With the departure of Thad Angelloz as Sports Information Director for Women’s Athletics in June, the Nicholls athletic department had little time to find a replacement before the start of the 2006-2007 athletic seasons. Nicholls hired recent University of New Orleans graduate Brandon Rizzuto as Angelloz’s replacement and gave him a new title, director of media relations for athletics.

As a freshman at UNO, Rizzuto became friends with the former UNO Associate Athletic Director Ken Trahan, who gave him opportunities for work at the school.

“I got immediately involved with sports at UNO and did whatever they asked me to do,” Rizzuto said.

With Trahan, Rizzuto began working at WGSO 990 AM where he produced the “Three Tailgaters Show” and the “Friday Night Football Report,” in addition to working at Cox Sports Television as a feature reporter for the “Monte Towe Show.”

“Every year I did more and more because I wanted to get as much experience as possible,” Rizzuto said. “The more work I did, the more I knew the work would pay off in the future.”

Rizzuto earned his degree in broadcasting, but after an interview with a television employer, he changed his mind and decided to take a different route.

“I wasn’t going to move halfway across the world for nothing, so I knew that I could go into sports information and be good at it right away,” Rizzuto said.

Rizzuto will be the contact not only for football, but also for men’s basketball, softball and men’s and women’s golf and tennis. He said the athletic department’s staff and coaches have done everything to make him feel at home.

“After my first interview and tour of the campus, I could feel that Nicholls was a place anybody could call home,” he said. “Rob, the coaches, everyone in the office has been nothing but accommodating.”

Along with learning the daily responsibilities of his position, one of Rizzuto’s main goals is to bring Nicholls athletics to the forefront of the New Orleans media. With his background in radio and television in the New Orleans area, Rizzuto hopes to use his resources to give as much exposure to the Colonels as possible.

“We’re only an hour away from New Orleans, and I feel that it’s my job to make sure that we get our programs to them,” Rizzuto said. “The easy thing about my job is that we have winning programs, and I get to promote that to these media outlets.