Steve Sheridan, Sports Information Director for Manhattanville College, is credited for the many game recaps, pictures, interviews and broadcasts that Valiant fans see each and every day. Originally from Westford, Massachusetts, Sheridan attended Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, where he double-majored in history and Latin. Luckily for Manhattanville, he has taken his talents to the Valiant athletic program, where he is one of the head honchos in the department. If it were not for his hard work and dedication to the program, Manhattanville Athletics would be nothing. In the following interview with Sheridan, he takes us through his beginnings in sports communications and explainswhat his life is like now.
Have you played any sports throughout your life? What made you interested in athletics?
I always played sports throughout my childhood and have always had a great passion for it, whether playing or watching. I played soccer the longest until early in high school until I realized I had reached my max level of play, and I then played tennis all through high school.
How did you get into sports communication?
It came almost by accident. I worked on my college newspaper for four years and served as editor-in-chief, and all along I wanted to be a sports writer for a newspaper. I was at a career fair in Boston late in my senior year and I happened to see a table in the corner for Northeastern University on the way out the door. I dropped my resume off and honestly didn’t think anything more of it until I got a call offering me an interview for an internship in the Athletic Communications Department. After one year there, I was hooked and knew it was a profession I wanted to stay in long term.
When did you start at Manhattanville? How long have you been here for?
I have been at Manhattanville since July 2008, so I am in my seventh year as the Sports Information Director. I found out about the position from a former Manhattanville SID in June of 2008 and in the span of about three weeks I had applied, had an interview, accepted the job and moved to New York. Most of my family didn’t even know I had moved.
What does your job entail?
The job description of an SID has changed so much just in the seven years I’ve been here and encompasses so many things. We handle all media relations work for the Athletic Department: while recording statistics and writing game recaps for the athletics website have always been staples of the job, we also design publications, take photos and broadcast games. In the last few years, social media has obviously exploded, so I also update all those accounts as frequently as possible. It is a job where you have to be good at a lot of different things at the same time.
What was one of your greatest moments at Manhattanville?
It’s hard to choose just one. Not just because I’m talking to you, but the softball team’s run to the conference championship and the NCAA Regional final last year certainly ranks up there, not just because of the winning but because it was so unexpected from when the season began. Some of my favorite teams at Manhattanville haven’t necessarily been the best ones record-wise, but the teams with great chemistry that did better than they probably should have.
What is your life like outside of work?
There’s not much of it. When you work six (and sometimes seven) days a week for nine months out of the year, I’ve learned to enjoy the summers and spend as much time as I can with my wife and two children. During the summers I try to stay away from sports as much as possible, so I can get back into the season with some enthusiasm come August.
allthingsvaliant 