Michael Abdella is in his seventh year as the assistant athletic director for strategic communications at St. Olaf in 2024-25.
Abdella is responsible for all aspects of athletic communications and media relations for St. Olaf's 26 varsity sports, including maintaining the athletics website and helping produce content for and managing the department's social media accounts. He also oversees student workers who compile statistics at home athletic contests and partners with St. Olaf's Broadcast/Media Services team on the department's live-streaming platform.
In June 2024, Abdella's recap of
St. Olaf's first men's soccer national championship was named a co-winner in the Event Coverage - College Division category of the
2023-24 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest.
A 2013 graduate of St. Olaf, Abdella returned to the Hill after serving as the assistant director of athletic communications at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. for two-and-a-half years from 2016-18. At Saint Anselm, he was the primary contact for 11 of the college's 20 NCAA Division II sports, working with men's and women's soccer, volleyball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's ice hockey, men's and women's skiing, softball and women's lacrosse.
During his two-plus years at Saint Anselm, Abdella was responsible for all communications efforts for his assigned sports and assisted with coverage of the remaining nine teams. Abdella's responsibilities included maintaining the department's website, writing press releases, compiling statistics, assisting with game management, overseeing the department's video streaming efforts, and managing the department's social media accounts.
Before Saint Anselm, Abdella served as the sports information graduate assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for two-and-a-half years, assisting with coverage of 20 NCAA Division III teams, including the 2015 national champion men's basketball team.
He started his athletic communications experience as an undergraduate student worker at St. Olaf. Abdella graduated with a bachelor's degree in American studies and concentrations in media studies and statistics and completed his Master's degree in communication from UW-Stevens Point in May 2017.
Abdella is a member of College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) and resides in Northfield.
