By: Jasmine Barrera-Camacho
Riverside City College welcomes Samantha Wellman as its new sports information director.
Wellman took over for long-time Sports Information Director Nicho DellaValla. After DellaValla’s departure, the position remained vacant for almost a year.
Wellman began an internship at Azusa Pacific University with her former sports information director and would later go on to graduate from APU with a degree in journalism. She would then go on to receive her first official position at Cal State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, previously known as Humboldt State University.
Wellman has had previous experience working in the collegiate sports industry at San Francisco State University and Cal Baptist University. Her extensive career journey has led her to RCC.
As a former resident of Riverside, California, Wellman gained the opportunity to be in her hometown while also being a part of longtime traditions.
“RCC opened up, and I’m from Riverside so obviously it made more sense,” Wellmen said. “There’s a lot of tradition with athletics here, so it’s cool to be a part of that.
Wellman has also expressed her appreciation to be in a community and program that allows personal connections to be made. This also helps her getting to know individuals within the college’s sports community and experiencing their journey.
“One of my favorite parts of the job is working games and getting to know student athletes and coaches,” Wellman said. “So I always miss that connection, I didn’t have that obviously working from home.”
When it comes to what Wellman does during a work day as the college’s director, it can vary based on a list of things.
“With sports information, there’s not like a typical day when it comes to in-season stuff, because you can have games, you can have non-games,” Wellman said. “If it’s a game day, I usually do a graphic in the morning to post on our social media, and then I’ll just get ready for the game. Whatever that needs,” she added.
Wellman has many different schedules, for the many athletic events RCC takes part in.
“Basketball, I tend to set up a little longer just because there’s more for the score table, like the score book, and PA, and all that stuff. Then I’ll stat the game, unless I’m doing something else, and then after the game I’ll write a recap for our website,” Wellman said.
As Wellman is expecting her second child in August, one big focus she detailed is making sure the athletic directory will maintain a good standing during her partial leave.
“I want to make sure I can figure out what to put in place before that and how I can troubleshoot before, or empower people to troubleshoot for me so that when I am gone things can run smoothly,” Wellman said.
During Wellman’s first month as director, she has made it a goal to bring more light on the achievements made by RCC’s athletes. Because the position of sports information director was left vacant for some time before Wellman stepped in, it was important to update any missing information.
“When I first started here, football, there was no mention of the state championship so I had to clean up their website and kind of get it up to date. Actually show people that we won state,” Wellman said. “There’s been some history things that have been, kind of, not updated just because there hasn’t been someone to try and fit those in.”
“The more that people know about the student athletes as people, the more they’re going to be engaged and want to follow them,” she added.
