Sports Responsibilities: Soccer, Women's Basketball, Baseball, Trap, Equestrian
Shawn Smith is entering his 14th year at the University of Minnesota Crookston, his fifth as assistant athletic director for Communications. He is in his third year overseeing marketing. He is the first full-time Director of Athletic Communication in school history. Smith was named Director of Athletic Media Communication at University of Minnesota Crookston in July of 2012.
In addition to his duties in athletics, Smith spent a year-and-a-half as the assistant director of communications for the University of Minnesota Crookston campus, where he served as the editor of The Torch, alumni magazine, was the main media contact for the campus, and publicized several events and stories happening on the campus. He also continues to serve as a member of the Strategic Marketing Team on campus, where they have raised the profile of the campus through digital marketing, billboards, television advertisements, and regional radio.
Smith is currently serving as the D2SIDA Central Region coordinator for the D2SIDA women's basketball poll. He has been a voting member for regional and national polls the past several years. In 2024-25, he also served on the NSIC Strategic Planning Committee helping to prepare the conference's strategic plan starting in 2025.
Smith has accomplished several things in 13 years at Minnesota Crookston including helping two student-athletes earn Academic All-America honors with Matt Borowicz earning Capital One Academic All-America First Team for football and Jesse Jennings earning Capital One Academic All-America Second Team during the 2014-15 season. In addition, he helped promote Katrina Nordick for Academic All-District and All-Region honors and Kenny Perez for All-Region honors during the 2015-16 season and has also promoted Matt Borowicz and Maggie Morales for Academic All-District honors. During the 2017-18 season, Smith successfully promoted Harrison Cleary, Reed Hjelle and Rod Stewart for All-American honors. In his time in sports information, Smith has been successful several times promoting players for All-America, Academic All-America, Academic All-Region and Academic All-District honors. During the 2018-19 season, Smith successfully promoted Cleary and Hjelle for all-region honors. Smith helped Jake Hjelle earn National Player of the Year honors in 2023 for the baseball team.
In addition to promoting student-athletes, Smith successfully helped Minnesota Crookston transition to a new website design in the Fall of 2014 through Sidearm Sports, which the school has a contract with through 2025. Smith has also tried to improve Minnesota Crookston's presence on YouTube with unique video content, as well as on social media, especially on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. He has also helped improve the quality of UMC's live stream efforts, overseeing the transition to HD during the 2015-16 season, and the switch to Keemotion for all games in Lysaker Gymnasium to improve broadcast quality. At Minnesota Crookston, he also serves on the Athletic Hall of Fame committee.
Smith has also helped work with Mud Mile to create video content for the Golden Eagles, including several that have been award winners.
Smith came to the Golden Eagles from fellow NSIC school Bemidji State University (BSU) where he served as a graduate assistant for BSU's athletic media relations department from August of 2010 to May of 2012 while working toward a master's degree in sports studies. He served as the primary contact for volleyball, women's basketball and women's tennis in his first year and volleyball, women's hockey and softball in his second year with the Beavers.Smith successfully promoted his first All-American, Zuzana Tomcikova of the women's hockey team, who received honors following the 2011-12 season.
Smith also worked a lot to develop BSU's social media presence during his two years. He earned a Master of Science degree in Sports Studies from Bemidji State University in the summer of 2018. His master's thesis related to the best practices of Division II conference athletics on Twitter.
Before arriving in the NSIC, Smith worked as an intern at the University of Memphis (NCAA Division I) where he served as the primary contact for men's soccer and men's and women's tennis and secondary contact for men's basketball. He was at Memphis for two years (2008-2010).
A 2008 graduate of Iowa State University with a degree in journalism and mass communications (public relations emphasis), Smith worked for the Cyclones as student-intern in the athletic communications department where he was the primary contact for women's tennis and ran stat programs for women's gymnastics, as well as worked as a member of the staffs at football, men's and women's basketball games.
He got his start in sports information as a summer intern at Nebraska Wesleyan University in 2007.
Smith has wide-ranging experience working with Statcrew, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and various website software. His media guide for University of Memphis in 2010 placed fourth in the nation. He also designed the bio pages for the Bemidji State basketball media guide that also placed fourth nationally.
Smith, a native of Hiawatha, Iowa, has been a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for the past 12 years. He has volunteered at many events including the NCAA Men's Basketball Sweet Sixteen and the NCAA Women's Basketball Sweet Sixteen, both in Memphis, the NCAA College Baseball World Series and the Men's and Women's Hockey Frozen Four and a PGA Tour Event in Memphis, Tenn. Smith also serves as a national and regional voter on the D2SIDA Division II women's basketball poll, and is a member of the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA).
Smith was married to Kayla, July 30th, 2016. They reside in Crookston with their dogs Adeline and Louise. In addition, he helps lead Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Minnesota Crookston. He and his wife, who is a teacher at Cathedral School in Crookston, enjoy hiking, being involved in the leadership team at Freedom Church, sports, and going to movies. Smith and his wife Kayla have one daughter, Noelle.
