Saverino promoted to assistant athletic director

Southeast Missouri State director of athletics Mark Alnutt has announced the promotion of Nate Saverino to the newly created position of assistant director of athletics for external affairs.

Saverino, who earned both a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management (2008) and a Master of Arts in Higher Education (2010) at Southeast, has served as the Redhawks' coordinator of marketing and promotions since December, 2010.

"I am excited to promote Nate to his new role," Alnutt said in a release. "This is an important position for our organization. We'll have more of a concentrated effort in development and sponsorships. 

"Nate has done a tremendous job for us in these areas while balancing his current duties in marketing and promotions. I look forward to growing from an external standpoint and cultivating new relationships under Nate's leadership."

Saverino will continue overseeing Southeast's marketing department. His new responsibilities include securing corporate sponsorships, coordinating the department's fundraising and development initiatives, and developing ticket sales strategies. He will also oversee the department's trademark licensing, branding and outreach programs.

In his previous position, Saverino was responsible for all athletic marketing, promotions and ticket sale strategies. He oversaw the design and production of Southeast's printed materials, such as posters, schedules and camp brochures.

His other duties included securing corporate sponsorships, creating content for the Houck Stadium video scoreboard, producing public address scripts for home events, assisting the Redhawks Club in event planning and promoting, assisting with the Redhawks' social media outreach efforts and overseeing the university's athletic trademark licensing program. He also supervised Southeast's sports marketing student internship program.

Before returning to his alma mater, Saverino worked as an athletics marketing assistant at the University of Tulsa. Before that, he spent two years as Southeast's marketing graduate assistant.

Saverino's promotion is effective immediately and a search for a coordinator of marketing and promotions is under way.

Punter Vucic on watch list

Southeast punter Joe Vucic has been named to the College Football Performance Awards watch list for the organization's 2013 Punter Award.

The preliminary watch list highlights 32 returning performers vying for the top individual punter award in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Vucic ranked third in the Ohio Valley Conference and 20th in the nation with an average of 41.9 yards per punt as a junior in 2012. That average is 10th on Southeast's all-time single-season list.

Vucic ranked among the top three punters in the OVC each of the last two seasons and enters this year seventh in career punting yards at Southeast.

Academic All-American

Alex Zisser, a senior runner on Southeast's track and field and cross country teams, has been named a third-team Capital One Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Zisser, a psychology and history double major, maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA throughout his competitive career. He is a two-time member of the Capital One Academic All-District team, a three-time member of the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll and a four-time recipient of the Southeast Scholar-Athlete award.

The St. Louis, Mo., native completed his best cross country season this past fall, placing took 12th at the OVC meet to nab second-team all-OVC honors. He also placed fifth in the mile run and ran a leg on Southeast's third-place distance medley relay team at this year's OVC indoor track and field meet.

-- From staff reports