Aug. 20, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF athletics communications office has made several strides in recent years, from daily online video production and live event streaming for UCF Athletics' official web site to the new KnightVision magazine, which launches this month, and Twitter and Facebook marketing accounts. However, it is the latest move for the office that might be the most innovative of them all.
Former Florida Today journalist John Denton has joined the UCF athletics communications staff and will publish the Knights Insider on UCFAthletics.com several times per week. Denton's Knights Insider will provide UCF fans with a unique "beat" perspective of the Knights. Denton will provide his insider information on the UCF football program, in addition to other varsity sports throughout the academic year.
In addition, the "Voice of the Knights," Marc Daniels, will be bringing his From the Pressbox columns to UCFAthletics.com several times per month.
"John Denton is such a respected journalist in the Central Florida community and to have him join our staff is something we are truly excited about," UCF Director of Athletics and Executive Vice President Keith Tribble said. "Add in Marc's columns, plus all of the daily feature contributions from our communications staff, and the content that we are producing for our fans has greatly increased. Most importantly, we have added a news vehicle that will allow us further to tell the great stories about student-athletes, coaches, teams and facilities."
Denton brings 18 years of professional journalism experience to his new role. From 1997-09, he covered UCF, the Orlando Magic and the National Football League for Florida Today. He covered the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, eight National Basketball Association All-Star Games, four Super Bowls, four NBA Finals, the NBA's China Games in Shanghai and Macao and several other major sporting events.
Denton has also done extensive work with ESPN, reporting for "First Take" and "SportsCenter" and writing for ESPN.com. Denton, who began his writing career at The Jackson Sun in Tennessee, has won several national awards, including three Best of Gannett honors.
Entering his 15th year as UCF's radio voice, Daniels serves as the play-by-play broadcaster for UCF football, men's basketball and baseball contests on the UCF-ISP Sports Network. He also hosts "UCF Sports Today with Kirk Speraw" and Speraw's weekly radio show. Each weekday, Daniels hosts "The Beat of Sports" on ESPN 1080 AM in Orlando.
With the addition of Denton to the UCF athletics communications staff, the department has continued to expand its focus on the creation of original content and its direct interaction with the UCF fan base, while also assisting the media on a daily basis.
"With the addition John's Knights Insider stories and Marc's From the Pressbox columns, we are showing our commitment to increasing the frequency of our original content on UCFAthletics.com," UCF Associate Director of Athletics Joe Hornstein said. "We are working to bring these feature stories and columns directly to the reader, not only via our official web site, but also through enhanced e-mail marketing technologies that are suitable for PDAs, Blackberry devices and IPhones."
For the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.