Sports Media Relations

CHRIS FREET
Associate Athletic Director for Communications

http://www.twitter.com/chrisfreet

Chris Freet was hired as Associate Director of Athletics for Communications for the University of Miami in July 2010. As a member of the senior management team, he oversees the Athletics Communications Office, the official athletic website HurricaneSports.com and all television and radio oppportunities, as well as Hurricane Sports Properties and licensing and trademarks. In addition, Freet is the contact for the nationally-recognized football program, has direct sport oversight of the women's golf program and serves as the department's liaison with University Communications.

Over his first year with the Hurricanes, Freet has coordinated a complete redesign of HurricaneSports.com and has led the department's social media strategories -- including Miami's first Social Media Day which allowed fans to interact with the Hurricanes' head coaches, student-athletes and administrators. In addition, he has been instrumental in growing the department's Facebook page (Miami Hurricanes) to more than 130,000 "friends" and @HurricaneSports to over 17,000 followers.

Prior to his arrival in Coral Gables, Freet served for nearly three years as Assistant AD for Communications at the University of South Florida. Over his tenure at USF, he led the redesign of GoUSFBulls.com -- which peaked at nine million impressions per fiscal year; shifted core design skills of staff from desktop publishing to web design to better serve the department and the recruiting needs of USF coaches; carved out budgetary dollars to create multimedia video team and internship, while leveraging power of online video without benefit of in-house TV production crew; successfully trimmed $150,000 out of budget from 2007-08 to 2009-10, while changing the mind frame of staff to innovation-driven approach; blended and streamlined content for TheUSFBulls.com (coaches site), as well as social media efforts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Digg; and launched streaming video and radio coverage (BullsVision) of all home Olympic events in August 2008. In addition, Freet's staff was the first among BIG EAST schools to produce Interactive Media Guides and stop the production of printed guides for all sports.  

As the USF football contact, the program received regular national media coverage, both in print and online, while reeling in an unprecedented amount of national honors. In 2007, sophomore defensive end George Selvie and cornerback Mike Jenkins became the program's first-ever All-Americans. Selvie earned NCAA consensus All-America honors by leading the country in tackles for loss and ranked second in sacks. In 2008, Selvie become the first, and only, two-time All-American in USF history.

Freet came to USF after five years with the nationally recognized Athletics Media Relations Department at the University of Oklahoma. In his most recent position with OU as Associate Director of Media Relations, he handled secondary duties with the Sooner football team and served as the primary contact for women's basketball. In previous years, he also served as the contact for the softball, volleyball and men's and women's gymnastics programs.

The Mission Hills, Calif. native oversaw the successful promotion of Courtney Paris to 2007 AP Player of the Year, and played an integral part in the successful promotion of Heisman trophy winner Jason White and All-Americans Adrian Peterson, Mark Clayton and Jammal Brown.

Freet married the former Courtney Tysinger on June 19, 2010, and the couple resides in Coral Gables.

 

 

AMY WOODRUFF
Assistant Communications Director
Men's Basketball  |  Men's Tennis

Amy Woodruff joined the University of Miami Department of Athletic Communications in September of 2011. She works as the media contact for men's basketball as well as the men's tennis team.

Woodruff came to Miami after five years at the University of South Florida, where she was the primary contact for men's basketball and baseball and the secondary contact for football, along with the oversight of the communications interns and student workforce. In previous years, Woodruff also served as the primary contact for men's and women's soccer, men's and women's golf and sailing, as well as the secondary contact for women's basketball.

The Gallatin, Mo., native was the media contact for the Bulls basketball team during the 2009-10 campaign that saw USF play in the postseason NIT for the first time in eight years. During a four-game BIG EAST winning streak that earned the Bulls votes in the AP Poll, Woodruff landed USF feature stories in national media, including Sports Illustrated, ESPN.com, FOX Sports, USA Today, SI.com, Sporting News and The Washington Post, to name a few. She also promoted junior guard Dominique Jones for AP Honorable Mention All-America honors.

Away from USF, Woodruff was a media assistant for the 2009 Super Bowl held in Tampa and served as the assistant media coordinator for the 2011 NCAA Basketball Second and Third Rounds which hosted respected programs such as Kentucky, Florida, UCLA and Michigan State.

Prior to USF, Woodruff was a communications assistant for the American Junior Golf Association and directed the sports information department at Graceland University in southern Iowa for three years.

With the AJGA, she was the primary communications assistant and aided the operations staff at five competitive junior golf tournaments.

