Steve Carlson

Title

Director of Athletic Communications
(Media Contact: BASE, FB, M/W GOLF, WBB, WSOC, MTEN, VB)
Email

steven.carlson@nwciowa.edu
Phone

712-707-7289

The Carlson File

Personal
Hometown	Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Education	Simpson College, 2019 (Bachelor's) University of Iowa, 2021 (Master's)

Professional
2021-pres.	Northwestern College *Director of Athletic Communications*
2019-2021	American Rivers Conference *Sports Administration Assistant*
2016-2019	Simpson College *Baseball Student Manager*
Awards/Honors
2022-23	NAIA-SIDA *Game Notes of the Year*

Updated: June 2023

Carlson enters his third year as the Director of Athletic Communications at Northwestern College, joining the athletics department in July 2021. He also served on former Vice President for Athletics Dr. Micah Parker's athletic leadership team during Dr. Parker's tenure at Northwestern.

In the 2022-23 academic year, Carlson was awarded the best game notes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) by his peers, awarded by NAIA-Sports Information Directors Association (SIDA). His game notes from the 2022 NAIA national championship football game vs. Keiser (Fla.) took the top-prize in the Game Notes category (LINK).

Media Contact: baseball, women's basketball, football, men's and women's golf, women's soccer, men's tennis, volleyball

He oversees the Northwestern College athletics department external communications, including the website (nwcraiders.com) and social media (@nwcraiders) efforts, while promoting and covering Northwestern’s 23 varsity sports and over 530+ student-athletes. In his first year at NWC, he has helped streamline athletic fundraising efforts on the website, via PDF recognition of Raider Athletics Association (RAA) members, Raider Athletics Advancement Board (RAAB), and corporate sponsors which helped nearly double the fundraising efforts in 2021-22 as compared to 2020-21.

Additionally, Carlson oversaw the design and launch of the new-look to nwcraiders.com, affirming Northwestern's partnership with SIDEARM Sports. He saw drastic improvement in social media following on Twitter from the 2020-21 to the 2021-22 academic years, including a 188% increase in new followers (107.4/month) and a 32% increase in tweet impressions (915k/month).

In his time in Orange City, he has covered or overseen 10 Red Raider teams in NAIA national tournament play in football, men's and women's basketball, men's soccer, softball, and volleyball. Additionally, there were numerous other athletes competing on the national stage from their respective sports. In 2022, Carlson oversaw communication efforts for the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national champion Red Raider football team. In the month of December, the semifinals and championship games, the Northwestern Red Raiders Twitter account saw 1.14 million Tweet impressions, 79.3k profile visits, and 220+ new followers.

He has implemented game notes for Raider teams that have broadcasts to their games (football, volleyball, men's and women's soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, and softball). His football game notes have been praised by athletic communications colleagues at the NCAA Division I level, including Texas Christian University (TCU), the University of Utah, and the Sun Belt Conference Office.

In his career, Carlson has worked numerous NCAA and NAIA national championship events. Most notably, he served as the official statistician of the 2022 and 2023 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship, while also assisting in the 2019 and 2021 baseball championships. He also served as the Assistant Tournament Director of the 2019 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship. At the NAIA level, he has assisted at both the Volleyball Championship (2021, 2022) and Women's Basketball Championship (2022, 2023) at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City.

He came to Northwestern after serving as the graduate assistant at the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C), an NCAA Division III conference consisting of institutions in the states of Iowa and Nebraska. While at the conference office, Carlson assisted the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner with day-to-day office affairs, such as website management, social media and statistical work. While with the A-R-C, Carlson worked three NCAA Division III championships including two baseball championships (2019, 2021) and the 2019 volleyball championship. Gaining valuable experience working the national championships, Carlson is no stranger to successful athletic programs. He helped oversee the conference's 19 sponsored sports, highlighting student-athlete successes on and off the field or court of competition.

A 2019 graduate from Simpson College with a degree in sport administration, Carlson served as the student-manager for the Simpson Storm baseball team. He also served as a student-assistant in the athletic communications office at Simpson. While working with the A-R-C, he earned his master's degree in sport and recreation management from the University of Iowa in May 2021.

He is a member of the College Sports Communicators (CSC), formerly College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), as an active member of the CSC Young Professionals. The 2022-23 academic year marks the first year that Carlson serves on the CSC Young Professionals Committee. In his time at NWC and in CSC, he has nominated and covered a total of four College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-Americans and numerous CSC Academic All-District honorees.

A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Carlson currently resides in Orange City. Outside of athletics, you can find him enjoying Steve Berry and Brad Thor novels, following his passion of studying the Second World War, or out in nature hiking in the mountains.

In the news:
College Sports Communicators (CSC) April 360 - Three Up, Three Down (April 2023)
NAIA-Sports Information Directors Association (SIDA) Spotlight Interview (September 2023)

Notable published works:
2023 NAIA Women's Basketball Championship Round of 16 - Day 1 Recap (March 13, 2023)