It seems the job of a sports information director on any level is a never-ending one. I can only imagine the work that entails that position on a Big Ten team. As I mentioned a while back, we are welcoming Matt Wille as the new assistant sports information director for the Illinois Baseball team in 2013.
‘As we approach opening day this week, I thought it would be nice to ask Matt a few questions. In this interview, I ask Matt to tell us a little about himself and what exactly an SID does. While I had him, I thought I’d get his impression of the Illini Baseball team and their prospects for the 2013 season as well.
Illinois Baseball Report: Welcome to your new position as Assistant SID of the Illini Baseball team! Give us a little background on yourself and what led you to this current position.
Matt Wille: I am originally from Peoria, Ill., and actually started out with the Illinois Sports Information Office in 2006 when I began my freshman year at U of I. I was a student assistant for my first three years, helping out with a variety of sports and even getting to travel with the baseball team on about five different trips. I filled in for Ben Taylor when he was traveling with the wrestling team to their championship meets, so I was able to go to the Al Ogletree Classic (2008), back-to-back Spring Trips to Florida (2009-10), the Big Ten/Big East Challenge (2009), and my best trip was going to Baton Rouge in 2009 to see the Illini win the series over No. 1 LSU (it was pretty cool to knock them off in their brand new stadium with a sold-out crowd over 10,000 and get a police escort back to our hotel).
I then finished my undergrad career working as an intern in the office here and stayed on as a graduate assistant for two years. I worked with the women’s gymnastics, golf, cross country, track and volleyball teams before finishing up with school in the summer of 2012. I then took a position at STATS LLC in Northbrook, Ill., and worked there as an Operations Statistician on MLB, NFL and college football for about six months. Once we had a position open up in the office in December, Ben took over as the women’s basketball and golf SID, and I was able to come back and take over as the baseball SID. I’m looking forward to working with a great coaching staff and group of guys this year. And even though I am a big Cubs fan, I am still looking forward to the game at Busch Stadium.
IBR: For those who aren’t familiar with what a Sports Information Director is, give us some insight into what the job entails. What are your primary responsibilities?
MW: As a Sports Information Director (SID), I’ll coordinate all the publicity efforts for the baseball team by setting up media interviews, serve as official scorer, archive historical records, write press releases, game notes and recaps, update FightingIllini.com with results, rosters, stats and player bios, post photo galleries and video interviews and handle our social media platforms. I’ll travel with the team on all their road trips and work as the color radio analyst with Dave Loane. You’ll find me in the Illinois Field press box for all the home games, so the job entails wearing quite a few orange and blue polo shirts.
IBR: Every year, it seems technology is playing a bigger role in how we as fans get our sports information. Between social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, live blogging games, and more interactive game trackers, it’s getting easier for sports outlets to interact with fans. First, do you plan on continuing to use social media to help stay in touch with Illinois Baseball fans? Second, are there any major innovations in this area for fans take advantage of in the near future?
MW: Yes, those are all great resources that I will continue to use to interact with fans, provide in-game updates and give Illini fans behind-the-scenes access to the team at times. Now that more and more people are constantly on their smartphones, it is even easier to get immediate info on Illini sports by checking out our social media efforts, so be sure to follow @IlliniBaseball on Twitter and like Fighting Illini Baseball on Facebook. And to answer your second question, we are always trying to stay informed about the latest trends so that we can provide the best possible coverage for Illinois Athletics. As new innovations come about, I’ll be sure to look into them to help publicize Illini baseball even more.
IBR:Turning to the Illini Baseball season, it looks like we have a young team this year. Will any of our incoming freshman players will be ready to step up and make a difference right off the bat in 2013?
MW: We do have a young team with 25 freshmen, redshirt-freshmen, sophomores and redshirt-sophomores, which means only 10 upperclassmen on the roster. But it is actually a pretty experienced team since we return 7 out of 8 position starters and 2 weekend pitchers from last year. The only starter we lost was Willie Argo and his center field spot looks to be filled by moving Justin Parr from left to center and shifting Jordan Parr from first base to left field. Sophomore David Kerian and freshman Ryan Nagle will compete for that open spot at first base. Freshman Jason Goldstein was ranked as the No. 4 catcher in the country by Perfect Game and will have a shot to call games behind the plate this year. Freshmen Nick Blackburn and Kevin Duchene also will compete with John Kravetz and Rob McDonnell for spots in the weekend rotation.
IBR: While it’s a young team, the Illini didn’t lose too many key players from the 2012 season with a couple of exceptions. Along with the senior class who seem ready to lead, it seems that a quite a few returning sophomores and juniors are also ripe with talent. Do you think one or two of them are ready for a breakout season?
MW: Like I mentioned, the Illini have quite a bit of talent coming back. To put it in a numbers perspective: the Illini return 79.7 percent (401 of 503) of their hits, 78.0 percent of their runs (241 of 309), 84.1 percent of their extra-base hits (95 of 113) and 65.4 percent of their stolen bases (51 of 78) from last season. Illinois also brings back a strong contingent of its pitching staff from a year ago, including 85.7 percent (24 of 28) of wins from 2012, 76.2 percent (353 2/3 of 464) of innings pitched and 69.7 percent (202 of 290) of strikeouts. With all that back, coach Hartleb tells me that he sees this as a very solid team from top-to-bottom. When I talked to him about the upcoming year, he likes where they are at across the board because they don’t seem to be lacking much in any area. In terms of breakout players, I’d say look for Jordan Parr to take another step, Rob McDonnell to have a shot at a weekend spot and Ronnie Muck/Reid Roper to be solid in their set-up/closer roles.
IBR: Finally, I know it’s premature to make predictions this early but would you hazard a guess on how well the Illini will do in 2013? How does the coaching staff like what they see on the field in practice? Can we at least expect a turnaround from 2012 and see the Illini to make it to the Big Ten Baseball Tournament this year?
MW: I have been back at Illinois since the start of January, so I have only had a little over a month to get to know the team. But from what I have seen in practice and what the coaches have told me, they are pleased with where they are at and excited about what this team could do this year. They have a chance to be pretty good and expect to finish higher up in the Big Ten standings this year. Since the Illini end the season with a road series at Minnesota and the Gophers then host the Big Ten Tournament at Target Field, the Illini hope to be spending a lot of time in Minneapolis at the end of May. But like you said, that is a long ways away so for now, the guys are looking forward to getting on the bus to head to Cookeville, Tenn., on Thursday and get out on the field for the opening series against Tennessee Tech on Friday.
I want to thank Matt for taking the valuable time before opening day to answer some questions. You can see Matt’s full bio on the fightingillini.com website.
Welcome (back) to the Illini, Matt!