PHONE: (419) 783-2566

FAX: (419) 783-2369

EMAIL: smikel@defiance.edu

Seth Mikel is in his sixth year with the Defiance College family and was promoted to the position of assistant athletics director for sports information on July 1, 2011. Mikel spent the previous five years as the sports information director for the Yellow Jackets and has 11 years of experience in the profession. He is directly responsible for the promotion and marketing of DC's 22 varsity athletic programs and serves as the athletics department liaison between local and national media, while assisting the athletics director in various administrative duties as assigned.

Mikel oversees and provides daily maintenance to Defiance’s official athletics website and is responsible for producing the department’s media guides, gameday programs, promotional pieces and numerous other projects. Mikel and his staff are also responsible for tracking and reporting the official statistics at all home Yellow Jacket sporting events and have successfully hosted a trio of Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournaments.

Mikel has helped Defiance keep pace in the continually expanding social media market by starting the official Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages for the athletics department, initiating a growing list of team blogs and assisting with the creation of the Yellow Jacket Sports Network to webcast football and basketball contests.

Mikel also spearheaded the launching of Defiance’s new athletics website, joining with Streamline Technologies to unveil www.DefianceAthletics.com in August of 2008 and has since added a host of new features on the site to further promote the accomplishments of DC’s student-athletes. Those projects include the Athletic Honors Page, GameDay Central and Beyond the Box Score features, along with the implementation of live stat broadcasts, a revamped online record book and improved player bio pages.

Mikel is an active member of College Sports Information Directors of America and had his 2007-2008 men’s basketball media guide voted as one of the top-five covers among all NCAA Division III and NAIA basketball programs entered into the CoSIDA publications contest. Mikel was also published in Touchdown Illustrated, after submitting an article about the volunteer work of the DC football team in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Before accepting the position of sports information director at Defiance in June of 2006, Mikel spent three years working as an assistant director in the sports information and athletic media relations department at NCAA Division I institution, Gardner-Webb University, in North Carolina.

During his time at GWU, Mikel earned a master’s degree in sports science and pedagogy and was primarily responsible for covering the women’s basketball, softball, women’s soccer, wrestling, volleyball, tennis and golf teams for the Runnin’ Bulldogs.

Prior to working at Gardner-Webb, the Etna Green, Ind., native earned a bachelor’s degree in sport management from Indiana Wesleyan University. Mikel also served as a student sports information director for two years, while competing on the baseball team for three.

Seth and his wife, Keely, have a three year old son, Austin, and a one year old daughter, Mackenna. The family resides in Defiance, Ohio.