Each Monday of the fall semester, we’ll be bringing you “Getting to Know Them” profiles on coaches, athletic administrators and athletic trainers at Slippery Rock to introduce you to the folks behind the scenes here at The Rock. For our final staff profile of the semester, we check in with director of athletic communication Jon Holtz.  

QUICK BIO
Holtz has been a member of Slippery Rock staff since 2009. Since taking over as director of the Athletic Communication Office in 2014, Holtz and his staff have been honored more than any other communication office in the nation with more than 100 national and regional awards for their work in publications, graphic design, writing, the website and as overall communications professionals. Holtz is a former student-athlete in the PSAC, having captained the track and field team at Mansfield University while working towards a degree in English. Mansfield honored Holtz in 2019 with its Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Holtz and his team are responsible for all content on the athletics website, the official social media outlets for Rock Athletics and for the operation of the Rock Athletics Digital Network and all of its broadcasts. The Athletic Communication Office is also responsible for nominating and campaigning for SRU student-athletes and coaches to be recognized with numerous significant national and regional awards.

IN HIS WORDS

Q: What’s the first concert you went to? What’s the most recent concert you went to?
A: The first concert I went to was Korn and Staind at what was then Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York. My friends and I were probably too young to be at a metal concert, but our parents got us seats in the nosebleed section and we had a blast. It started a stretch of attending A LOT of concerts in my late teens and early 20s. The most recent concert was an Andrew McMahon (Something Corporate, Jack’s Mannequin) acoustic show in December of 2019. 

Q: What was your first job growing up?
A: I worked at a Chinese restaurant in a mall when I was 15.

Q: What was your first car? What’s your dream car?
A: I bought my parents’ 1992 Chevy Corsica off of them when I was a senior in high school for about $500. It was not a nice car, but it got the job done and I was beyond appreciative of the opportunities it provided me. My dream car changes all the time but right now I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee and I really like it.

Q: When you go grocery shopping, are you the “Make a List” person or the “Just Wing It” person?
A: I was pretty firmly in the “just wing it” category for a long time, but my wife and I have a shared list app on our phones that we use that has made grocery shopping significantly easier and much more enjoyable.

Q: Tell us about your family.
A: I married my wife Andie on Slippery Rock’s campus in 2018. She works as a behavioral therapist just over the border in Ohio and does tremendous work on a daily basis to improve the lives of children with Autism and their families. She inspires me with her passionate approach to helping other people. My mom and sister live in the Finger Lakes region of New York. My mom is the strongest person I have ever met. She devotes her entire life to helping other people. She will turn 68 later this week and still works with dementia patients at a live-in facility. Fun fact – we actually have the same birthday. What a present I was. My little sister just got married this summer in a small, COVID-safe ceremony with friends and family. My dad was a tremendous father to me and my sister. He passed away in 2001 when I was a senior in high school. My love of sports can be traced back to him. 

Q: What meal/dish/item are you best at cooking? 
A: I’m pretty good with all things breakfast and make a really good omelet or breakfast sandwich. I actually enjoy cooking and really like spending time with my wife in the kitchen preparing meals.

Q: What artists and/or songs are on your current most-listened to playlist?
A: My musical preferences are all over the place. My favorite band of all-time is O.A.R. and they are the most significant for me because my wife and I have a long history of attending shows together. Our first date was an O.A.R. show. We got engaged the night of an O.A.R. show. And we celebrated our wedding by attending an O.A.R. show. Outside of them, I mostly listen to post-hardcore and other variants of punk music. You’ll find a lot of Senses Fail, Silverstein, and Andrew McMahon on my playlists, but also a lot of folk, americana and funk. One of my favorite lesser-known bands is a band called Lawrence. They mix in some brass and have some funky tunes that just put you in a good mood. 

Q: Are you a tech savvy person?
A: Yup. Kind of have to be to do what I do for a living. 

Q: Can you sing?
A: I used to be able to sing a little, but not really anymore. I can play the drums though. I’ve played in some pretty decent bands over the years.

Q: When did you know you wanted to go into a career in collegiate athletics?
A: When I started working in the Sports Information Office as a student at Mansfield. I was an athlete, but for most of my first year on campus I didn’t really understand what a sports information director did. I didn’t really know how information about our team was getting out. I started working in that office with sports information Hall of Famer Steve McCloskey. I fell in love with the profession and have been doing it since my junior year of college. I was lucky to have Steve as a mentor. He changed my life.

