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The Daily Tar Heel

3:10 p.m.
Sports Information Office

Tucked away beneath the Dean Smith Center in the Sports Information Office is Kevin Best, assistant athletic communications director.

He and five other UNC athletics officials and student assistants are busy compiling information from Saturday’s game win over N.C. State.

Best’s task at hand is to prepare information for Bunting’s 5 p.m. teleconference. The process involves sorting through and updating player statistics, gathering newspaper clips about Saturday’s game, and preparing a list of reporters and their questions for Bunting to address in the conference.

“It just takes time,” Best says, as he continues to sift through lists of statistics, circling numbers and highlighting players’ names.

Best works a hectic schedule. During the football season, when he has to prepare for numerous press conferences and arrange food orders for the players on Tuesday nights, it is not unusual for him to work 13-hour days.

Much of his schedule is devoted to the creation of the game’s program. Best is responsible for writing “Today’s Game,” one of six features included in the program, and he also edits the entire publication.

“Some of the stuff in the program never changes,” he says. “But there are roster changes, so we have to update that. And the features change each game,” Best says.

The phone rings. Best casually brushes aside the stacks of graphs, press releases and game programs that have gathered in a pile on his desk to answer it. On the line is a reporter of The Chapel Hill News calling to clarify some statistics and changes in information.

Listening to Best answer the phone call, it is obvious that he is a man who wastes no time. Each response consists of quick “yes” or “no” answers. And as soon as it ends, Best is back to work.

Pulling a stack of paperwork from an overhead cabinet, Best casually nods toward the phone.

“Somebody has to coordinate and run (the press for football) — that’s what I do,” he says.

Go to Monday…

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