News

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Seward County Community College has been lacking a sports information director (SID) since November, and now, there is a new face in that office with Trey Burnett.

Burnett will be in charge of promoting all the SCCC athletic programs and will be handling live streaming, statistics gathering, game operation, Web site maintenance, social media updates, graphic design, news releases and other record keeping, among other tasks. As he tells it, he is no novice to SID work.

“I’m coming to this role from the SID role at Butler Community College in El Dorado, where I worked for two years and was in charge of their social media and game operations and all of that,” Burnett said. “That was my first full-time job after getting my master’s degree, but I’ve worked in the field since I was a student – while I was at Sam Houston State University, I was a sports information student assistant and while I was there, I provided in-game updates to official Bearcat social media accounts. Then, I spent nearly two years as a graduate assistant for athletics communications at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas and while I was there I was the primary media contact and social media manager for the Texan baseball and volleyball programs as well as taking over soccer, track and field and women’s basketball. Then I got the job at Butler CC and now I’m looking forward to doing that work for SCCC.”

Burnett will be joining the SCCC athletic staff along with his fiancée, Kimber Cortemelia, who was recently named the new Lady Saints softball coach, and had heard about the SCCC opening several months ago.

“I’d actually met Cody [Cole] at a regional softball tournament and he was in need of an SID at the time, but I was happy in my spot at Butler CC. However, I told him if he was to also have a softball coach opening, I’d be interested in applying because I didn’t really think it would make much sense at the time for Kimber and I to move just for my position,” Burnett said. “A couple months later, I got another call from Cody and he presented the opportunity for both of us to move here, and we did take some time to think about it because again, we were both happy there in El Dorado. Ultimately though, we came out for a visit, ended up enjoying the community and decided it would be a good move for us.”

Burnett said he is excited to help the SCCC athletics department in his new role.

“I know SCCC hasn’t had an SID since around November, so I’m excited to help promote the teams and the student-athletes the way they deserve, and I know it’s a new challenge for me,” Burnett said. “Butler CC does a great job with that coverage, and I feel like I helped get that to a point where it runs really smoothly, and the person taking over for me will do a wonderful job continuing that momentum. Coming here and taking on that role will be great, I know SCCC has a pretty storied history in terms of athletics, so I want to help promote all of that the right way and help get all of that up to par with the rest of the conference.”

Burnett added he has rather hit the ground running, and the work is not expected to slow down anytime soon given the upcoming athletic seasons.

“Everything’s still pretty fresh, so I’m still dipping my toes into what campus is like and meeting everyone and all of that. But we’ve been ordering necessary equipment to take photos and videos, and we’re coming up with a plan for the social media coverage and updating the Web site,” Burnett said. “There are three fall sports that will be getting started really soon – men’s soccer, women’s soccer, and volleyball – so I’m talking to all of those coaches about what they need from me and how we can be ready for the start of those seasons. The soccer programs are new, so that will be really fun and interesting tracking how all of that goes, and the coaches are working hard to get those off to a good start. Then with volleyball, the Greenhouse is a great gym with a lot of energy, and I think it’ll be a really great season to keep track of. There are a lot of new faces around here, so I’m excited to see how this fall ultimately ends up. A big goal for me would be to keep up with the social media stuff. I hope to get SCCC to the point where we’re a consistent presence and people will know what all the teams are up to, and we want it to also be fun for everyone who checks that stuff out. We also want to be sure and have accurate stats and information for not only the community, but also other coaches and potential athletic recruits.”

Overall, Burnett said, he is excited to be in Liberal and part of the SCCC Saints family.

“When Kimber and I were considering the move after our visit, we talked about how friendly everyone was who we met in town, and there were multiple other people who had told us the people in this area were really great,” Burnett said. “We both grew up in southern Texas, so this type of environment is actually pretty familiar to us in terms of friendliness and being welcoming. I’m looking forward to doing the best I can for the SCCC athletic department and making people proud of all our programs. I’m new, I have a lot of big ideas, and it’s going to take quite a bit of work to get everything done to get SCCC back to where I think it should be. Kimber and I are so, so excited to be here and I can’t wait to hit the ground running.”