Manck Resigns; Stewart Takes Over Athletic Communications

 After 10 years at Newberry College, Josh Manck has announced his resignation from the post of assistant athletic director for athletic communications. Randall Stewart has accepted the position of director of athletic communications and he will be assisted by Bryan Eckelberg and Tanner Swift.

Manck resigns to accept a similar position at Texas A&M-Commerce after the longest tenure of any athletic communications director in the college's history. Manck was promoted to the head of the athletic communications office at Newberry in 2007 after serving a 10-month internship in 2006-07. He was elected to the leadership of the Division II Sports Information Directors Association in 2014 and serves as second vice president. He also serves the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on the convention programming committee. Manck helped promote 18 CoSIDA Academic All-America honorees at Newberry since 2009.

"It is tough to leave a place like Newberry after the support the community has shown me," Manck said. "This is an awesome place with great people, and I look forward to the continued progress of the Athletic Communications Department under Randall's leadership, as well as the College as a whole."

A former Newberry intern, Stewart returns to Newberry after serving as Athletic Media Relations Director at Brevard College for two years. Stewart joined the BC staff in June 2014 from King University in Bristol, Tenn., where he served as the Sports Information Graduate Assistant for the 2013-14 academic year. There he assisted the department’s functions for all 25 varsity sports while earning a Master of Business Administration.

Stewart is a member of CoSIDA and the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association. Under his watch, the Tornados have had three student-athletes named CoSIDA Academic All-District, the first such honorees in school history. He has also been the recipient of three district writing awards through CoSIDA's Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest.

Prior to his time at King, the Spartanburg native interned at Newberry for the 2013 spring semester, serving as the primary media contact for the Wolves' softball team and assisting in game day operations for basketball, baseball and lacrosse.

Stewart also has extensive experience in the newspaper field, spending a year with the Aiken Standard and two years with The State during his time as an undergraduate before helping found Garnet Report, a student-run website that covered University of South Carolina athletics. In May of 2013, Stewart graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of South Carolina Honors College with a Bachelor of Science in Sport and Entertainment Management.

Eckelberg is a May 2016 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran College, where he earned his bachelor of arts degree with a major in communicative arts. He worked in Wisconsin Lutheran’s sports information office under the supervision of Adam Heinzen. He was team leader his senior year, helping manage WLC’s staff of student workers. He was also a member of the school’s newspaper where he wrote for both the sports and opinions sections. Bryan is a native of Slinger, Wis., and graduated from Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School.

Swift graduated with a BSBA in Sport Management from Western Carolina University in August of 2015. Swift has experience in the sports information field having worked as a student in the Western Carolina Athletic Department under SID Daniel Hooker. In 2015, he also interned in the Coastal Plain League with the Gastonia Grizzlies. Before coming to Newberry, Tanner spent time with Amazon, helping launch their new Prime Now site in Raleigh, N.C., in January of 2016.

Swift is from Cary, N.C., and has also coached basketball at various levels since 2011. He spent a season as an assistant for his former high school, Panther Creek, under Mark Adams. Since 2012, he has been with Networks Basketball, Inc. under Kevin Nunley.