Joel Wauters named Assistant Athletic Director for Communications

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- UNI Athletics has announced the hiring of Joel Wauters as the Assistant Athletic Director for Communication.

Wauters, a 2018 UNI graduate, has been serving as the Assistant Athletic Communications Director since late 2021. He will now oversee all of UNI's athletic communications efforts, including media relations, content creation, statistics and management of the department's official website, UNIpanthers.com.

"Joel has shown his passion and work ethic to lead our communications team," said Jamar Thompson, Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs. "His continued role in helping manage our relationships with local media, developing content for our fans, and telling the stories of our student-athletes is unmatched. We look forward to having Joel in this much deserved position."

Since joining the UNI staff, Wauters has helped oversee athletic communication for the Panther men's basketball and volleyball programs, and also assisted in managing sports information efforts for football, wrestling and swimming and diving during the past year.

"I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to lead the UNI Athletic Communications office," Wauters said. "Ever since I set foot on the UNI campus as an undergraduate student, I knew this was a special place. Every athlete who comes to Cedar Falls, attends UNI and puts on a Panther uniform has a story to tell, and I look forward to helping cultivate those stories and experiences with our local, state and national media outlets, as well as our passionate fan base."

Prior to returning to UNI, Wauters served as the Sports Information Director at NAIA Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, where he oversaw media relations and statistics for the university's eight varsity teams. He served as director of game operations, staffing games and setting up venues for home events, while also managing a staff of student employees.

Wauters also worked as the Director of Media Relations for the Cedar Valley CourtKings, a semi-pro men's basketball team in the Midwest Basketball League based in Waterloo, Iowa from late 2017 through the 2019 season, where he oversaw all media operations for the organization that included pregame and postgame stories, website management, graphic design, and in-game promotions. Additionally, he also served as the team's interim play-by-play radio broadcaster during the 2018 season.

From December 2018 until August 2019, Wauters was an in-studio producer and co-host for "On Press Row" with Gary Rima, the former radio voice of UNI Panther football and men's basketball. The weekday sports talk radio show aired on News Talk 1540 in Waterloo and focused on sports in Iowa.

Wauters graduated from UNI in December 2018 with a bachelor's degree in digital media: journalism. While at UNI, Wauters was the sports editor of UNI's bi-weekly student newspaper "The Northern Iowan," where he covered a variety of sporting events, including the 2018 MVC Swimming and Diving Championships and the U.S. Bank Stadium Basketball Classic.

A native of Elberon, Iowa, Joel currently resides in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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