The National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA), in coordination with Elite Level Sport Marketing (ELSM), named 12 college programs as finalists for the 2014-15 Best of Brand Gold Standard Award, which includes defending champion South Dakota State.
“We’re excited for the chance to become back-to-back Gold Standard winners in the Best of Brand competition,” SDSU assistant AD for marketing and promotion Sam Doerr said. “This speaks not only to what we do internally to promote the sport of wrestling and SDSU wrestling, but how passionate our fans are about the promotions and giveaways we provide.”
Given to the program that best exhibits excellence through social media and marketing, the Jackrabbits earned Gold Standard Award in 2013-14, after winning Top Newcomer honors in 2012-13, thanks largely to the team’s efforts on Twitter @GoJacksWrestle using the hashtag #GetJacked
“We’d like to thank ELSM and the NWCA for being named a finalist for the Best of Brand Gold Standard Award. It’s something we take seriously here at South Dakota State and something we don’t do alone, so I’d like to thank Susan Wallrich, Sam Doerr, as well as the rest of the coaching staff and the administration here at SDSU,” Jackrabbits head wrestling coach Chris Bono said. “Social media is very important to us, and we’re excited to make the finals, and hopefully we can repeat as champions.”
The 11 other programs to make the finals include: Iowa State, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, NC State, Ohio State, Penn, Princeton, Purdue, Rutgers and Stanford. The winner will be announced this summer.
