SWAC names Padilla Sports Information Director of the Year
Special to the Outlook
Florida A&M’s director of athletic communications and digital strategies, Josh Padilla, was named the 2022-23 Southwestern Athletic Conference Sports Information Director of the Year. The award was voted upon by the league’s sports information directors.
“All of the sports information directors work extremely hard year-round, and being recognized by my peers to be named Sports Information Director of the Year is a great feeling,” said Padilla, who grew up in Tampa. “Also, I want to thank Kyrease Desseau, Jai Smith, Ashley Bigbee, Nick Jonas, Nick Bolding, Germanie Bozeman, Jonathan David, and Sydney Dorsey-Rencher because they played a significant role in FAMU Athletics being one of the best digital teams in the nation.”
Padilla got his start in athletics operations when he was men’s basketball Assistant Director of Basketball Operations at Florida International University, his alma mater. He left FIU to work at Middle Tennessee State University as the Coordinator of Social Media.
Padilla oversaw traditional and digital media for FAMU this past season. He led the Rattlers to another season of multi-million interactions via Florida A&M’s social media platforms.
Under his leadership, FAMU had several video projects that got attention on a national scale. Padilla also nominated six individual league award winners in addition to nominating 31 All-SWAC selections. Florida A&M earned a weekly honor in a total of 13 sports this past academic year.
Padilla served as the primary media contact for the athletics department working with multiple national media outlets, including the New York Times, ESPN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and more.
He also worked with Nike and APB on promoting FAMU shoe release campaigns and worked with LeBron James’ media company UNINTERRUPTED on a mini-documentary, which covered the Florida A&M Football program.
