Although he isn’t⁠—and never was⁠—an athlete, one University of Kentucky College of Communication and Information alumnus is proving that he’s still a vital part of a Pac-12 school’s athletic program.

Wilder Treadway, a 2014 integrated strategic communication graduate, has been part of Stanford University’s athletic communications team since late 2019. Having had the love of sports ingrained in him by UK Athletics like many other Lexingtonians, he’s now using his passion to aid student-athletes in California. 

“This was my way of being part of a high-level team without having to actually play,” Treadway said. “I’m as close to the team as I can be without having any skill.”

As the associate director of athletic communications at Stanford, Treadway serves as the primary contact for women’s basketball, women’s tennis and men’s water polo. He handles all aspects of the teams’ social media, press releases, photo and video content, media coordination, statistical and historical compilation, home event management and an ever-growing list of other responsibilities. Luckily for Treadway, his track record helped prepare him for his role today.

Before moving to the West Coast, Treadway racked up as much experience in sports as he could. He interned for Kentucky Sports Radio during the entirety of his undergraduate career, primarily writing about women’s basketball. Shortly after graduating, he served a year as the assistant director of media relations for the ASUN Conference, getting his first taste of the administrative, behind-the-scenes side of collegiate sports. He then went to the University of Pennsylvania to serve for three years as an athletic communications assistant and the associate director of athletic communications for a handful of Penn’s 33 varsity sports. 

“You thrive off the high energy and fast-paced work environments,” Treadway said. “I think if I was to just take a nine to five job and sit in an office or whatever, I wouldn’t be able to do that. At this point, I like how fast-paced things are, as challenging as it can be.”

Treadway’s life is now defined by that of the Stanford women’s basketball team. Not only is he the team’s external media entry point but he is also a member of the team’s travel party. Working alongside the players, coaches, director of operations, athletic trainer, strength coach and video coordinator, he serves as the team knowledge expert, live tweeting and taking photos while also ensuring media outlets gets the team’s story right.

Although he spends most of his time with the women’s basketball team, getting the story right for the women’s tennis and men’s water polo team is also part of his job. As the person charged with handling media, he makes it his mission to ensure all three teams’ social media accounts accurately reflect who they are as a team, which changes from year to year and personnel to personnel. The better the student-athletes and coaches understand his role, the more trust they put in him. And the trust between them, the better he can serve the teams.

“You don’t want to shortchange a team just because you’re not able to spend as much time with them,” Treadway said. “My thing is you always want to do right by the student athletes. I want the student athletes to feel like the accounts are representative of who they are and are striking the right tone, the right emotion, the captions are things they would say or they would relate to. That’s really important to me. I may be the one running it, but it should be reflective of who you are.”

Despite having been at Stanford for less than three years, he said he already feels like he’s at the pinnacle of sports and his job. Working for a school that has 36 competitive varsity sports teams, including the 2021 NCAA women's basketball champions, he’s often in disbelief at how far he’s come in his career. Although his job can sometimes get hectic, he said he’s “addicted to the chaos” and that the athletes he serves help keep him young—and he couldn’t imagine it any other way.

“When you feel like you’re doing right by the program, putting them in the best light possible, that’s just the most gratifying feeling,” Treadway said. “I care about these kids, I want them to succeed, I’m in it with them. I think that the more you’re able to show that to the student-athletes and the teams that you’re in it with them just as much as they’re in it, that’s an awesome feeling, and that’s something I didn’t have in my life prior to this.”