Since the Coca-Cola Community All-Americans program is a metro as well as a sports story, consider pitching your recognition event to more than just your regular sports reporters.
"Hi [Reporter's First Name]. My name is [First Name] calling with [institution name] to tell you that we'll be recognizing [student-athlete], our Coca-Cola Community All-American on [date] at [location]."
"The Coca-Cola Community All-Americans program is all about recognizing, celebrating and applauding student-athletes who are making a difference in their communities."
[student-athlete] distinguished [himself or herself] by [mention some of their community service activities and the impact of their volunteer efforts.
"We'll have lots of great visuals for you. Are you interested in attending the event or learning more?" [Add some comments about visuals for your institution's recognition event].
If interested in attending:
"The event will begin at [time] on [day] at [location], and we can arrange for you to meet [student-athlete] and [athletics director] and several of the other outstanding student-athletes at [institution name]. I'll fax you an alert with the event and contact information and follow up with you on [Day] to make sure you're still able to come."
If unable to attend/not interested in attending:
"Can I set up an interview for you with [student-athlete] and [athletics director]? Would you like me to send you some photos from the event?"
If the reporter would like a little more information about the program:
"The Cola-Cola Company recently teamed with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to recognize community service in intercollegiate athletics in NCAAź, NAIATM and Junior/Community College member institutions."
*Please Note: If you are sending a photo of the event and the Coca-Cola Community All-American to the media - remember to include a copy of the news release and a caption with the photo. Also, remember that radio stations might be interested in using photos on their web sites.
