Cabrini University welcomes a new face to its athletics department: Assistant Athletics Communications Director Mark Weaver.
Weaver held the athletics communications assistant position at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he oversaw media operations for eight varsity sports programs. Media operations included social media, game day operations, and managing the media table at men’s basketball games.
Before he was at Stetson, he spent two years as the graduate assistant sports information director at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia. At Lynchburg, he covered 10 conference championships and four NCAA championship appearances across 23 sports.
What he’ll bring to the table
“I’m really just excited to bring my creativity, ideas, and passion for college sports to Cabrini athletics. Having come from two Division III schools, and then having a year stint at a Division I school, I’ve definitely gotten a lot of experience and a lot of ideas and knowledge from being at those different institutions,” Weaver said.
Weaver wanted to come to Cabrini after learning about the history of its athletics department and its close relationships with student athletes. Weaver said, “We’re in this industry to give the student athletes the best experience for their four years.”
Weaver believes sports storytelling is a neglected strength. “I have a strong ability to write and tell stories. I know some people think that writing is kind of going away from being a popular form of media, but I disagree. I feel that people still love to read, and especially when it comes to sports … I’m able to tell that story and I get excited to tell those,” he said.
He also said video is useful for telling athlete stories. He hopes to help the department be “more creative and entertaining on the video side of things, whether it’s creating TikToks or Reels for Instagram, and again, creating an entertaining environment for the student athletes and alumni. As an alumnus of Susquehanna University, I enjoy seeing what they are doing there. It makes me happy to see how much they’ve excelled from when I first started there to when I graduated. I want the alumni of Cabrini to feel the same way,” Weaver said.
Weaver said of his creativity, “I like to think outside the box, and a lot of things within sports information I feel can be a little bit old school. So, I feel like being on the younger end in this industry really helps to bring more creativity to the position and the industry. I like to come up with fun ideas and try different things, take things from pop culture references or music and T.V. shows, and try to incorporate that the best I can into what we do here.”
How his experience will help
“It was a little bit overwhelming at first because I went from being a graduate assistant at a small Division III school at the University of Lynchburg, to … Division I. So, I was thinking, ‘Wow this is the big dogs,’ and I was just handed an NCAA Division I men’s basketball team,” Weaver said. “I got a lot of hands-on experience to get media contacts if people wanted to do interviews with players or coaches, all of that came through me.”
He traveled with the team to Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State, and Florida Gulf Coast University to see how they all operated, observed the way they ran their media tables, and retained that information to bring with him wherever he ended up next.
Weaver said he’ll promote Cabrini student athletes and each athletics program by, “paying attention to every program and making sure that each program gets as much love as the other ones; not to focus too much on one specific program, because you don’t ever want to leave anyone out, you know? You always want to give everyone equal opportunity, equal chance to have their own platform, and so, I really want to give that to every team.”
He believes it’s about the student athletes: making sure they’re all getting equal amounts of time on social media, interviews, and anything the athletics department puts out and publishes to give them enough time in the spotlight.
“Cabrini is the right place for me to be because I have the mantra that things happen for a reason,” Weaver said. He said getting the job as the assistant athletics communications director was the right thing that was supposed to happen to him at the right time.
What made him the right candidate
James Wagner, athletics communications director, said, “Mark has a good balance of what I call the old school sports information background. A lot of the newer stuff is social media, video, but he has the background of statistics and story writing.”
Weaver’s Division I and Division III background stood out the most to Wagner.
Wagner said Weaver will bring new ideas to the table, “We’ve already implemented some new social media stuff. He did something for Halloween Havoc where he had the teams ranked on Instagram.”
Wagner has lots of confidence in Weaver’s experience, background, and the mix of tools he brings to Cabrini’s athletics department.
