RAPID CITY, S.D. – The athletic communications team at South Dakota Mines, led by Josh Van Valkenburg-Gernert, received top honors at the College Sports Communicators annual convention recently held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The awards event recognizes athletic communications professionals in various media guide/publication and digital design contests.
A video piece by Van Valkenburg-Gernert and student assistant, Ryan Cantz - a junior who is majoring in physics - was submitted in a pair of categories, Long Form Video/Recaps and Video of the Year.
These contests included more than1,500 entries and are broken up into categories. One category is made up of all NCAA Division II schools (Best of Division II), and one category is titled College Division, which includes NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, junior colleges and high schools.
The production, submitted by South Dakota Mines, placed among the best in the country, receiving second place for Video of the Year in the college division and best of division II schools, and sixth for Long Form Video/Recaps in the college division and best of division II.
"I am honored and truly humbled to have been honored for the piece we put together, said Van Valkenburg-Gernert, assistant athletic director for athletic communications. "The truth is that a lot of people who work in similar fields and within sports and athletics don't have a thorough understanding of what all goes into the job of communications and to put together individual video pieces among other types of content, so to be honored by colleagues who know what goes into it and be thought of among the best is surreal, and a truly incredible feeling."
"I would be remiss without thanking the teams, coaching staffs, student-athletes, because this wouldn't be possible without them," added Van Valkenburg-Gernert. "Lastly, I want to give the biggest thank you to Ryan Cantz, who in his two years working with the department has been a key factor in elevating the department's video work and was a big part of putting the award-winning video together."
The video can be found below.
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About South Dakota Mines
The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and NCAA Division II offering 13 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 members, as well as four associate members, located in the states of California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah.
