Kessler ’04 brings lessons of student years to athletic communications

Josh Kessler ’04, a Saint Michael’s College journalism and mass communications graduate from Colchester, VT, is in his eleventh year as director of athletic communications at his alma mater. His seemingly super-human productive output of athletics news and tireless hours in those years reveal a man who is all-in for a job he truly loves.

Josh Kessler ’04

“You have to be a leader, you have to be punctual and responsible,” he said of his duties in this often demanding role. “But you need to enjoy it too, you need to have fun. That is something I try to relay to my student assistants now, since those are lessons I learned in the same role here when I was a student. I try to give them the opportunity to learn and gain those skills while enjoying the work they’re doing.”

Kessler credits much of his self-discovery as a student to his time and experience as a student assistant with the Athletic Communications office, at the time called the Sports Information Office. That experience led him to a string of post-graduation positions that prepared him ideally for his eventual return to Saint Michael’s: He was a sports publicity intern at Dartmouth College in 2004-05, the first full-time assistant sports information director at Wheaton (MA.) College (2005-2010) and then the first full-time sports information director for Wheelock College in Boston (2010-11).

His career direction into sports has strong roots in Kessler’s pre-college life. The 1999 Colchester High School graduate said he “did a lot with baseball and basketball stats, started a website for all of Colchester High’s sports teams in 1997-98,” and he single-handedly produced the sports section for the school paper as a senior in 1998-99.

Angela Armour, now the College’s director of Alumni and Parent Engagement, worked as the Sports Information director during Kessler’s time as a Saint Michael’s student. “[Armour] gave me so many opportunities to learn on the fly and to grow; I really started to see that a lot of the things I was learning in journalism were applicable to sports information. That ended up becoming a viable career path for me,” said Kessler.

He believes that many of the skills he learned while working as a student with the Sports Information office were valuable life skills that apply to more than just a job in sports communication. “A lot of it is being around sports and being a part of games, but you’re also trusted. You’re given a task, you’re taught skills that you then have to apply to your job,” said Kessler. Today, these are the lessons he sees his student workers learning every day.

Kessler said that he appreciates the opportunity to work with colleagues who have been at Saint Michael’s for a long time, enabling them to impart upon him strong perspective on the importance of building relationships. Having been on the job more than a decade now, Kessler said he has seen student-athletes graduate and come back years later, some married with kids. “They’ll come back and remember me, which is really nice. It’s incredibly meaningful and makes me feel like I’ve made some sort of positive impression on them during their time here,” he said. “I appreciate organically being a part of students’ Saint Michael’s experience and being someone that they can rely upon.”

He said he values watching students working in the same office that was so formative for him as a student. “Knowing that the students are as invested in this work as I am and knowing that they can have fun, and that years later they’re able to remember their work with this department as one of their most cherished memories at Saint Michael’s, is so special,” he said.

Kessler believes that the closeness of the Saint Michael’s community is what cultivates supportive and memorable student and faculty relationships. Knowing that every member of the Saint Michael’s community chose to be here means a lot, said Kessler.

“I think that really shows that we have similar interests in where we wanted to learn but also wanting to keep this community what it has always been in terms of the friendliness and tight knit atmosphere,” said Kessler. “So getting to know the student athletes and why they chose St. Mike’s has been really special for me too.”

Kessler has achieved a far-reaching reputation in his field with his achievements since coming home to Saint Michael’s. A member of the College Sports Information Directors of America and the Eastern Athletic Communications Association, Kessler is the chair of the Saint Michael’s Athletic Hall of Fame Committee and has served on various campus search committees during his time at the College. He also served as host of the 2018 EAST-COMM Workshop, helping to bring it to Vermont for the first time, and has served six years as a member of the D2SIDA East Region Media Poll men’s basketball voting committee.

During his time as director of athletic communications at the College, Purple Knight student-athletes have regularly appeared in their hometown media and Burlington-area media outlets, as well as being featured by Vermont Public Radio, Sports Illustrated, and via the NCAA’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), print (NCAA Champion magazine) and online (NCAA.com) accounts. Kessler has overseen three redesigns of SMCAthletics.com and implementation of a new Instagram channel, provides management of the Purple Knight social media accounts, and manages the College’s relationship with streaming provider Northeast Sports Network (NSN).

Kessler urges students to take advantage of any extracurricular activities, jobs, sports, or clubs while on campus. Just like his time as a student at Saint Michael’s, Kessler said that students may find their passions in more than just academics, so they should take the time and opportunity to explore their interests. He believes that Saint Michael’s offers students the environment to build lasting friendships and professional relationships that support students in their endeavors and help them find the work they are interested in doing.