Two driving forces behind all sixteen of Goshen College’s sports teams are Tony Miller, statistician, and Justin DeWeese, assistant athletic director of communications and operations
DeWeese explained that his role has two parts, with the communications part entailing “writing up the game previews and reviews for the college athletics website, goleafs.net.”The operations part of his job entails ensuring that everything on game days runs smoothly for all of the teams when they play at home, including “setting up and tearing down and getting all of the workers together,” DeWeese said.
Miller explained that he is “the person responsible for taking stats.” He compiles the stats at every game that takes place at the Ruth Gunden Gymnasium, the “Sarge” Baseball Field, and the GC Softball and Soccer complexes.
While working in the athletic department at such a high level may seem appealing to most athletes, there are some stressors that come with the job, in particular on game day.
DeWeese says that the “half an hour before a game can be stressful if workers are not in place.” He explained that he has “to fill in where he is needed,” and has filled in all sorts of roles during game days, such as tickets, concessions and even filling in as a ball person.
Miller said that despite the stressors of the job, he must troubleshoot any issues on game day.
He explained that solving problems on game day is like “dumping out all of the puzzle pieces and seeing what fits together,” a task that can be meticulous but very rewarding when done right.
Despite these stressors, there are some upsides to their jobs. Miller said that “it’s great to recognize people when they do cool stuff,” such as the women’s cross country team along with men’s runner Mathew Keitany going to the NAIA National Championship in Columbia, Missouri.
DeWeese joined the department in 2021, while Miller joined in 2014 under the role of sports information director. DeWeese’s role has changed due to the advancements in video technology and live streaming.
DeWeese explains that when he arrived “we were already live streaming, but it wasn’t great. ITS Media has helped a lot in this area with getting a more stable livestream.”
He explained that “after COVID, there are so many things, such as games and concerts, that everything is expected to be streamed and expectations are higher, so we have added more camera angles and instant replays.”
Miller says that “things like video and social media were cool stuff that we did, but now it is pretty much accepted and you get more and more shiny objects.”
He hopes that the next frontier for the Goshen athletic department will be the addition of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in soccer and video technology to help officials judge contentious decisions in sports such as basketball and volleyball.
Justin DeWeese and Tony Miller are crucial in the performance of the Goshen athletic programs. While the athletes and their teams take center stage, the hard work of DeWeese and Miller keeps the spotlight on their success.
