Randall Stewart accepted the Director of Athletic Communications position in August 2016, returning to Newberry after beginning his career as an intern under former Assistant AD for Athletic Communications Josh Manck during the spring of 2013. He held the position until January 2020.
In a three-and-a-half year tenure, Stewart served as the primary contact for three conference championship-winning teams (2016 Football, 2016-17 Wrestling, 2019 Baseball), a 2016-17 Men's Golf team that finished the season tied for fifth nationally, and oversaw communications for an athletic department that swelled to 22 sports.
His notable accomplishments include hosting a pair of national broadcasts during the 2016 football season and serving as the Host Media Coordinator for the 2017 NCAA Women's Golf South Super Regional, a 2019 NCAA Baseball Regional, four conference tournaments, and leading the statistics team at the 2018 SAC Basketball Championships. He also successfully pitched numerous stories to local media outlets, including notable profiles on Baptiste Staggers, Joe Blue, and Danton Hyman, while producing content such as a story on Newberry Baseball winning two games in two states on the same day that was aggregated by national media and led to a panelist position at the annual College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Convention.
Stewart spent two years chairing the South Atlantic Conference's Media Relations Directors Committee, four years as the Southeast Region Voting Coordinator for the Division II Conference Commissioners Association Men's Soccer All-America program, and three seasons as a voter on the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Southeast Region poll. He assisted in selecting individual and team participants in the 2019 NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship as part of a Regional Advisory Committee.
Newberry student-athletes were decorated with numerous awards during Stewart's tenure. The 10 successful Academic All-American and six successful SAC Scholar-Athlete nominations both set the mark for the most in school history in a three-year period, while Newberry's 16 combined selections between these two prestigious awards represented more than 30 percent of the school's all-time total. Stewart was also responsible for the nomination of quarterback Raleigh Yeldell for the 2016 Harlon Hill Trophy; Yeldell became the first finalist for the award, which is considered the Division II equivalent to the Heisman Trophy, in Newberry history.
He promoted a video of Markell Castle's leaping, twisting, one-handed catch into the No. 2 play on SportsCenter, lobbied for Shea Rodgers' and Chance Walker's selections as National Player of the Week, and promoted multiple plays named among the best each week in Division II by the NCAA.
Before his arrival in "The Center of the Universe," Stewart spent the previous two academic years as the Athletic Media Relations Director at former South Atlantic Conference member Brevard College. There, he oversaw the promotion of all 20 of the Tornados' varsity sport programs while serving as the primary media contact for nine. He served as Media Relations Coordinator for three South Atlantic Conference Championships, implemented the school's first-ever live video streams, promoted Brevard's first three Academic All-District honorees, and increased social media engagement by 40 percent.
Prior to Brevard, Stewart served as Sports Information Graduate Assistant for the 2013-2014 academic year at King University in Bristol, Tenn. There, he helped promote all 25 Tornado athletic programs while earning a Master of Business Administration. The Spartanburg native earned his Bachelor's Degree with Distinction from the University of South Carolina in Sport and Entertainment Management in 2013. He spent a semester at Newberry as part of his final internship requirement, serving as softball's primary contact during his previous stint with the Wolves.
Sport Assignments: Football, Baseball, Cheerleading, Dance
