ECAC-SIDA News

Matthews named 2009 Esposito Award winner

ONEONTA, N.Y. - The Eastern College Athletics Conference-Sports Information Directors Association has selected Lincoln University of Pennsylvania senior Jordean Matthews (Pleasantville, N.J./Pleasantville) as the 2009 Bill Esposito Award winner.  Matthews will be honored during the organization's annual conference in Avalon (N.J.) on Thursday June 4, 2009.
 
The Bill Esposito Award is presented to a graduating college senior who wishes to pursue a career in athletic communications.  The award is named to honor the memory of one of the true patriarchs of the sports information profession.  Bill Esposito served as the Sports Information Director at St. John's University in New York for 25 years.  He served as a past-President of ECAC-SIDA in 1972-73 and was the organization's Irving Marsh Award recipient in 1973.  He was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1984. Bill Esposito passed away in 1995.
 
Matthews has worked in the Lincoln University Sports Information Office for four years as a student assistant. In her role within the Lincoln Sports Information Office, she has written various game recaps, feature stories, men's basketball game notes for the athletics department website and the official athletics publication, Lion Tales. This year, Matthews was responsible for writing, designing and editing the 2008 Volleyball Season in Review and Men's Basketball Season in Review guides. In addition, Matthews worked during last year's Penn Relays as a quote-taker. She assisted when Lincoln hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament in 2006.

A well-rounded, talented student-athlete, Matthews is majoring in mass communications with a focus in journalism. She is a four-time track & field All-American and also played volleyball for four years, serving as team captain as a sophomore and senior.  She is currently in her second season as a member of the softball team.
 
Matthews is in her second year as the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).  Among some of her accomplishments as SAAC president, Matthews successfully started a partnership with Brian's House, a non-profit organization, provides a broad range of human services to people with special needs and challenges, in which Lincoln student-athletes and some of the residents interact with each other at least once a semester on Lincoln's campus. Matthews worked at Camp Joy, an affiliate of Brian House's in Schwenksville (Pa.). Lincoln student-athletes spent a weekend at Camp Joy in November 7-9.  She interned with NBC-40 in Linwood, NJ.
 
She was the Sports Editor of the school online newspaper, The Lincolnian, and she is the historian of the Lincoln University Caribbean Student Association. Matthews is also a member of the Higher and Better Movement Organization.
 
Now in its 53rd year, the Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors Association provides support for the sports information directors of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Membership in the ECAC-SIDA is open to all sports information directors, conference information directors, public relations directors, athletic communicators and corporation that have a vested interest in the welfare of the organization. Founded in 1955, the ECAC-SIDA is one of the nation's largest sports information director associations, with member colleges and universities ranging from Maine to North Carolina in Divisions I, II, III and all NAIA schools and junior colleges.