The Sports Information team documents athletic performances and aims to fill the bleachers.
As Mohawk College ramps up its varsity athletics performance, the Athletics department is ensuring the achievements of its athletes are well-documented.
Sports Information Coordinator Satbir Singh was hired in September 2021. He runs the Athletics website, manages all the social media platforms, liaises with external media, and oversees all the stories, photography, videos and news releases produced within the department.
That includes the work of two student journalists who write game recaps and managing the relationship with the Broadcast Media program whose students film home games. There are also student positions in photography, social media and graphic design.
Singh also contributes advance stories for high-profile games.
Singh, a Burlington native, worked at the student newspaper at Brock University for five years and served as a broadcaster for basketball and volleyball games. He then worked at a newspaper in Niagara for two years covering community news and politics.
The opportunity to focus on sports again drew him to the opportunity at Mohawk College.
“All my experiences in student positions were so valuable to me. It’s great to give those experiences to students at Mohawk.”
One of his hires is Alex Macdonell, a Health, Wellness and Fitness student, who is filming all home games and producing highly stylized highlight reel videos (also called hype videos) that are being widely shared on the Mohawk Mountaineers Instagram account.
It’s been a busy year. He’s often filming two games a week, which takes about five hours of time. Then sorting through footage and editing it together takes another 10 to 12 hours.
“I love videography so much that I will make sacrifices to do it. That usually means staying up late.”
Macdonell used money he’s earning to buy new cameras and a computer for his videography work. Wherever his career takes him, Macdonell knows videography will be a part of it.
“I’m investing in myself because I want to make videos my full-time job. I’m always thinking about new ideas for videos. I’d say 70 per cent of my energy and thoughts are about videos.”
Macdonell loves that his videos are shared by players, teams and spectators.
“If we can fill up the bleachers and if I am playing a role in that, I’m happy. My job is to show how good our athletes are. There is nothing like being there at the game.”
“We hope to see the excitement and energy of American collegiate athletics infused into the culture of Mohawk College,” says Singh.
“We are celebrating our student-athletes’ achievements and we want to show future students that Mohawk College is the place to come play.” 