DePaul Media Relations Announces Staff Addition and Reorganization

DePaul University announced today that veteran Chicago sportswriter Bob Sakamoto has joined the athletics department as an Assistant Director of Sports Information/Media Relations and current Assistant Director Alicia Powers has assumed an additional

CHICAGO - DePaul University announced today that veteran Chicago sportswriter Bob Sakamoto has joined the athletics department as an Assistant Director of Sports Information/Media Relations and current Assistant Director Alicia Powers has assumed an additional role within the athletic department. Sakamoto will begin at DePaul on Monday, Aug. 3.

The addition of Sakamoto to the media relations staff joins a growing trend in college athletics with the ever-changing media landscape. In addition to serving as the primary media relations contact for the men’s soccer, women’s soccer and softball programs, Sakamoto will add game coverage during basketball season along with feature stories covering each of DePaul’s 15 intercollegiate programs on the official athletics website, www.depaulbluedemons.com. Nearly a dozen schools across the country have added former newspaper writers to their staffs - mainly as contributors to the department’s athletics website.

Sakamoto was a sportswriter at the Chicago Tribune from 1977-2009 covering all levels of sports in the Chicagoland area. He graduated from MacMurray College in 1975 with an English degree before earning a masters degree in Journalism at Northwestern in 1976. He started his newspaper career with Chicago Daily News in 1976 before moving to the Chicago Tribune.

Powers enters her fifth year as assistant director after serving as a graduate assistant for two years. In addition to handling the day-to-day duties as the primary contact for the women’s basketball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis programs, she will also coordinate all graphic design projects in the athletics department. The 2004 graduate of Illinois added a graduate degree in New Media Studies at DePaul in 2006 and previously handled the daily media relations duties for DePaul’s nationally-recognized softball program.

Additionally, graduate assistant Dena Meiste enters her second year at DePaul and will be the contact for the volleyball program this fall while continuing to work with the cross country and track and field programs.