Since becoming director of athletic communications at Point Park University in July of 2008, Kevin Taylor has not only made strides in his professional career, but has developed a growth in his personal life as well.
“Point Park gave me my first chance with a full-time sports information job one year out of college,” Taylor said. “I’ve been able to grow with the position and develop some things to bring Point Park along, but also develop myself as a person. Those two things go hand-in-hand.”
Point Park athletic director Dan Swalga said Taylor has expanded the athletic department’s media contacts since he was hired in 2008.
“The social media aspect of what he’s done is basically his innovations and his hard work,” Swalga said. “Anything that’s new that comes along, he’s on top of it when it comes to anything media related.”
Prior to Point Park, Taylor attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) and graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in sports management. While completing his education, Taylor was heavily involved with sports information there in a number of different ways.
“I started out by working as an undergrad in IUP’s athletics office for four years and spent one year as a graduate assistant there,” Taylor said. “Another thing that I did during my time in college was I wrote for the “Indiana Gazette,” which is their local newspaper in Indiana. I covered high school football, basketball and some college basketball here and there.”
After graduating in August 2007, Taylor spent a year working in the activities and recreation department of Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort, which is located in Orlando, FL.
“After working in Florida for a year, I decided to come back to my home area of Western Pennsylvania,” said Taylor. “I saw that the Point Park position opened up, and I applied, and they hired me, and I’ve been here ever since.”
When Taylor arrived to Point Park in the summer of 2008, social media was really just starting to take off.
“Things have really changed since then,” Taylor said. “It wasn’t until my second year that we came out with a Facebook page. We thought why would a business, company or athletic department get a Facebook page? That’s for individuals; that’s for people. So when that stuff started to get more popular, we finally created one in the fall of 2009.”
Taylor said that Twitter is currently their best media platform when it comes to reaching the student body and keeping people posted on what’s going on with Point Park sports.
“Our Twitter is now our most engaged following in the social media realm,” he said. “Twitter is sort of our news ticker; it’s like a broadcast medium. Facebook is more for news headlines, we’ll post the links to stories and have photos, but Twitter is where you’ll get the most updated information.”
Taylor played a heavy role in launching the Point Park Sports Network, the University’s first-ever live video streaming network. Point Park teamed up with Stretched Internet to broadcast every home athletic event, except for basketball, which gets the special treatment of getting both home and away games broadcasted.
The streaming service started in the fall of 2015 and Taylor said the program has had a lot of success since being launched.
“It really helps broaden your recruiting,” he said. “Our men’s soccer team has a lot of international players from Europe and South America, and then a lot of our baseball players are from Florida, so they’re some of our biggest audiences.”
In addition to being the director of athletic communications, Taylor is also the assistant athletic director.
“Kevin is very diligent and he works hard, he gets the job done,” Swalga, who is the head athletic director, said. “Anytime I ask him to do something, I know it’s in good hands and he’ll give 100 percent effort.”
Taylor’s hard work has led to him being named the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sports information director and webmaster.
“He’s done a great job with us and with the conference,” Swalga said. “The athletic directors in the conference and the commissioner are very happy with his work, and of course all the work that he’s done for us has been very consistent. And in the meantime, he has two little girls at home and a family, and he’s finding the time to do all of this.”
Karina Graziani is an athletic administrative assistant at Point Park and said that she’s learned a lot from Taylor within the past three years.
“Kevin is very laid back and helpful,” said Graziani. “He’s a great teacher, and I’m always learning from him.”
Graziani said Taylor’s contributions to the athletic department are vital to its overall success.
“He is invaluable to this program and plays an integral role in the success of the athletic department,” Graziani said. “He does a great job with social media and is always up-to-date when it comes to making sure people are informed about what’s going on with athletic events.”
Taylor said sports management is one of those fields that require hands-on experience, so his advice to anyone that’s looking to get into the industry is to get involved any way possible.
“The skills that you learn in the classroom like the rules, laws and ethics are all good and stuff, but you need the experience to go along with it,” Taylor said. “Sports management is something that’s hard to put your finger on when it comes to day-to-day operations. With sports management, when you graduate, you better have some hands-on experience. You only get better at it by doing it.”
