The athletics department welcomed Rob Huizenga as assistant athletic director for Sports Information, Marketing & Event Management on Aug. 8.

Huizenga previously worked for 14 years at Saint Xavier University, where he was able to get their athletics featured in Sports Illustrated, ESPN and the Chicago Tribune. During his time at Saint Xavier, he also received the 2013-14 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Sports Information Director of the Year award.

Rick Costello, athletic director, said he believes the athletics department is in good hands with Huizenga.

“His enthusiasm, energy and experience made him stand out. We’re really fortunate to get someone with the experience he brings. His work at Saint Xavier stands out for itself where they were very active on social media and with videos,” Costello said.

Costello also said Huizenga’s interest and former work in photography will aid him in marketing athletics, something the previous position holder, Nicole Watkins, was noted for within the department.

Huizenga said working at PNW gives him an opportunity to add marketing and event management experience at a bigger university to his resume.

“It’s kind of a little nerve-wracking because Saint Xavier is where I started my professional career, but I took the job at PNW because it was the challenge of moving to a different division,” Huizenga said. “It also gave me a change of scenery without having to uproot my family.”

His goal now is to increase the athletics department’s media presence by striving to spread news as soon as possible.

“I want to really focus on getting the university attention both regionally and nationally. I’ve had athletes that won national awards and got big attention from media before and I want to be able to do that here at PNW,” Huizenga said.

Huizenga thinks that the major selling points for PNW is that it’s one of the few universities in the area that is in NCAA Division II, which will bring a lot of attention.

“In my first week, the one thing I take away more than anything is how great the people are. I think the sky’s the limit for PNW,” Huizenga said.

In his spare time, Huizenga enjoys running and has completed multiple half-marathons and marathons as well as several 5k and 10k runs.

“I’ve been running for about 10 years and it just kind of stuck. It’s a fun way to unwind for me,” Huizenga said.

He said that ironically, his work in athletics makes it hard for him to follow college sports and he has never been a follower of professional athletics. However, the one team he follows is the New Orleans Saints.

“Over the years, that’s the only team I’ve stuck with. Outside of everything that happens or where I’m at, I make time to know what’s going on with them. When I came to PNW and realized the colors were black and gold, I knew it would be easy for me to go with,” Huizenga said.