Marist Hires Sportswriter Jane McManus
By Marco Schaden
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Jane McManus has recently accepted an offer to be the Director of the Center for Sports Communication. The job had been vacated for the last year, after Keith Strudler abruptly left in the summer of 2017 to become a dean at Montclair State University. Since that time, Professor Leander Schaerlaeckens took over as interim director.
McManus comes in with a wealth of experience in the sports media industry, making stops at Newsday, USA Today, The New York Times and ESPN. She was a part of the massive layoffs by ESPN in the last couple years, due to cable subscription numbers declining year after year. McManus also has teaching experience, having previously worked as an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism. McManus has been living abroad in London and will make the permanent move across the pond to the Hudson Valley, in time for the spring semester.
“Jane for the first time will be a director whose primary job is the Center, that has never been true before so that will give her a chance to build a infrastructure in term of events and programming, alumni mixers and workshops,” said Schaerlaeckens, who will now transition to the role of Deputy Director after McManus’ hiring. McManus will teach one class a semester and begin to build on what Strudler and Schaerlaekens have done before her. Schaerlaekens started Center Field an online publication covering Marist College Athletics, with a small group of students last semester. There are now around eight podcasts that are being produced by the Center, with a potential podcast studio being added in the near future.
Students are a big part of the Center for Sports Communication and many of them are excited by the hiring. “When Leander came into the office and said Jane McManus was the hire, it was like ‘oh shit, perfect’,” said junior Will Bjarnar, a sports communication major and managing editor of Center Field.
The future of the Center for Sports Communication looks to be in good hands, after a high-profile hiring that will not only enhance the reputation of the Center, but also Marist College.
