illinois State '90, '91 |
| Sports Covered: | M Basketball, XC/Track, Volleyball, M/W Tennis; Oversee's M/W Golf, Softball |
Michelle Schmitt enters her fifth year in 2012-13. Schmitt is in her third year as an Assistant Athletic Director at Santa Clara after serving as the Director of Media Relations at Santa Clara her first year and a half with the Broncos. She came to Santa Clara in June, 2008 after working at the University of South Carolina for 15 years, including the last five as an Assistant Director of Athletics.
Overseeing the Bronco Media Relations office which includes two-full time positions and 15 recruited student workers, Schmitt is the primary SID for men's basketball, volleyball, cross country and track. She also oversees softball, men's and women's golf and men's and women's tennis.
She is currently overseeing all the content design and work on the newest addition in Media Relations, EyeBronco, a campus cable TV station that will feature two hours of Bronco programming daily, including the Bronco Weekly Sports Wrap, student-athlete, coach, administrator and professor features and interviews. All content is being developed by the oversight of Schmitt and her student staff of 14, including eight-student-athletes on EYEBRONCO.
While with the Bronco basketball team, they have had a WCC Player of the Year (John Bryant, 2009), a WCC Freshman of the Year (Kevin Foster, 2009), a WCC Defensive Player of the Year (Troy Payne, 2011) and won the CIT post-season title in 2011. In addition, Foster led the country in three pointers made and averaged per game in 2011.
In 2010 she directed the total redesign of the department's website, SantaClaraBroncos.com. She also works with many of sports in their marketing and recruiting efforts and assists in enhancing Santa Clara's public relations efforts nationally. She is credited with bringing Santa Clara front and center in the Bay Area with Santa Clara's social media efforts, developing its efforts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram. Schmitt continues to work to implement a media training plan for the student-athletes, coaches and staff on a seasonal basis.
While at South Carolina, she worked her final seven years with the men's basketball program, who won the NIT title in both 2005 and '06 and was an NCAA tournament at-large selection in 2004. The many All-SEC selections she worked with included Renaldo Balkman, a 2006 NBA First Round Draft Pick.
Schmitt also worked each year with the Gamecock football team, working directly with future Hall of Fame coaches Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier. Schmitt traveled with the team and was part of the Media Relations staff for the 1994 Carquest Bowl victory and the back-to-back 2001 and '02 Outback Bowl wins - South Carolina's first three bowl victories in school history. Responsible for credentialing media at home football games for four years, she also worked as the on-field media-football bench liaison at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Coordinating the media efforts for a number of NCAA Baseball Regionals and Super Regionals, she was the media coordinator for the Southeastern Conference Championships on campus in Volleyball, Track and Field, Baseball and Swimming. Schmitt was the primary speech writer for the Athletic Director for five years and was responsible for the 2000 state-wide campaign to promote the school’s three National Athletes of the Year and a National Coach of the Year. In addition, Schmitt designed and implemented a department-wide media training program using School of Communications, the Speaking Specialists (Chicago) and Sports Media Challenge (Charlotte). She also designed a one-on-one program for those with public speaking challenges, working directly with these student-athletes for nine years.
Schmitt successfully coordinated South Carolina's public relations efforts on an international level for more than 10 years. At the 2004 Athens Olympics she worked directly with the 22 USC-affiliated athletes and coaches who won seven medals, including four gold medals. She worked for Carolina at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, promoting USC with athletes and volunteer coaches winning five Olympic medals. In addition, she worked for the Atlanta Organizing Committee at the swimming and diving venue at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as well as the 1995 Pan-Pac Championships. She also traveled to promote the Gamecocks competing at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada and the 2002 Junior World Championships in Kingston, Jamaica with the athletes winning a number of medals at both.
Schmitt was the Director of Planning and Special Projects for three years. Prior to that, Schmitt was assistant SID for three years before taking over duties as Director of Publications and Special Events.
As the publications coordinator, she won more than 55 CoSIDA publications awards at South Carolina. She came to Carolina in 1993 from the Big Ten Conference, where she was the publications and special projects assistant for one and a half years, working under Commissioner Jim Delany. She assisted the conference in its media relations efforts to welcome Penn State University, including work on the league's new logo.
She is a 1998 graduate of the prestigious Sports Management Institute, a partnership between the Universities of South Carolina, North Carolina and Southern California. She is also a 2002 graduate of Leadership Columbia.
A native of Elmhurst, Ill., and a 1984 graduate of Mascoutah High School, Schmitt is a 1990 graduate of Illinois State University, where she received a Bachelor's degree in Public Relations. She earned her Master's in Sport Administration from ISU in 1991. She worked in the Sports Information Offices at both ISU and Illinois Wesleyan University while working on her master's.
In the military from 1985-88 (Army), Schmitt worked in the White House Telecommunications Center in the White House Communications Agency during the Reagan administration. She was awarded the White House Service Award, the U.S. Army Commendation Medal and the most prestigious Presidential Service Award.
An avid tennis player who has won a number of USTA Flex League titles in singles and doubles, Schmitt is single and lives in Los Gatos, Calif.