By TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Layne Weitzel has joined the Tennessee Tech University athletics staff as a sports information coordinator. She will handle communications efforts for the Golden Eagle women's basketball, volleyball, cross country and women's track & field teams.
"Our staff is elated to welcome Layne to Tennessee Tech and the sports information department," TTU sports information director Mike Lehman said. "She brings with her a vast array of skills that are sure to grow here at Tech. We are excited to add her many talents and strong work ethic to the mix in the Tech family."
Weitzel comes to Tech after a yearlong communications internship at the University of Florida in 2016-17, serving as the primary media contact for swimming & diving and assisting with football and men's basketball. For swimming & diving, she chronicled a season during which the Gator men won a fifth-straight Southeastern Conference championship, finished third at the NCAA Championships and captured four individual national titles.
Weitzel worked alongside a number of accomplished Gator student-athletes and coaches, including Gregg Troy, longtime Florida head coach and six-time Olympic coach, and Caeleb Dressel, two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time NCAA champion, as well as others across the Florida program. She also helped publicize the 15 current and former Gator swimmers at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, some of which were multi-time U.S. Olympians, including Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer and Elizabeth Beisel.
Prior to her internship with the Gators, Weitzel served as a communications student volunteer for two years, assisting with all sports at Florida and various NCAA postseason events. She also previously interned in the communications department at the Florida High School Athletic Association and covered the men's golf beat for The Independent Florida Alligator, UF's student newspaper.
Weitzel has grown up around high-level athletics, competing as an all-area athlete in Gainesville, Florida, in soccer and lacrosse and also running cross country. Her father, Brad Weitzel, is entering his 11th season as an assistant coach for the 2017 national champion Florida baseball program. The elder Weitzel, who played infield for the Georgia Bulldogs in the early '80s, worked as a Florida area scout for the Minnesota Twins for 16 years prior to arriving at UF and also made coaching stops at the University of North Florida, Palm Beach State College, the New York-Penn League and the Twins' instructional leagues. Layne's twin brother, Lucas, currently works in Florida's strength and conditioning department and has helped train Olympians and national and SEC champions in volleyball, track & field and swimming & diving. He also holds the National Federation of State High School Associations hit-by-pitch record (71), which he set while playing baseball at Oak Hall School.
A Florida native, Weitzel graduated cum laude from the University of Florida in April 2016 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She is working on becoming a "double Gator," pursuing a social media graduate certificate from UF's College of Journalism and Communications.
