Sept. 15, 2017
THE FLATS – The Georgia Tech Athletics Association has promoted longtime staff members Andy Blanton and Todd McCarthy and added John D. Tweedy to assistant athletics director positions, the GTAA announced on Friday. Blanton was promoted to assistant athletics director for video and broadcast services, McCarthy was named assistant athletics director for sports video services and Tweedy joined the Georgia Tech staff as assistant athletics director for facilities, operations and events.
Blanton has been a member of the Georgia Tech athletics staff for 16 years, joining the Yellow Jackets in 2001 as director of video services. In his role, Blanton is responsible for the video and audio operations for every athletics venue on Tech’s campus, as well as overseeing the broadcast production for live events and in-house videoboard feeds. In addition to his long-standing responsibilities, Blanton also serves as Georgia Tech’s liaison to the ACC Network, including overseeing the construction of on-campus facilities to support the launch of the linear network in 2019.
Prior to his arrival on The Flats, Blanton produced local programming for Charter Communications in Spartanburg, S.C. and directed in-venue video operations for the East Coast Hockey League’s Greenville Grrrowl at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C.
A member of the Georgia Tech staff since 1998, McCarthy oversees the Yellow Jackets’ team video services, including responsibility over all practice, game and opponents’ video for the football coaching staff. McCarthy is a five-time ACC Video Director of the Year (2001, 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010) and, under his direction, Georgia Tech’s video department received a 2005 SAVVY Award from the Collegiate Sports Video Association for the nation’s top highlight video.
Before coming to Georgia Tech, McCarthy spent two years as director of sports video at Pittsburgh (1996-98), three years in the same capacity at Richmond (1993-96) and two years as a sports videographer/editor at WRIC-TV (ABC — Richmond, Va.). He holds a bachelor’s degree from VCU (1992).
“These are well-deserved promotions for two members of our staff that have done a lot for Georgia Tech athletics for many years,” deputy athletics director Mark Rountree said. “Andy’s and Todd’s talent and experience will be vital as we continue to expand our video operations in order to better tell our story and define our brand.”
Tweedy comes to The Flats after spending the past two years as the director of event management at the University of Minnesota. In that role, he served as the primary game administrator for football and men’s basketball and was also responsible for planning and oversight of other large scale events held in Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium, including the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings (2015-16), MLS’s Minnesota United (2017), NHL Stadium Series game between the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks (2016) and the Beyonce’ Formation Tour (2016). He also represented Minnesota as tournament director for all Big Ten, Western Collegiate Hockey Association and NCAA championship events held in the Twin Cities.
Prior to his two-year stint at Minnesota, Tweedy also served as director of athletic operations and events at Akron (2014-2015), assistant director of event operations at UCF (2012-14) and operations coordinator at Georgia State (2010-12), as well as completing an internship with the Atlanta Falcons (2010-11). An Augusta, Ga. native, he earned a B.S. in sport management from Georgia Southern (2009) and an M.S. in sport administration from Georgia State (2011). He began his collegiate career as a track and field student-athlete at the University of Memphis before transferring to Georgia Southern.
“John’s experience in a leadership role and as the primary manager for a wide variety of internal and external events aligns perfectly with what we envisioned for this position,” associate athletics director for facilities, operations and events Derek Grice said. “His expertise will be a great asset as we strive to continue to make all of the events that we host a first-class experience for student-athletes and fans.”
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