Harrison Watt Appointed Athletics Communications Associate & Voice Of Ferris State Hockey
Big Rapids, Mich. - Ferris State University Athletics has officially announced the appointment of Harrison Watt to its Athletics Communications Associate position. In his new role, Watt will also continue to serve as the play-by-play voice for the Bulldogs' NCAA Division I hockey program.
This past year, Watt served in an interim role as the Bulldogs' hockey voice while also assuming additional athletics communications responsibilities following the departure of former Athletics Communications Associate Jared Shafran to the East Coast Hockey League in October. He'll begin his full-time position at FSU on July 5 and emerged from a pool of more than 70 applicants for the position.
"Harrison is deserving of this opportunity and we believe he'll be a tremendous addition in a full-time capacity," said FSU Assistant Athletics Director for Communications Rob Bentley. "The pool of candidates was outstanding, but in the end his familiarity with our staff and experience working in our department will be extremely beneficial as we move forward. He's excited about remaining a Bulldog and I'm looking forward to contining to work with him on a daily basis to help promote and market Ferris State Athletics."
This past year, Watt served as the Bulldogs' play-by-play voice for hockey and assisted in various facets such as social media, gameday operations, video production and more on the athletics communications staff. He spent the previous two seasons as FSU's hockey color commentator and has also worked previously as an athletics communications intern for Ferris State Athletics.
Before joining FSU Athletics, Watt served as the editor of the school's student newspaper, the FSU Torch, after originally starting his collegiate journalism carer as a sports reporter and the Bulldogs' hockey beat reporter for the publication. In addition, he's also served as a contributing writer for Ferris State Athletics' official website, FerrisStateBulldogs.com.
"I'm honored to join an outstanding staff while continuing to call Ferris State and Big Rapids my home," Watt said. "Our 17 programs have shown incredible success and growth over the last five years and I am eager to share my passion for their continued success with the Bulldog community."
A Birmingham (Mich.) native, Watt has won several awards during his multimedia career to date, including the Ferris State Torch's 2013 Joseph B. Tierney Award as Outstanding Freshman Journalist and two place awards in the Michigan Collegiate Press Association's annual statewide competition. He also earned honors in sports feature from the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association.
Watt is currently in the process of completing his bachelor of science degree in journalism and technical communication from FSU this summer.
As part of his elevated role at Ferris State, Watt will play a key role in developing video and multimedia content along with social media messaging for all 17 of Ferris State's athletic programs. He'll also oversee video board production and operation while assisting in media relations, marketing and promotional functions in addition to broadcast and communications initiatives.
Meanwhile, as the play-by-play voice of Ferris State Hockey, Watt will call the action this coming season for flagship radio station Sunny 97.3 FM along with FSU's live audio and video streaming package on the Bulldog Sports Network and WCHA.TV. He'll also serve on the department's external operations team under the direction of FSU Athletics Director Perk Weisenburger and Associate AD Jon Coles to help promote and market all 17 Bulldog programs.
The Ferris State Athletics Communications Office, under Bentley's direction, coordinates media relations, social media, broadcasting and more for FSU Athletics. The department also manages the school's official athletics website, FerrisStateBulldogs.com, which has served more than 10 million visitors from all 50 states and nearly every country around the world since its inception in 2009.
This past year saw the Bulldogs draw a record three million unique visitors to the site, who accounted for more than 77 million hits throughout the course of the year. The department also generated more than 800 releases and 300 videos in the past year to the site while continuing to rank among the nation's leaders in social media followers on several platforms.