ORLANDO, Florida - Stillman College Athletics claimed five Top 10 awards in the 2022-2023 NAIA-SIDA Publications Contests announced June 12 at the College Sports Communicators Unite 20223 conference at Orlando World Center. Stillman's five awards were the most by an NAIA historic black college or university (HBCU) and second among Southern States Athletic Conference members.
GoStillman.com was selected as the No. 2 official athletics website in the NAIA. The website relaunched in early 2023 in partnership with SIDEARM Sports, powered by Learfield Sports. The new website design offers Stillmanites and Tiger fans an improved experience on the site, whether on a computer, mobile device or tablet.
"We are excited that the return to SIDEARM as the provider for our GoStillman.com website has been so well received and is recognized as a top site in the NAIA. It was a goal to design this site to be a leader among other schools in Alabama, the Southern States Athletic Conference and fellow HBCUs," said Chris Megginson, Stillman College's assistant athletic director for media relations. "Returning to SIDEARM was a logical choice with a strong reputation for providing a quality product and exceptional client and customer support to its more than 1,500 college athletics clients. Stillman College and SIDEARM have a long history during our NCAA Division II days, which makes our renewed relationship even stronger."
Stillman previously partnered with SIDEARM from 2010-2016.
"We are excited to welcome Stillman College back as a SIDEARM partner," said SIDEARM President Jeff Rubin. "An early member of the SIDEARM family, we look forward to bringing an innovative digital experience to Tigers fans everywhere."
In addition to the website, Stillman received three awards for game day graphics, led by collaborative design work by Megginson and David Miller, Stillman College's director of communications and public relations.
The baseball game day graphic took second behind Georgia Gwinnett's women's soccer graphic. The graphic selected for nomination was for the Tigers' March 31 game at Faulkner University, which used the season-long template designed by Miller. Megginson adapted it for the road game, including a feature photo of Montgomery, Alabama native Kelvin Reese. In the background was an image of the Alabama State Capitol and Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to display Montgomery and give a nod to former Dexter Avenue pastor and civil rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated 55 years ago that week.
Two other game day graphics collected honors. The basketball design claimed fifth position for use of the HBCU BATTLE design to promote a January 25 women's basketball non-conference game against Miles College. Stillman's graphic to promote the October 10 Pittsburgh HBCU Collaborative's HBCU Baseball Classic at PNC Park was 10th in the game day graphics category. Both the basketball and HBCU Classic graphics were designed by Megginson with photo support by Miller.
"David Miller's photography during the 2022-2023 season helped our website and social media accounts come alive. His expertise behind the camera added great value to our student-athlete and fan experience," Megginson said.
Stillman also placed ninth in season previews or reviews with its 2022 women's volleyball preview, written by Megginson.
Joining Stillman from SSAC member institutions were Faulkner University's Carter Moles, Jeremy Smith and David Turner combined for six honors.
Another local connection was 2022 University of Alabama graduate Cooper Huskey, who placed fifth in football game notes and seventh in the Call of the Year broadcast category for a men's basketball game at Ave Maria University where he is in his first year as the assistant sports information director. Husky got his first introduction to NAIA sports information work at Stillman in Spring 2022, where he worked several Stillman baseball and softball games on HBCU Plus in 2022 as a broadcaster and camera operator. He also covered the Tigers as a WVUA-23 student intern.
