The ECAC-SIDA Executive Board has announced the winners of its 2020 ECAC-SIDA Awards. A total of six professionals will be honored.

With the cancellation of the 2020 ECAC-SIDA Workshop, this year's award winners are scheduled to be celebrated during the Awards Dinner at the 2021 ECAC-SIDA Workshop, set for June 21-25, 2021 in Springfield, Massachusetts. The organization's 2021 award winners will be honored at that time as well.

The Executive Board did make one change to the ECAC-SIDA awards program. The Irving T. Marsh Award was previously awarded to one University division and one College division winner. Beginning in 2020, one Marsh Award will be presented annually, with a second award presented at the discretion of the Executive Board. Two awards will be presented in 2020.

Below please find a brief look at all of our award winners for 2020. In-depth profiles of this year's award recipients will be released later in the spring.

2020 Bill Esposito Memorial Award Winner – Sara Ropski (Neumann University)

Sara Ropski has been an integral part of the Neumann University Athletic Communications department since her arrival on campus in the fall of 2017. During her tenure she has worked as a work-study student, an intern and a volunteer with the office.

This past fall, Ropski was named the first co-captain of the Athletic Communications staff, assisting in overseeing 20 student workers and was the point person for soccer and field hockey home events. She also played an integral role in coverage for the Neumann ice hockey teams during the fall crossover season. Ropski has also assisted other local colleges as a freelancer.

Away from the office, Ropski was a goalie for the Knights' women's lacrosse team and is entering her fourth year as a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, where she is currently an E4 specialist.

2020 Monahan and Wallace Media Award Winner – Mike Jensen (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Mike Jensen has been a member of the sports staff at the Philadelphia Inquirer since July of 1988 and has written more than 6,000 articles since then about sports and the people involved with sports in the Philadelphia region.

Jensen covered Delaware County high school sports for four year before moving to the college beat in 1992. Over the years, he has written about virtually every college sport and every college in the area, most recently in his popular "Off Campus" column.

2020 Irving T. Marsh Award Winners – Adam Levin (Brandeis University) and Brad Nadeau (Middlebury College)

Adam Levin is in his 25th year in the athletic communications profession, including his 18th at his alma mater, Brandeis University. He spent seven years as the sports information director at Bates College before returning to Brandeis in August of 2002, where he had spent four years as an undergraduate in the sports information department and manager of the baseball team.

During his tenure with the Judges, Brandeis has had 13 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans and three Sports Illustrated "Faces In The Crowd". Over his career Levin has served as host of nine NCAA Division III regionals as well as three National Collegiate Championships (skiing, 1999 and fencing, 2004 and 2016). In 2015, Levin's feature on Jordan Zides earned a CoSIDA Stabley Writing Contest regional award.

Brad Nadeau is in his 26th year serving as the Director of Athletic Communications at Middlebury College in 2019-20. Nadeau is a past president of ECAC-SIDA, having served in that role during the 2014-15 academic year. In the summer of 2019, Nadeau was recognized by CoSIDA with its 25-Year Award.

While at Middlebury, Nadeau has served as the host SID for over 100 NCAA, NESCAC and ECAC Tournament contests, including four NCAA Men's Hockey Championships, a pair of NCAA Women's Hockey Championships, as well as the NCAA Skiing Championships in 2001 and 2013. The Panthers have had a total of 14 Sports Illustrated "Faces in The Crowd" and have captured 38 NCAA national team titles and 21 individual national championships during Nadeau's tenure.

2020 Bob Kenworthy Award Winner – Bob Beretta – Army West Point

The Bob Kenworthy Award is presented at the discretion of the ECAC-SIDA Executive Board to a person or organization (excluding vendor) for contributions to the corporation and mission of ECAC-SIDA.

Bob Beretta is in his 33rd year at Army West Point and his 19th as a member of the Black Knights' senior leadership team. His name is one of a handful that is synonymous with ECAC-SIDA, primarily in regards to the organization's charitable activities.

Beretta is a past president of ECAC-SIDA, having held the role of President in 2001-02. Upon his exit from the presidential rotation, Beretta assumed the newly-created role of Charities Chair. During his 15 years as Charities Chair, ECAC-SIDA raised more than $60,000 through the annual charity raffle at Wally World and related initiatives. Beretta is a past recipient of the Irving T. Marsh Award (2010) and Pete Nevins Award (2014).

Beretta began his career at Army in 1987 as assistant SID, before being promoted to Sports Information Director in April of 1995. In 2000 he was named an assistant athletic director, the first SID to hold such a role at West Point. He was promoted to Associate Athletic Director for Athletic Communications in August 2003. Two years later, Beretta added the title of Senior Associate Athletic Director and expanded that role to Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Operations, Relationships and Branding in May of 2008. He was named Senior Executive Associate Athletic Director in July 2010, then was elevated to Executive Athletic Director in February 2012. In 2020, he was elected to the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.

2020 Pete Nevins Award for Distinguished Achievement Winner – Ann King (The Sage Colleges)

The Pete Nevins Award is the one ECAC-SIDA Award that is not voted on by the executive board each year, but rather is voted on by the former winners of the honor. It is awarded only in years that the former winners deem a worthy candidate exists.

Ann King is in her 34th year as a sports information director and her 11th year at The Sage Colleges as its Director of Athletic Communications, where she was hired as the institution's first full-time SID in the summer of 2009. Prior to that, King spent 17 and a half years as SID at The College of New Jersey and six years as SID at her alma mater, Drew University.

King is a past president of ECAC-SIDA, serving as the organization's President in 2003-04, and prior to entering the presidential rotation served as the organization's secretary from 1995-2002. She is the 2007 winner of ECAC-SIDA's Irving T. Marsh Award. King currently serves as the president of D3SIDA and from 1999-2002 King served as a College Division Representative on the CoSIDA Board of Directors, becoming just the 10th female named to the Board of Directors in the organization's 60-year history.

Elected to the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2006, King was named the first recipient of the organization's Warren Berg Award in 2003. She was also selected as the 2018 recipient of the CoSIDA Mary Jo Haverbeck Award, which is presented annually to a CoSIDA member who is a pioneer in the field of sports information who has mentored and helped improve the level of ethnic and gender diversity within CoSIDA.

One of the founders of WoSIDA (formerly FAME), King has been active in the creation of an organization whose mission is to discuss issues facing women in the sports media relations field. She served as the first president of FAME from 2008-10.