Nicholas Osterloo has spent a decade telling the stories of North Central College athletes.
At the College Sports Communicators Annual Convention, held June 7–10 in Las Vegas, the organization recognized Osterloo's work and his team with a stack of national honors.
Osterloo, NCC director of athletics communication, was formally presented with the NCAA Division III Sports Information Directors Association (D3SIDA) Region 5 Communicator of the Year award. The honor, first announced in August 2025, recognizes exceptional work in creative content, storytelling, and professional leadership.
The Cardinals' communications office also earned four district honors in the Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest, which drew nearly 500 submissions across seven categories.
Associate Director Taiah Gallisath won the District 5 College Division Season Recap/Preview category for her 2025–26 women's wrestling season preview. Graduate assistant Alex Mielcarz earned runner-up in the same category for his 2025 women's golf season preview.
Graduate student Rachel Balinao claimed runner-up in event coverage for her recap of the Cardinals' women's triathlon four-peat national championship, titled "Four-Peat Glory for North Central with Smeed's First National Crown."
Osterloo earned runner-up in the social justice/diversity category for his National Girls and Women in Sports Day feature.
Balinao's honored piece covered NCC's fourth consecutive USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championship, won Nov. 8, 2025, in Tempe, Arizona. Senior Bethany Smeed captured the individual national title that day with a time of 1:10:13, her first individual crown.
In the championship coverage, Smeed called the win "a dream come true" and "a perfect cherry on top for my collegiate career."
Beyond writing, junior videographer Justyn Ferrara earned 12 recognitions in the Creative and Digital Design Contest, which drew 2,565 submissions from 270 institutions.
His North Central football playoff hype video was named "Best of Division III" and "Best of Student Workers" in the hype/pre-game video category. Senior graphic designer Cassie Schneider's football "Fear the Bird" poster earned fifth in Division III and "Best of Student Workers" in the poster category.
Osterloo, an NCC alumnus who started as a student assistant in 2016, has worked with all 26 Cardinals athletic programs. Gallisath, also an NCC alumna, returned to Naperville ahead of the 2025–26 season as the first full-time female staff member in the athletics communication office after two years at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Both were named to the CSC 30 Under 30 Class of 2024 and served as roundtable presenters at the convention. Osterloo led a session on statistics; Gallisath presented on writing.
