NEWS/TALK 101.5 FM, 93.1 FM & WNWS.COM visited with Steven Aldridge, Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Communication at Union University for a Q&A session to discuss his career at the school and how the athletic department is working through the pandemic.
Question: First, a little background information. Where are you originally from, education, family?
Answer: I am originally from Myrtle, Mississippi where I graduated from Myrtle High School (1994). I have a sports management degree from Union (1998) and a masters degree in education from Union (2008). My wife Stacy works at FirstBank and we have two children, one freshman at Crockett County HS and one in Crocket County Middle School. We are members of Gospel Light Baptist Church in Jackson. My younger brother is a senior chief in the US Navy, currently stationed in Jacksonville, Florida.
Question: How many years have you been employed by Union University, and when did you begin your career as sports information director at the school?
Answer: This is my 21st year at Union. I started at Union as SID September 1, 2020 following working as the Box Office and Events Manager for the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx during their first three seasons in Jackson. My title was changed to Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Communication a few years back.
Question: How has COVID-19 affected the athletic department at Union University?
Answer: Like many other schools at all levels, we have missed the opportunity of athletic competition. I can remember well the March day when we started hearing the news about events being closed to fans, then ultimately moving to be canceled altogether.
Our women’s basketball team, fresh off a GSC (Gulf South Conference) Tournament Title, was sitting in Cleveland, Tenn. ready to compete in the NCAA Region Tournament. Our baseball, softball, and golf teams were well into the spring seasons.
Now, as we get ready for the fall, we are still dealing with postponements and cancelations. The NCAA D2 Council has canceled all fall 2020 region and national championships. The GSC has moved to postponed soccer and volleyball seasons to the spring. This includes basketball being postponed to at least January 1. Golf and Cross Country will be allowed to participate as those sports fall under the category of low contact sports. All other sports (soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball) hope to begin practicing soon. However, no outside competitions or events will be allowed for those sports.
Question: Union is a member of the Gulf South Conference, which announced competition in basketball, soccer, and volleyball has been postponed until at least January 1.
Competition will be allowed in cross country and golf.
How has this announcement affected your work?
Answer: As far as the sports communication office, the lack of events removes a large portion of a normal daily and season duties. As much as we miss covering games, we still feel a great obligation to support our coaches and student-athletes.
Despite the loss of athletic competition and game activities, there are still many great opportunities to highlight our student-athletes and coaches. Many of our athletes and teams earned conference, regional, and national academic awards in the spring.
They will continue to work hard academically to reach those goals again his year. Our athletes and coaches are putting in much time and effort and we look forward to any opportunity to highlight their work, on and off the field.
The lack of events has also allowed for more time to continue to add to our great history at Union. We have been able to spend time gathering information from former athletes and looking through different archives to get information missing over the years.
On a personal note, for the first time in my life, I’ve had nights and weekends free for this extended period of time. For as far back as I can remember as a child, I traveled with my father who drove the team bus and kept the scorebook for my high school. That turned into me playing sports and also working as a statistician for sports I didn’t play in high school.
Even through college, I worked as a student worker for Union athletics. Then having worked in minor league baseball and now back in college athletics, it was a weird feeling to have so many free nights and weekends.
Question: Coaches are not doing in-person recruitment, but recruits are allowed to visit the school. How is the sports information department handling this situation?
Answer: NCAA regulations stopped all off-campus recruiting and it has been that way for several months. On-campus recruiting has been allowed with certain limits. Our coaches are hoping for and looking forward to the time soon when they can hit the recruiting trail once again.
Question: We keep hearing about measures that are being taken for the student-athlete during the pandemic.
What measures are in place for the staff in the athletic department?
Answer: We are excited to have athletic competition return to our campus and athletes, even in this limited capacity. However, Union is working with a 3-pronged governing list of guidelines (Jackson/Madison County, Tennessee, and NCAA). Once Union has satisfied each of these different levels of guidelines, Union hopes to begin practicing and preparing for the possibility of spring competitions.
The Union Athletics Department is social distancing and wearing masks. Testing will be required for our cross country and golf teams before they are allowed to compete off campus.
(PHOTO: Steven Aldridge, Union University)
