Salem native gets national award with Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The promotion of an outstanding volleyball team at the University of Notre Dame has earned Salem native Bo Rottenborn a national award in his seventh year with the school's sports information office.
Rottenborn, an assistant sports information director at Notre Dame since 2004 who is handling volleyball and men's and women's tennis, was one of three recipients of the first Recognition for Excellence in Supporting and Promoting Volleyball sponsored by CVU.com.
Also called the RESPecting Volleyball Award, the honor "is an effort to recognize those who work to further the sport of volleyball, especially at the collegiate level," said CVU.com.
CVU stands for College Volleyball Update.
The other two SIDs to win the award were Hofstra's Stephen Gorchov and Northern Colorado's Kyle Schwart.
Good promotion, good team
Rottenborn, a graduate of Salem High (1999) and Notre Dame (2003), believes that the high standards Notre Dame uses to promote all sports, coupled with the volleyball team's 30-4 record and No. 12 ranking, turned the national spotlight on the school's team and helped him to win the award.
The team also qualified for the NCAA Division I tournament and advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1997.
"We sort of have an expectation in our office of trying to promote every sports like it is football. Obviously there isn't as much attention on volleyball like in the main sports, but we tried to maintain a standard in the work we do," said Rottenborn, who spent all four years as an undergraduate working in the sports information office before joining the department after graduation as a sports information assistant for one year.
"My game notes on a weekly basis are very in-depth and I just try to be thorough and do the best job I can," he said. "I had an easy job this year because we had one of our best seasons. We had a great year and when that happens I had a lot to promote and it me it easier to do that stuff. The people in the volleyball subculture heard a lot about me.
"It was certainly an honor. I didn't know that there was an award like that."
Experience paid off
The son of Dr. Joe and Cindy Rottenborn of Salem, Rottenborn said the experience that he received while working in the sports information office during college paid off because, "I learned about this business and what it takes to do it."
Now in his third year promoting volleyball, he said he has learned a lot about the sport.
"I didn't know a lot but I learned to appreciate the sport and I have a pretty good understanding of it now," he said.
Besides volleyball and tennis, Rottenborn also is in his first year as the publicist and archivist for the Notre Dame Monogram Club. He said the club is "for former student-athletes in all sports. I put out a newsletter and and write for their Website."
Landon Olson of the CVU.com staff wrote that Rottenborn has excelled as a Notre Dame volleyball publicist "from fielding media requests and writing releases to traveling with the team."
Olson added that Rottenborn "excels in promoting volleyball at a school renowned for football. Rottenborn not only responds extremely well to media requests, but also sends out information quickly and thorough in its detail."
Bernie Cafarelli, Notre Dame's sports information director, called Rottenborn "one of the top young professionals in our business and we're very fortunate to have him here at Notre Dame.
Cafarelli lauded Rottenborn's dedication. "Bo is extremely popular with our coaches and players and they greatly appreciate all his hard work and effort throughout the school year. We, in our office, would be lost without him."