Apprentice School Sports Information Director Jim Heath will
be receiving the Bob Moskowitz Media Award from the Peninsula
Sports Club on June 23 at its annual Headliners Night banquet at
the Hampton Holiday Inn. The following is a story written on
him to be included in the banquet program.
The man keeps busy. Spell it in capital letters - BUSY. A
one-armed paper hanger is lazy compared to James A. Heath, sports
information director, multi-sport statistician, webmaster and, oh
yes, a 183 bowler. In retrospect, says Heath, one Dennis Kozlowski
triggered all of it - except the bowling.
The 39-year-old Newport News native, but long-time Hamptonian,
was recruited by then football coach/track coach/athletic director
Kozlowski to keep statistics for the Bethel football team. That led
to numerous other channels of endeavor for Heath.
"That got me started in contact with the Daily Press," he recalls.
He worked there some in the sports department after high school
graduation and still is a stringer. After Heath enrolled at
Christopher Newport University, he found that "Koz" had contacted
athletic director/basketball coach/golf coach C.J. Woollum, who
recommended him to sports information director Wayne Block.
From there, in effect, Heath spread throughout Tidewater.
He has been the SID for Newport News Apprentice School since
2000 and also owns the tag of assistant athletic director. It would
be egregious to stop there with his list of current duties in the
local world of sports. He still strings for the Daily Press (mostly
high school sports), is: media director for the Virginia Duals, SID
for the National Collegiate Wrestling Association, SID for for the
Atlantic Central Football Conference, special assistant to the U.S.
Collegiate Athletic Association and last year became webmaster for
the ACFC (acting as content manager for the conference as well as
the Apprentice website).
Along the way he was official statistician for the 2004 NCAA
Division III Women's Basketball Final Four at Virginia Wesleyan;
has been an official statistics crew member for the Portsmouth
Invitational Tournament since 2001; was 2003 media director for the
AAU Senior Olympics; and was media director for the AAU Junior
Olympics in 2001 and 2006. He also was a graduate assistant in the
Old Dominion University Sports Information Department. He also has
been detected filling in as official scorer for the Peninsula
Pilots of the Coastal Plain League.
At the Apprentice School, Heath has helped promote over 450
athletes for honors ranging from Player of the Week to
All-American. He has won three College Sports Information Directors
Association Publication awards, and was selected SID of the Year in
2000-01 by the National Small College Athletic
Association.
