California Baptist University’s athletics communication staff works to manage media development and communication strategies for every sport within the department.
Andrew Shortall, Daniel Cook and Daniel Cross are each assigned sports at CBU to promote through creating social media content and acting as a liaison with any media that wants interviews with coaches and players.
Cross oversees men’s basketball, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s golf, cheer, STUNT and dance. He said that the job varies from day to day and week to week.
“Most of the time, it’s website management and social media,” Cross said. “During times like now, most of my time is spent at practices and workouts, taking photos and working in Lightroom and Photoshop to create social media content. I also create game notes, game programs, media guides, and work with any media when talking with coaches or players for the sports I am involved with. Oh, and emails. Lots of emails.”
Additionally, Cook represents both men’s and women’s cross country and track, men’s soccer, women’s basketball and softball, and he helps with women’s water polo. Cook said that during basketball season he travels with the team to away games, capturing moments on and off the court. He mentioned that his favorite part of working with athletics is building relationships with athletes.
“Working with the student-athletes and coaching staff daily is great,” Cook said. “There are so many personalities within each team and getting to watch them up close and get to know them over the course of the school year and see how much they grow individually and as a team never gets old.
“In every athletic department, I’ve been a part of I’ve been blessed to meet some of, the most authentic and hardworking people I’ve ever known and have had the opportunity to watch a lot of student-athletes succeed in competition and partner with them to be successful.”
Shortall oversees baseball, volleyball, men’s water polo, swim and dive and wrestling. He said he feels grateful for CBU because through his job he met lifelong friends and his wife, who is the assistant women’s water polo coach, Chelsea Shortall. He said he feels fortunate to represent sports he enjoys.
“We try to decide who would be the best fit for what sport based on what makes the most sense with scheduling and knowledge of that sport,” Shortall said.
