Staff Spotlight: Jordan Viener

This is the 18th in a biweekly series spotlighting the men and women behind the scenes supporting Temple Athletics.

Harrison "Jordan" Viener, who joined the Temple Athletics staff as a Strategic Communications Assistant in January 2021, is in his third year at the University. He was recently elevated to Strategic Communications Coordinator in October 2022 and now oversees communication and digital strategy for the Temple women's basketball and cross country/track & field programs.

As a communications assistant, Viener was the primary contact for men's soccer and lacrosse. Among other responsibilities, Viener managed gameday press box operations, web rosters, and social media for both sports. He also played a key role in facilitating an expansion of student radio broadcasts for all of Temple's Olympic sports, as well as greatly expanding Temple's student content team.

Since beginning his tenure in 2021, the lacrosse program has seen an over 36% increase in followers on Instagram. Three of the top five, and six of the top 10 most liked tweets in Temple men's soccer history have been released since Viener took over. On the lacrosse side each of the program's top five most liked tweets, and nine of the top 10 were released during his tenure.

Before working at Temple, Viener worked at North Dakota State University as a student intern in its athletic communications department from 2019-2020. Viener also has experience working with the Washington Spirit in their communications department.

Viener graduated from North Dakota State University in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in sport management and earned a master's degree in 2022 in communication management from Temple.

When did you first realize you wanted to work in athletic communications?
"When I was a sophomore in college, I started working on a Maryland Terrapin podcast and I was able to talk to SIDs and learn how their profession works. So, I thought, 'that is an interesting field.' About a year later when I was back at North Dakota State, we had an intern draft in our athletic department. You submitted your resume and then met with the senior athletics staff and based on how you interviewed and what your experience was we were assigned to different departments. I was drafted into the StratComm office based on my work with the podcast and I ended up I really liking the work they did there. It was stuff I was doing on my own anyway, like researching stats and telling stories about the student-athletes, but now I viewed that interest as a potential career path. The more I pursued it, the more and more obvious the fit became."

You started your position at Temple during a pandemic. How challenging was that for you professionally and personally?
"At the time it was more challenging personally because I was moving to a place where I didn't know anyone and at a time when it was hard to meet people, but I still found my own way. I do not think I realized how challenging it would be professionally until the pandemic ended and we came back in the office. Suddenly, there was all this stuff that we really did not have to do when we were remote that we had to do now because we were back in person. Even a lot of things that we did when we were remote were fundamentally different in person. So much was different in the office versus remote, it was almost like I had to start the job twice."

How difficult was the transition from a communications coordinator to a full-time assistant handling women's basketball?
"I did not think it was going to be difficult, but it turned out to be more challenging than I thought it would be. I feel I did a good job with our lacrosse and men's soccer programs. They both garnered their fair share of media attention, and I enjoyed building the social media following for both teams. However, there was a lot of stuff needed, for women's basketball specifically, that most people do not really think about, and I was not as prepared for it as much as I thought I was.

I think the best example is putting seat labels down at games. You have to make them, figure out who is sitting where, then lay them out and secure them to the floor. It is a whole process I did not really consider. In the first month or so of the season, learning little stuff like that and dealing with the media room, etc. was what I was not as prepared for as much. There were some bumps, but I figured it out quickly. I think there is a lot of stuff we do for individual sports that you don't always think about, even when you are in the same department."

You have been very successful in the digital space in your short time at Temple. Is this something that you enjoying doing?
"I think as I have gotten more experience in the field, I have really started to enjoy the digital space and I think I am pretty good at it. However, I think there is a balance that SIDs have to strike between the digital/social space and what I would consider the old school SID stuff. Especially with the way many coaches view recruiting now, it is easy to forget about the traditional SID duties we must perform. I also think I made the mistake when I first transitioned up to the coordinator role that digital is more important, and you have to focus on it. That is true to some extent, since that is what a lot of people care about now, but the old media stuff like the game notes and press releases are still important and you cannot undervalue that. I think a lot of people in this day and age do."

Where do you see your next step in your professional career?
"I have thought a lot about this recently and I am not totally sure I know the answer yet. I want to learn more about the digital and social space and possibly take that career route, but I am also happy in my current role for the moment."

Temple University Athletics

Staff Spotlight: Jordan Viener

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