Jeff Honza is in his 17th year at Southeast Missouri. Honza was named Associate Director of Athletics for Strategic Communications on Oct. 1, 2022 after spending four years as Assistant Director of Athletics.
Honza, who officially began his duties at SEMO on July 1, 2009, serves as the sport administrator for softball in addition to enhancing opportunities for strategic exposure through video, digital, print and social media platforms. Honza leads the public relations and coverage efforts for the Redhawks 15 intercollegiate athletic programs and is the primary contact for football, men's basketball and softball, while overseeing ESPN+ productions, instant replay and the day-to-day administration of SEMO's Strategic Communications Department.
A native of Wooster, Ohio, Honza was responsible for the overhaul of the Athletic Department's new website, SEMORedhawks.com (formerly GoSoutheast.com), launched with Sidearm Sports on June 3, 2011. He established a partnership with StatBroadcast, the first exclusive live stats platform for SEMO Athletics. Honza is the liaison between the Department of Athletics and the media on a local and national level, coordinating and providing media information for all of the Redhawks sports. He helped create a full-time Coordinator of Creative Media position that was added to the athletics staff on Sept. 1, 2018. Honza handled all the coverage during SEMO's historic 2010, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2024 football seasons which culminated in four Ohio Valley Conference-Big South titles and five NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoff berths. He led the coverage efforts for SEMO's 2022-23 men's basketball team which won the OVC Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over two decades and the 2024-25 squad which won the first outright OVC regular-championship in program history.
Honza is in charge of coordinating statistics management at all home athletic events, distributing press releases and supporting the Department of Athletics via external media relations. He helps coordinate video material for the Department of Athletics, supervises instant replay for football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball, and facilitates weekly radio productions for football and basketball. Additionally, Honza chairs the SEMO Athletics Hall of Fame Committee.
Prior to SEMO, Honza spent nine years as Associate Director of Media Services at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. While at SIU, Honza was the primary football contact for three years, handling all the publicity for three-straight NCAA Playoff teams (2006, 2007, 2008). He also served as the primary baseball contact for seven seasons.
Before that, he completed sports information internships at SIU, the University of Minnesota and Florida Southern College.
Honza has earned nine College Sports Communicators (CSC) Citations for Excellence in Publications, Creative and Digital Design. His 2015 and 2020 SEMO Football guides were voted "Best in the Nation" in the FCS. His 2019 Softball Media Guide was second in the nation. His 2011 SEMO Soccer Guide was selected third in the nation and his 2019 (fourth in the nation) and 2023 (eighth in the nation) SEMO Football Game Notes received national recognition. In addition, Honza's 2020 SEMO Men's Basketball, Baseball and Softball guides all rated third nationally. He was twice named SIU Athletics Employee of the Month and earned that same recognition at SEMO in January, 2013.
Honza is a member of College Sports Communicators and the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Ashland University (Ohio), where he majored in Sports Communication. He and his wife, Sarah, reside in Cape Girardeau and have a son, Ben, and daughter, Alaina.
