San Francisco, CA -- Academy of Art has come a long way in only five years, and since the inception of the Urban Knights athletic department in 2008, there have been a select few present for virtually every step. In a year that started off with the Knights gaining full NCAA membership and soon saw them produce five NCAA postseason appearances and crown two national champions, ART U Sports Information Director Rob Garcia has covered it all. Garcia will add one more honor to his credit before the year is up, as he has been named the Pacific West Conference Sports Information Director of the Year for 2012-13 by the conference office in Phoenix, AZ.

"Rob is the epitome of an Urban Knight," said Director of Athletics Colin Preston. "He has been part of our program since the beginning, and has single-handedly built our sports information department into one of the best, not only in the PacWest, but in the country. We all congratulate Rob and appreciate his hard work."


Garcia is in his third season as Sports Information Director at Academy of Art University in 2013 after starting off as the Sports Information Assistant in 2008. He primarily covers men's soccer, track and cross country, women's basketball, and softball. The sports information job description is one that truly focuses on the "other duties as assigned" aspect of a position. For a given game, Garcia will write a preview, compile the stats, design a game program, and arrive early to set up all before the game even starts. Then he will be the public address announcer, act as the DJ during timeouts and record and provide live stats.

After the game, Garcia will film and conduct coach and player interviews, often writes the game recap on the train-ride home, edits highlight video, and eventually ends the day. This is the norm, not to mention coordinating media relations with local newspapers and media outlets, marketing and photo shoots, managing the Urban Knights social media presence, and providing most of the content on the ART U Athletics website.

"Rob is an integral member of our Urban Knight family, as he has helped build our athletic department from the start and continues to enhance our standard," said Associate Athletic Director Meghan Bushnell. "We thank Rob for his endless support, working tireless hours, and consistently exposing our talented artist-athletes to the world. Rob Garcia is a true servant leader and we are so lucky to have him in our family."

"I'm truly humbled by this honor, but awards such as this are never the product a single person's efforts," Garcia said. "ART U Sports Information could not achieve what it has without the hard work put in by Evan Aczon and the wholehearted support from Colin Preston, Meghan Bushnell, our administration, and coaching staff. We hold ourselves to a very high standard and I'm excited to continue telling the unique story of Academy of Art University Athletics."

The PacWest SID of the Year award is announced annually. The 2011-12 winner was Brandon Davis of Dominican University.