In perfect Carmany

Brothers Paul and Joe Carmany work alongside one another for Flames athletics

The endless nights and weekends filled with out-of-town travel can take a toll of the family life of a college sports information director (SID). But for Liberty University’s Paul and Joe Carmany, the opportunity to spend time with family is part of the job.

Paul and Joe Carmany, brothers only distanced by three years of age, are two of Liberty’s sports information directors. Paul Carmany, the eldest brother, joined Liberty’s athletic communications staff in June 2006. Joe Carmany began his time at Liberty in June 2011.

The Middletown, Ohio natives work hand-in-hand with student athletes, the media and the university, coordinating interviews, handling statistics for specific teams, traveling with sports teams and reporting to the Big South Conference.

Paul Carmany is an associate athletics communications director and the media contact for men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s cross country and women’s basketball. Joe Carmany is an assistant athletics communications director and the media contact for women’s volleyball, softball and swimming.

Though the Carmany brothers may have different sports to focus their time on, Paul and Joe Carmany use their brotherly bond to work together to help Liberty athletics run even smoother.
“Sometimes it can be kind of stressful keeping stats at games,” Paul Carmany said. “Since we know each other better than we know our coworkers, sometimes we can interact with each other and help each other solve problems in ways that we might not be able to interact with just a regular coworker. We know how each other operates.”

As the time came for Paul Carmany to head off to college, he decided to study mathematics at Ashland University because of his childhood love for sports statistics.

“I loved sports stats growing up, and I kept sports stats just on my own and for high school teams,” Paul Carmany said. “But, I didn’t really realize that it was a future, and there was a job like this out there. The sports statistics angle is what got me excited about math.”

After graduating from Ashland in 2004, Paul Carmany began working as a graduate assistant while earning his master’s degree in sports education.

At the same time, Joe Carmany was working on his undergraduate degree in sports ministry at Malone University. When Joe Carmany was preparing to graduate with his bachelor’s degree, Paul Carmany was seeking his next life move that would soon bring him to Liberty.

“It’s definitely a God-thing that brought me here,” Paul Carmany said. “I applied to over 20 different jobs and most of them were around the Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Michigan (area). I kind of wanted to stay in that area where my family was.”

Paul Carmany said when he saw Liberty’s SID job posting asking for a Christian as the first requirement, he felt he should apply for the job because he had not seen anything like that before. The job also required knowledge in volleyball, women’s basketball and track and field, all of which Paul said he felt he had adequate understanding.

“Out of all of those (applications), Liberty was the first one, only one to offer me a job,” Paul Carmany said. “So even though it was kind of out of my comfort zone and further away from home than I was looking, the job description itself plus God closing doors and opening this door (is) why I’m here. I feel like Liberty was the best place and was where God wanted me to be even though it was frustrating at the time.”

Joe Carmany on the other hand, had a different journey to reach his current spot as a SID at Liberty. Though Paul Carmany was working at Liberty when Joe Carmany was deciding on his next step in life, Joe Carmany said following in his brother’s footsteps to become an SID was only in the back of his mind.

After graduating from Malone in 2007, Joe Carmany said he sent out job applications but nothing was working out, so he decided to take a year off while working some odd jobs. After no luck for more than a year, Joe Carmany received an email from a SID at Mercyhurst University. Joe Carmany said he forgot that he had even applied for a graduate assistant job at Mercyhurst.

Following two years at Mercyhurst and earning a master’s degree in organizational leadership, Joe Carmany applied for internships in hopes of securing a permanent job. Over 20 applications later, Joe Carmany earned a 10-month internship at Charleston Southern University, and then as a job as a SID at Liberty opened up, Joe Carmany secured the position, which he still holds.

Working with student athletes on a daily basis, Joe Carmany said his own personal experience benefits him greatly. At Malone, Joe Carmany was a racewalker on the track team.

Joe Carmany said as a junior in college, he took a walking class, which was taught by the racewalking coach, and his friend who happened to be a racewalker both of which were instrumental in getting Joe Carmany to begin to racewalk.

During his time at Malone, Joe Carmany attended the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Championship for the racewalk on three separate occasions, with eighth as his highest finish as a senior.

He currently holds the Malone men’s 5K outdoor racewalk record with a time of 23:25:00 in 2007.

“It was a good experience also to be a student athlete,” Joe Carmany said. “Now that I work with student athletes, I know kind of what they’re going through, the pressures and time management that goes with it.”

Joe Carmany said he now only racewalks at the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) national conventions, in which he won the racewalk championships in the CoSIDA 5k Run/Walk in 2012 and 2013.

Though Paul and Joe Carmany may have reached the role of Liberty sports information director in different ways, their brotherly bond is clear as they work as a team to excel at their jobs, while still spending time together outside the office.

“I wouldn’t want to get through it with anybody else,” Paul Carmany said.

Rodriguez is the news editor.