{"id":157837,"date":"2022-04-19T14:49:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T00:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=157837"},"modified":"2022-04-19T14:49:47","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T00:49:47","slug":"lifetime-achievement-russ-blunck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/19\/lifetime-achievement-russ-blunck\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifetime achievement award for former UH<\/abbr> Hilo sports information director"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"russ<\/p>\n

Russ Blunck<\/strong>, the former sports information director (SID<\/abbr>) at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo<\/a> who retired in September 2021, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

After retiring to the Oregon coast in November, Blunck filled his time by writing remotely for a handful of schools and worked as the lead broadcaster for the PacWest Basketball Championships in March.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time that Blunck, who capped a 29-year career in sports information with his retirement from UH<\/abbr> Hilo, found himself drawn back to the profession after trying to step away.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

He spent nearly 20 years in athletic communications, beginning as a student SID<\/abbr> at Pacific University to work with Athletes in Action, the Portland Breakers, Point Loma University and Western Oregon University.<\/p>\n

When he returned to being a full-time sports information director at UH<\/abbr> Hilo after a decade away, Blunck admits that the demands and technology had changed so much that it took time to catch up. The slower pace of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island, with its palm trees, black sand beaches and warm temperatures went a long way to make the learning curve feel a bit flatter.<\/p>\n

“My last job at Â鶹´«Ã½,<\/span> Hilo was more like my student SID<\/abbr> job at Pacific than any other,” Blunck said. “In both cases, the expectations were achievable and Hilo had so many old-school aspects to it. I got to work with media again. I did a lot of writing, returned to broadcasting and enjoyed the small community and campus.”<\/p>\n

Blunck had great mentors ahead of him in CoSIDA<\/abbr> Hall of Fame Paul Madison at Western Washington and longtime Central Washington and Great Northwest Athletic Conference SID<\/abbr> Bob Guptill.<\/p>\n

And then he learned from those who he taught the ropes of the business to.<\/p>\n

“Ironically, I often asked questions of two guys that worked for me, Danny Barnts and Jonathan Gordon. Those two are the source of great pride and have always been a resource to me. Both went on to very successful sports information careers and more importantly are tremendous family men,” said Blunck.<\/p>\n

For more information on Blunck, see the Vulcan Athletics website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russ Blunck, the former sports information director at Â鶹´«Ã½Hilo, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the College Sports Information Directors of America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,698,14,151],"class_list":["post-157837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-staff-recognition","tag-uh-hilo","tag-hilo-athletics","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t