IC News

If you watched any sports programming on television sometime over this past year, there’s a good chance that several Ithaca College alumni were working behind the scenes to help deliver that content.

Several of those alumni had that work recognized earlier this year, as they were part of production teams that took home hardware at the 41st Sports Emmy Awards.

Four of the honorees — Rob Labay ’93, Gavin Cote ’12, Miriam Greenfield ’95, and Joshua Vorensky ’11 — worked together on the “SC Featured” segment that aired on ESPNews and was awarded Outstanding Sports News/Feature Anthology. Greenfield was a feature producer while Labay, Cote and Vorensky served as associate producers.

Each member of the trio recognized the role their time on South Hill played in developing their professional skills.

“The ESPN - Ithaca College Park School of Communications connection is strong,” Greenfield said. “All three of us got our start working on [ICTV’s] ‘The Gridiron Report’ and we all went from Butterfield Field to Lambeau Field.”

“I think it is a testament to Ithaca that so many [ESPN] employees come from the college,” Vorensky said. “It prepares them to think creatively, build a strong work ethic and foster a sense of community.”

Cote’s path to ESPN started in the classroom, in instructor Thomas Bohn’s evolution of sport media course. Bohn introduced Cote to Labay as a source for a paper Cote was writing. That relationship helped Cote secure an internship, during which his hard work led to a job offer.

"My education in the classroom and at ICTV, working on shows such as ‘Sports Final’ and ‘The Gridiron Report’, helped instill in me a passion for storytelling and built the fundamentals of script writing, interviewing, story structure and production that I still draw from today,” Cote said.  “Without the experience I gained at Ithaca, I wouldn't be in the position I'm in today to tell stories for ESPN as part of such a talented team.”