Mar Tsakonas is Penn State Scranton's Employee of the Month for December.
DUNMORE, Pa. — Penn State Scranton Chancellor Marwan Wafa has announced that Athletic Program Specialist and Athletics Head Softball Coach Mar Tsakonas is Employee of the Month for December.
In nominating her for this recognition, Matthew Nied, director of student services and engagement and interim athletics director, commended Tsakonas for her commitment to providing solid experiences for both students and athletes.
“Mar Tsakonas has been diligently working to coordinate and support numerous aspects of our recreational and student athletics’ experience," Nied wrote in his recommendation. "She has organized a robust schedule of intramural sport offerings engaging students, faculty and staff in fun (sometimes serious) competition. She is working to streamline game day operations for our varsity athletic competitions.”
Sara Rinkunas, assistant director of athletics, intramurals and recreation, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing Tsakonas’s engagement and dedication within the campus community, athletic staff and the PSUAC and USCAA conferences.
“Mar was reclassified as our athletic program specialist and has taken on responsibilities such as on-site event management and programming," Rinkunas wrote in her recommendation. "With 10 teams and 120 student-athletes in season during the fall months, Mar has balanced managing home events, coordinating travel for all teams and coaching her own softball team ... This fall especially, with weekends packed full of home events back-to-back (two soccer games from 12-4 p.m. followed by volleyball games 5-7 p.m.), Mar arrived early and stayed late to ensure the events were set up, ran smoothly and broken down. With limited student-staff available on many of these weekends (due to team travel) Mar did an awesome job of running the stat table, being the onsite game administrator. She handled officials, visiting teams and incidents that arose with professionalism ... This November, Mar coordinated our 7th Annual Basketball Tip Off Tournament which hosted 6 visiting non-conference teams. She ran everything from stats to scheduling games and awards as well as hospitality. The visiting teams always have great feedback, and the event brings in many potential prospects who are seeking to transfer from JUCOs. Mar, as a former student-athlete on campus, has a positive impact and special relationship with our community of student-athletes. She goes above and beyond to make games and events special and memorable for our students involved.”
Congratulations, Mar!
The Employee of the Month recognition was initiated in 2016 by Wafa as a way of distinguishing staff members who go “above and beyond the call of duty” in serving Penn State Scranton. Campus staff, faculty and students are encouraged to nominate staff members that deserve to be recognized for “going above and beyond.” The link for nominations can be found here.
