Mary Harrison, Campus Carrier sports editor

Will Davis, graduate assistant (GA) for the Sports Information Department, first met department director Jason Hanes in the press box at a men’s soccer game.  

At the time, Davis worked as a sports information GA at Shorter University, but he heard that Berry had a similar opening that also paid a stipend. That is when they started the conversation about Davis coming to Berry, where he started the Master of Business Administration program in Spring 2023. 

Now, one year since they met, Davis is preparing to say goodbye to Hanes under similar circumstances: career advancement. Hanes will leave Berry next Monday, Sept. 11, to take over sports information at NCAA Division I school Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).  

Despite having short notice, the department’s student worker staff is prepared to take over this semester due to Hanes’ statistical training and re-building of the student work team after several semesters of turmoil. 

Davis said that he learned to go big or go home while working for Hanes, mentioning media days that make him think of album cover photo shoots. 

“We’re making really, really cool stuff here and not very many colleges jazz it up, make it more fun,” Davis said. “It’s work, it’s hard, but at the same time it’s still fun.” 

Hanes said he applied for the job at FGCU in late July on a whim. He was convinced the college would not choose him for the position, until they invited him to attend in-person interviews in Fort Myers, Florida, two weeks later. Then, Hanes had to choose between a name-your-price salary doing his dream job, running his own D-I sports media department, versus the department he loves at Berry. 

Ultimately, Hanes said that what sealed the deal was the chance of a better quality of life not possible at Berry, which is a two-hour round trip from Woodstock, Georgia, where he lives with his wife of 10 years, Katherine. 

“Berry did a lot to try to keep me, and I am forever going to be appreciative to Dr. Briggs and [Dr. Mason] for doing what they could,” Hanes said. “It really did mean a lot to know how much I’m wanted here. It’s just the culmination of a dream to be able to [go to FGCU].” 

Hanes will start at FGCU on Sept. 18, less than two months after applying for the job and only 19 months as the Vikings’ Director of Sports Information and Promotions (SID). However, before Hanes started in January 2022, Berry had gone through two SIDs and one interim in the same amount of time. 

Berry Athletic Director, Angel Mason, said that quick turnovers are the name of the game in modern college athletics, but there is not really an ideal time to transition, particularly      in administration. 

“Everybody moves and shakes at kind of their whim at this point, regardless of division,” Mason said. “You just hope that anybody that you bring on staff leaves your place better than they found it and gives you an opportunity to be able to hire somebody new.” 

According to Mason, Hanes used his expertise in statistics to create more opportunities for student athletes. Before, due to three semesters of upheaval, individual sports programs had to piecemeal statistics together, and career-long statistics were difficult to cipher.  

Now, the department has a process for nominating athletes not just for weekly awards, she said, but also for bells and whistles like leadership recognition. One example includes volleyball senior Jazzy Innis attending the D-III’s Student Immersion Program last summer. 

“All those things that end up being benefits, that people see the social media post about, are not possible without the statistician,” Mason said. 

Hanes also re-built and trained the department’s student work staff. At his first meeting as SID, Hanes said there were eight student workers, and sometimes as few as three. That number tripled to 27 at the first meeting of the fall 2023 semester. 

Senior Adele Gammill, student director of sports information, has worked in the department since LifeWorks assigned her there her freshman year. 

Hanes assigned Gammill to work with the softball team after he arrived, where she discovered her love of graphics. Then this spring, he suggested she submit her athletic graphics to the College Sports Communicator’s Designer of the Year contest, which she won against seasoned professionals. 

Gammill said that having stable leadership grew the department. With a staff of reliable students who are good at what they do, she knows they can run the department this semester. 

“We are used to doing our jobs pretty much on our own, but with [Hanes’] supervision,” Gammill said of Hanes. “We just have to have the confidence in ourselves that we know what we’re doing, and I have to be able to trust a lot more in those people.” 

Mason said she will work with grad assistant Davis and six student managers this semester to support the student work staff.  She hopes to have a new SID by October, but she said that with the competitive job market, nothing is guaranteed. Mason knows that if she needs to train students on statistics for winter sports, they will be up for the challenge.  

“We have a very large student work team within the department of athletics alone,” Mason said. “But without those student work teams, athletics doesn’t function at Berry. It’s just not possible.” 

Hanes said he originally came to Berry because it was the only environment that could bring him out of freelancing work, especially the opportunities to influence the next generation of SIDs. Though he is excited to potentially take on work-study students at FGCU, Hanes will miss seeing his Vikings student workers succeed this year. 

“If the students knock it out of the park for the rest of fall without anybody really being here in this chair, that would be the best legacy I can ask for, because that means I actually taught them something,” Hanes said.