Steinlage Tabbed as Heart SID of the Year
Oskaloosa–William Penn University Assistant Athletics Director for Communications Wade Steinlage was recognized for his efforts as he received the 5th Annual Dave Fillmore Heart of America Athletic Conference Sports Information Director of the Year award Monday.
Steinlage has spent the past 15 years at the helm of the Athletic Communications department, serving the University in the promotion of Statesmen athletics. Beyond being solely responsible for maintaining and producing the material on WPU’s athletics website (www.statesmenathletics.com), he also manages the content on all of the social media channels, headlined by @WPUAthletics on Twitter. He has headed three website redesigns with another coming in the near future.
Since 2011, Steinlage has supervised the evolution of the University’s webstreaming services and spearheaded the school’s new agreement with BlueFrame Technology. In addition to producing gameday programs, providing live stats for home contests, and writing various releases, this past year, Steinlage also hosted “In the Locker Room”, a weekly video production that highlighted previous and upcoming games and included interviews with student-athletes and coaches.
“Wade is a vital member of our William Penn team who works every single day to do his part in creating the best experience for our student-athletes,” William Penn Athletics Director Nik Rule said. “In an environment that is fast-paced and changing, Wade has been very intentional about growing and shifting as a leader in the industry, transforming the impact of Athletic Communications at WPU.”
Steinlage is also the school’s NAIA Champions of Character Liaison, is a member of the Athletic Department Council, and represents the Athletics Department on Staff Council.
Outside of William Penn, he also worked as the Midwest Collegiate Conference SID from August 2012 until the league’s closure in 2015.
In order to honor its current sports information professionals, the Heart introduced the Dave Fillmore Award after the 2013-14 academic year. The award is named after Fillmore, who served as the first SID at Evangel University in 1977 and as the league’s sports information director from 1988-2003.
Heart SIDs of the Year
2019–Wade Steinlage (William Penn)
2018–Phillip Dowden (Evangel)
2017–Josh Pound (Benedictine)
2016–Chad Jenkins (MidAmerica Nazarene)
2015–John Schild (Culver-Stockton)
