By Andrew Watson ~ Guest Writer
Tim LaDuca overseeing action at the 2023 ODAC Women’s Golf Championship. Photo Courtesy of Lynchburg Sports and Caroline Gerke.
Lynchburg’s media department within the University of Lynchburg’s athletics department stepped into a new role this semester when they began working almost simultaneously.
Tim LaDuca, who is the Director of Digital Media for the athletic department was thrust into a new role, as not only the head of the digital media department, but also took over the reins of the sports information department early in the spring semester.
However, this work was not done alone. The experienced staff of LaDuca and Sam Rice, the assistant director of digital media, are excited to reshape the landscape of these two departments.
LaDuca has been asked to step into a very large role as the director of this new era in sports information.
He has had the responsibility to step into many different roles in these positions. LaDuca stated, “Digital media is curating our social media, creating interactive posts, highlighting our student athletes online and also live streaming the events with broadcasts online.”
The Lynchburg Hornets Sports Network has been the epitome of NCAA Division III broadcast channels for many years, but this year it has also been reshaped. Although student help has been important in the past, it has taken on an increased level of importance with a smaller salaried staff.
“We’ve got such a great student staff that we are almost working with them. A lot of the time it does not seem like we are relying on them because they are able to run games on their own,” says LaDuca about the importance of student workers.
Rice also believed that the student workers have been instrumental in the merging of these two departments. He stated, “We are in a very unique situation compared to a lot of other universities with the resources we have at hand. We’re able to take a student staff and put them in a role with more responsibility than we would be able to at other universities.”
Although the student staff experiences much turnover year-to-year, there is not much of a learning curve. Rice stated, “With the more established students that we get, we’re always trying to get better. So we are able to learn new things and teach them new things.”
Overall, the merging of the Sports Information and Digital Media departments, has led to a new era for the Athletic Department at the University of Lynchburg. Under the sure leaders, Tim LaDuca and Sam Rice, the department has taken off to new heights that were previously unthinkable.
For more information about these departments, visit the University of Lynchburg’s Athletic Website.