At Graceland, Woodruff was the only contact for 17 varsity and eight junior varsity sports, including the nationally-ranked football, men's and women's soccer and men's and women's volleyball teams. She was also the assistant women's basketball and softball coach for the Yellowjackets and helped with the golf teams.

Woodruff graduated cum laude from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a degree in news-editorial journalism and a minor in cold lands geography. At UAF, she was nationally ranked in three-point shooting percentage and three-pointers made, and set school records in three-point shots made in a game, season and career for the Nanook basketball team. The student speaker at her May 2002 commencement, Woodruff was the first student-athlete to graduate from UAF with leadership honors and earned the Most Assists with Children award her junior year, for her community service efforts.

 

SCOTT ZAVITZ
Assistant Communications Director
Women's Basketball | Football

http://twitter.com/#!/ScottZavitz

Scott Zavitz is in his fifth year as an Assistant Communications Director for the University of Miami and coordinates all media relations activities for the women's basketball team, he also is the secondary contact for the football program.

Prior to joining UM's staff, he worked in the athletic media relations offices at UC Riverside in 2007 and at the University of Tampa from 2005-07. While at Tampa, he was responsible for coordinating all media relations activities for the back-to-back National Champion baseball team as well as the National Champion women's volleyball team.

He is a 2006 graduate of the University of Tampa with a Bachelor of Science Sport Management and a dual minor in business administration and finance.

Zavitz is an active member of CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) and NACDA (National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics).

 

 

 

CAMRON GHORBI
Assistant Communications Director
Baseball  |  Women's Soccer

http://twitter.com/#!/CamronGhorbi

Camron Ghorbi is in his first year as an Assistant Communications Director for the University of Miami, having joined the staff in October of 2011. A graduate of the University of Miami, Camron serves as the HurricaneSports.com primary feature writer and coordinator of all media relations activities for the baseball and soccer teams.

Prior to joining the Athletics Communications full-time in October, the Boston, Ma. native served as a student intern in the department and was largely responsible behind the creative efforts for Behind the Facemask, a HurricaneSports.com feature series focusing on members of the football team. In 2010, Camron was an intern for Dime Magazine, a basketball-lifestyle publication based out of New York City, where he contributed to the magazine's online blog and monthly print offerings. He has also contributed to Inside Lacrosse Magazine, and served as a senior staff writer for multiple student publications during his undergraduate career at Miami.

A 2011 graduate of UM, Camron holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication with degrees in both print journalism and sports administration.

 

 

 

ETTA SCHALLER
Publications Coordinator

Etta Schaller serves as publications coordinator in UM's Athletic Communications Office, overseeing the production of media guides for 18 sports and providing technical support.

A native of Toledo, Ohio, Schaller earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration from Columbus College of Art and Design.

She has worked in various advertising, marketing and public relations agencies, including nationally-renowned Beber Silverstein & Partners, Assurant Group, and Resource Marketing. Schaller also worked for 13 years as a private consultant for clients ranging from John Bull Caribbean to Florida Sports Medicine Center.

Schaller resides in Kendall with her husband, Jim.

 

 

 

 

TIMOTHY VOTHANG

Web/Video Master

Timothy Vothang is in his fourth year at the University of Miami and enters his second with the Athletics Department, overseeing the design and maintenance of Miami's official athletic website, HurricaneSports.com.

Vothang came to UM from PRESENT E-Learning Systems where he served as Creative Director. There he oversaw the launch of the online diabetes portal as well as their integration into rich online media.

Prior to that, he worked as an IT Specialist for the Stanford Group Company and as an Applications Developer for Avionica INC.

Born and raised in Miami, he comes from a long line of UM alumni. He resides in Miami with his wife, Kim.

 

 

 

 

 

LINDSAY BOHLEN

Administrative Support

Lindsay Bohlen enters her second year with the University of Miami Athletic Communications Office and her third overall with the Athletics Department. She handles all the day-to-day duties of the office, while assisting in credential requests for all sports and in the oversight of student-assistants/interns.

Bohlen has worked in various areas of Miami's Athletics Department, including both the ticket office and business office. In those posts, she served as Senior Accounting Assistant (tickets), as well as Senior Accountant (business).

Prior to arriving at UM, she worked as a ticket operations intern at Boston College, helping with customer service, the day-to-day duties of the office and events operations. In addition, Bohlen also supervised student-assistants during athletic events.

Bohlen is a 2004 graduate of the University of Vermont, earning a Bachelor's Degree in business administration. She completed her Master of Science in sports leadership at Northeastern University in 2009.

A native of Essex Junction, Vt., Bohlen now resides in Coral Gables.