College of
St. Scholastica

July 13 , 2005

Layne Pitt has been named as the sports information director of the National Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA), Bill Kronschnabel, NCHA president, announced.

Pitt, the sports information director at the University of Wisconsin-Stout for the last 11 years, takes over for Jim Thies. Thies was the NCHA's SID from 1987-89 and started a second term in 1996. In his 12 years, he helped established the NCHA's web site, the NCHA Scholar-Athlete award and a web based All-NCHA selection procedure. Thies, who has been the SID at UW-River Falls since 1976, remains at UW-RF as SID.

Pitt's responsibilities will include the management of the NCHA web site, all NCHA statistics, weekly previews, compilation of athlete of the week an All-NCHA teams and act as liaison between the media and the NCHA.

"We are excited that Layne, with his knowledge and experience, will be joining our team and spearheading our media efforts," Kronschnabel said.

Pitt, who was recently named the Midwest Sports Information Director of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, will continue in his role as sports information director at UW-Stout. He was a photojournalist for Fox Valley Sports in Appleton and served as the editor, sports editor and photojournalist at The Dunn County News in Menomonie.

The NCHA includes a men's and women's league. The eight-team men's league include: St. Norbert College, UW-Superior, UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, UW-Eau Claire, the College of St. Scholastica and Lake Forest College. The six-team women's league includes: UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior, UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, Finlandia University and Lake Forest College.