Mark Adkins

NORTH MANCHESTER – Mark Adkins, Manchester University sports information director, has been tapped to chair the College Sports Information Directors of America U Committee.

CoSIDA U is an initiative to reach out to future generations of college sports information professionals across all divisions in the United States and Canada.

The Akron, Ind., resident was a key member of the committee that launched the inaugural CoSIDA U Camp this summer, designed for students and others interested in sports communications careers.

The first camp was in Maryland. Manchester University will host a summer camp next July, one of several chosen satellite locations.

Adkins, in his sixth year at NCAA Division III Manchester, has been in the sports information field since 1999, beginning as a graduate assistant at North Dakota State University.

He went on to full-time work at his alma mater, Wartburg College of Iowa, then to Norwich University of Vermont.

During his time at Manchester, Adkins been in charge of a total overhaul of the athletics website, http://www.muspartans.com.

He has also overseen tremendous growth in its social media platforms. The athletic department’s YouTube pagehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd5Di8a3n5bIRYYA8FUp2ig/featured, for example, has added The Spartan Show, which focuses on athletics news and interview subjects.

Adkins has developed strong relationships with local, regional and national media sources, which includes major feature placements in NCAA Champions magazine.

A former CoSIDA board member, he is second vice president of the NCAA Division III Sports Information Directors of America Board of Directors.

Adkins has also held CoSIDA roles in its Academic All-America national leadership (2003-18) as a district coordinator and current director of new media. He helped revive the organization’s Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest as a national co-chair (2010-14).

He has served as media relations host for several championship events. They include NCAA Division III wrestling (2001); NCAA Division III men’s and women’s outdoor track and field (2005); NCAA Division III women’s golf (2008); and NCAA Division III men’s and women’s cross country (2010) along with regional men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s ice hockey, football and softball contests.

He is communications team leader for the NCAA Division III men’s basketball Final Four local operating committee. The 2004 National Wrestling Media Association Division III Publicist of the Year, Adkins is also heavily involved with promoting athletics on the national level in other areas – serving as a weekly pollster and regional honor teams selector for D3Football, D3Hoops, and D3Baseball.com‘s sites.

He participated in the United States Basketball Writers Association Division III Player of the Week selection process (2015-17) and has been national director for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Division III weekly awards since 2015.

Adkins’ love for the sports media field began as a sports writer at the Waterloo (Iowa) Courier during his undergraduate work at Wartburg. From 1988 to 1999, he was sports editor at four weekly newspapers in the state.