There will be slight change in personnel this coming year in the Baseball program. Ben Taylor will no longer be serving as the Assistant Sports Information Director for the Illini Baseball team. Don’t worry, he hasn’t gone far; he will now provide his considerable talents to the Women’s Basketball team as well as continue his work with Illini Football and Golf.
Working as an SID has many facets and seems to be a never ending task. It’s such an important job but so much of it gets done behind the scenes and without much fanfare. As an editor of an independent website that covers the baseball team, I had plenty of interaction with Ben. No doubt, Ben Taylor was hard working. He was responsible for writing press releases, scorekeeping, handling PR requests, taking his turn in the broadcast booth and developing strategies to publicize the Illinois Baseball program… and he did it all well.
There would times I would be writing up a story late at night and I would email Ben a question not expecting an answer till the next day. Five or ten minutes later, I’d get an email with his answer. That’s responsive! I am very grateful for all of Ben’s hard work and everything he did to help get the word out about the program.
But as they say there’s a new sheriff in town. Matt Wille will be taking over the SID duties as Ben leaves. Matt, a Peoria native, is a UI alum and has worked with the Department of Illinois Athletics throughout his time as a student. After he graduated, he worked with STATS LLC. in the Chicago area before coming back to the University of Illinois DIA.
I’ve already been in contact with Matt a couple times and he seems like a great guy. I’m looking forward to further communication with him in the future.
Good luck to Ben with his new position and welcome to Matt!
Ben did a great job! Looking forward to seeing his coverage of women’s basketball.