OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University’s Rich Tortorelli has been selected as the 2016 sports information director of the year by the Sooner Athletic Conference.
The award is voted on by a committee of league administrators from nominees supplied by the group. Tortorelli, who won the award for the first time, will be the conference’s nominee for the NAIA national SID award set to be announced later this month.
This is the third year that the SAC has recognized sports information directors for their hard work and their outstanding contributions to the league. Longtime Oklahoma Baptist SID Ray Fink was honored with the inaugural award in 2014. St. Gregory’s Brad Collins was last year’s winner.
“There are several individuals around our league deserving of recognition, so I would like to thank those who thought enough of my body of work to support me for this prestigious award,” Tortorelli said. “I appreciate Jim Abbott and university administration for providing me with the resources to keep our department up to date and my associate Austin Hannon for his contributions this past year. It is a privilege to promote the outstanding student-athletes and the tradition of excellence at Oklahoma City University.”
The 2015-16 season was Tortorelli’s 11th overall at OCU, where he directs information and publicity efforts for OCU’s 21 varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. Tortorelli aided in the sports information efforts for both the SAC’s baseball and softball tournaments as well as serving as tournament host for one of seven NAIA Softball Championship Opening Round sites.
Many of his assistant sports information directors have gone on to full-time work in strategic communications. He also serves as an official scorer for the Oklahoma City Dodgers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
OCU athletic director Jim Abbott shared in celebrating the honor along with Tortorelli.
“Rich Tortorelli is a true professional who has been and continues to be an innovator in the Sports Information field,” Abbott said. “He was among the first to develop online webcasts in the NAIA, he is meticulous in maintaining statistical information and records, has contributed to the growth of the profession by providing opportunities to young professionals, is active on an annual basis in helping run multiple NAIA championship events, and effortlessly covers 21 varsity sports teams.”
Before working at OCU, he was a sports writer for The Oklahoman, the state’s largest newspaper where he covered Oklahoma high schools and small colleges, including teams in the Sooner Athletic Conference. Prior to that he was sports writer for the Edmond Sun.
An Oklahoma City native, Tortorelli graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a degree in journalism.
He and his wife, Kathryne, have a young son, Samuel.