Grills Named Irving T. Marsh Award Recipient
From a Smith College release

Northampton, MA: The Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors Association (ECAC-SIDA) has announced that Carole Grills of Smith College is the 2006 recipient of the prestigious Irving T. Marsh Award recognizing dedication, contribution and excellence in the field of collegiate sports information and media relations. The first woman in New England in the college division to receive this award, Grills also celebrates her silver anniversary this year as the college’s Sports Information Director. First presented in 1966, the award is named after Irving T. Marsh, the ECAC Service Bureau founder and director until his retirement in 1973.

During her tenure at Smith, Grills has captured eight COSIDA Citations for Excellence in Publications including five for “Best in the Nation”. In 1986, Grills hosted the first round and quarterfinals of the first NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Championship and in 1988, 1990 and 1996, the Men’s and Women’s Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships. She has also hosted over 50 ECAC, NEWMAC, Seven Sisters, MAIAW and New England championships. In her time at Smith, her teams and athletes have made twenty-six NCAA national appearances, including three individual national champions, and over 63 of her athletes have received All American honors. Grills has had two state winners in the NCAA Woman of the Year program and she has celebrated with eight athletes as they hit their 1,000th career point in basketball.

Grills has also received accolades for committee work over the years. She served on the 90th Anniversary of Women’s Basketball committee in 1993 and coordinated the festivities at Smith that received national coverage including the reenactment of the first game played at Smith in 1893. She served on this committee again in 2003 when Smith celebrated the 100th anniversary. As Smith College was a founding member of the Seven Sisters Championships and the NEW 6 (now NEWMAC) conference, Grills was a representative who attended the inaugural meetings. During the first three years of the NEW 6, she served as the conference statistical keeper in the sport of basketball. She also compiled the minutes from the first four years of all the NEW 6 meetings and wrote the first policies and procedures handbook for the conference in addition to serving as the NEW 6 treasurer. Grills also volunteered for many years in the media room during the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Tip-Off games.

She is one of the original members of the Athletic Department and is the only full-time SID the college has had. In addition to serving the media needs of fourteen varsity teams, she has also performed numerous administrative duties including serving as the liaison between the Athletic Department and the Office of Admissions and administering the eligibility of student athletes.

Grills, who will receive the award at the ESPN Awards Dinner at the ECAC-SIDA’s 51st annual conference in June, is the mother of two daughters and has one grandson. Both of her daughters are graduates of Smith who went on to pursue graduate degrees. Jennifer received a law degree from Villanova and Amie a doctorate in Clinical Child Psychology from Virgina Tech.