And The Winner Is

Aug 16, 2013

OXFORD, Miss. - A lot of hard work and dedication goes into producing the exciting creative content Ole Miss fans have come to enjoy on game day, on television or on the web. The Ole Miss creative team was rewarded for their outstanding work this past year, earning 16 awards in the sports video and design industries.

The Ole Miss Sports Production team picked up eight Telly Awards, including one for the popular documentary style television series "The Season," which gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at the Rebels.

The sports production team also earned six AVA Awards, including for the "Lock the Vaught" video, the men's tennis promo video and the baseball broadcast. The Ole Miss website (OleMissSports.com) also won an AVA Award for design.

In addition to an AVA Award, the Ole Miss football team intro video also earned a College Sports Media Award (CSMA).

"It's an honor to be a part of these competitions and gives you great appreciation for all the good work that's being done today in sports productions," said Micah Ginn, Creative Director for Ole Miss Sports Productions. "It has been a lot of fun this year, and we've had an awesome group of student-athletes that deserve a lot of the credit. It's their hard work and winning attitude that we are putting on display in our promotions and television/web shows, so they make what we do great.

"What's really exciting for us is that this summer we've added new members to our production team. Jeremy Havens is now our Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Productions, and he comes to us after stops in the SEC, NFL, NBA, and as the head of sports productions at Illinois State. Also, our new hire at the Producer/Director position is Chris Sabo, who is a four-time Emmy winner for his work in sports productions at Ohio University. We're really excited about where we can go."

Senior Associate Athletics Director, Michael Thompson knows how powerful video and multimedia can be for a brand.

"I'm so proud of the team we've assembled to create such phenomenal content for our fans," Thompson said. "We strive as a department to find cutting edge ways to personalize and humanize our student-athletes and coaches and our creative team continues to hit home runs in these mediums."

Manager of Creative Services Shane Sanford sees the awards as a validation of the mission of the department.

"I think you'll see a lot of similarities in the pieces we have generated over the last year," Sanford said. "It really boils down to telling the story of our student-athletes and of Ole Miss athletics as a whole. I'm proud of how we've done that, and excited about growing that mission."

Adding to the 15 video awards the Sports Production team earned, Ole Miss also received a CoSIDA Award for Best Media Guide Cover Design for its women's basketball cover. The cover was designed by Ole Miss graphics designer Dan Pellegrino.

Below is a list of all the winners with a link to the award-winning videos.