Q: Who is your hero? 
A: I worked at West Point covering Army athletics for one year. I got to see what real heroes look like so I don’t throw that word around lightly very often. I worked with a lot of heroes that put others way ahead of themselves in that one year, so it’s hard to give one name here. One person that stands out to me when I get this question is always a man named Andy Ferrara. He was a mid-distance runner on the Army track team. His older brother was killed in action while serving in the U.S. Army in 2007, but even after that tragedy, he chose to continue to follow in his brother’s footsteps and finish his education at West Point before embarking on a military career. He was just recently promoted to the rank of Major in the U.S. Army. One of my favorite memories from my career was getting to know and work with Andy and all of the cadets at West Point. You can’t understand the caliber of person that chooses to go to West Point until you get a chance to know them. I am forever grateful for that experience. Go Army! Beat Navy!

 Q: What is/would be your go-to karaoke song?
A: “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen.

Q: You can only eat one thing the rest of your life, what is it?
A: Probably pizza.

Q: What’s your favorite season/type of weather? Why?
A: Fall is definitely my favorite type of weather. I don’t like extreme heat and really can’t stand the snow. Summer is probably my favorite season though, because it’s really the only time of the year when my life slows down a little bit. We also get pretty good weather usually around here in the summer, so I play a ton of golf. 

Q: Describe your perfect day off.
A: At least 18 holes of golf with some friends. Pizza for lunch and spending the evening with my wife, preferably watching some kind of live music or sitting around a fire. 

Q: How do you relax?
A: After my collegiate running career ended, I picked up golfing. I thought golf was the most boring sport on the planet for most of my life until my early 20s, but it has become my favorite activity. I think it’s the hardest sport to be good at and especially the hardest to maintain your skills. I’ve gotten pretty good and usually shoot in the 70s. I joined a league here in Slippery Rock and met a good group of guys from the area. We play all over Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio for most of the year. I find being on the golf course to be the most relaxing thing I do.

Q: Sheetz or WaWa?
A: Sheetz.

Q: You could have dinner with three people living or dead, who would they be and why? 
A: My dad, mom and sister. There’s so much I’ve learned and been through since my dad passed and I think having a family dinner with all of us together again would be better than any other three people I could invite. If I could add a fourth, I would add my wife, because she never got to really meet my dad and I know she would love that chance. 

Q: Where is one place you haven’t visited yet, but you definitely plan to?
A: One day I hope to go to France and spend a week or so traveling around following the Tour de France through small mountain towns and villages. My wife and I have been talking about doing that since we met. She has been to France once and had a great experience. I am looking forward to going back with her sometime.

Q: What are some of your favorite or most memorable vacations?
A: I have some great memories from trips. My favorites are probably when I was younger and my family would take vacations. I didn’t get enough time with my dad, so our family vacations really stand out to me. I have vivid memories of trips to Cape Cod, Canada, Disney and plenty of sporting events. About five years ago, I went with the SRU cross country teams to Alaska for a few days and that was a ton of fun and the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Two of my best friends from college and I spent a weekend at the Little 500 cycling race in Bloomington, Indiana one year and that was one of the most fun trips I’ve ever been on. My wife and I went to Colorado last August to see O.A.R. at Red Rocks and that was a bucket list trip for us (we also watched the show with SRU track and field coach John Papa and his wife!). Just last summer, some of my friends that work in this same profession and I spent a week at a small lake near the Finger Lakes. We golfed, grilled, boated, floated and just had a tremendous stress-free week. 

Q: What’s the last TV show you binged watched?
A: I watched “Ted Lasso” on Apple TV+. Expected it to be slapstick like the commercials but was really impressed with it. 

Q: Is there a professor you had a class with in college that you still remember? Who and why?
A: My freshman year I was a math major, but I needed an English class for a general education credit. Most freshmen sign up for intro classes, but I already took those in high school. I signed up for a Shakespeare class, which ended up being a 400-level class with 15 English majors and me. Dr. Ed Washington called me aside after the first day to check to make sure I really wanted to take that challenge on. I did, and I fell in love with his teaching style and his enthusiasm. I switched my major to English the next year. 

Q: Cats or dogs?
A: Both.

Q: How many and what kind of pets do you have? How long have you had them?
A: We have a tuxedo cat named Bruiser that turned nine this summer and a Vizsla puppy named Kallea that is about five months old. 

Q: How did you decide on your pet names?
A: Our cat, Bruiser, was the biggest cat in her litter and would climb all over the rest of her litter mates when she was born, so she sort of named herself. Our dog, Kallea, is named after the Greek Goddess of goodness and beauty.

Q: What was the last app you downloaded on your phone? What is your most-used app?
A: The last app was the Masters Tournament app. Most-used is probably Twitter or Spotify.

Q: What’s one game show or reality show you could go on that you think you could win?
A: I do pretty well with random trivia, so I think my wife and I could do pretty well on “The Wall” with me answering the questions and her racking up money on the wall. 

Q: Retirement destination?
A: Somewhere near a lake and a couple nice golf courses. 

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