Ben Rikard, who is in his 18th year in intercollegiate athletics, is in his second stint at Sam Houston and serves as the Director of Athletics Media. He returned to SHSU in October of 2023 after spending a year at Texas A&M as the primary contact for Aggie Baseball and secondary contact for Aggie Football, which came after nearly seven years as the Assistant AD for Media Relations at Sam Houston from 2016 to 2023.
In his position, Rikard oversees the athletics media staff under the umbrella of Integrated Marketing & Communications. He oversees the maintenance of the athletic department's web site and official statistics crews, in addition to all media relations efforts. He was instrumental in the implementation of Sam Houston's rebrand in 2019, along with a number of other responsibilities.
A native of Fairfield, Texas, Rikard is no stranger to the area or athletic departments in the region. He came to Huntsville after a year-long stint at UT Arlington, which came after stops with the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns and as Director of Media Relations at Texas A&M-Commerce.
He also spent six years early in his career at his alma mater, Stephen F. Austin, covering nearly every Lumberjack sport in his tenure. That included all six seasons covering baseball and volleyball in addition to men’s basketball for both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.
A 2006 graduate of SFA, Rikard earned a bachelor's degree in communications, concentrating in radio/TV with a minor in journalism. He then started his career in media relations with a year-long internship at North Texas following graduation before returning to Nacogdoches.
In addition to his media relations duties at SFA, he served for two seasons as the play-by-play voice for Lumberjack baseball, while also serving in the same capacity for men's and women's basketball when needed.
He left SFA in June of 2013 and went to Texas A&M-Commerce where he took over the athletics communications office for Lion Athletics before returning to Division I a year later with the Ragin' Cajuns where he was the primary contact for men’s basketball, working with former Bearkat head coach Bob Marlin.
Rikard was instrumental in the implementation of social media platforms at SFA Athletics and also had a hand in instituting several marketing plans that directly utilized newly-formed platforms on both Facebook and Twitter. His tenure at Sam Houston has included similar responsibilities, overseeing an overhaul of GoBearkats.com and it's transition from NeuLion to Sidearm, in addition to bringing back to life a number of social media accounts across Bearkat Athletics which had become dormant.
After receiving a promotion at SFA following the 2010-11 athletic year he took over direct coverage for the men's basketball team and was there every step of the way as the Lumberjacks worked their way to a 2013 Southland Conference title and a berth in the NIT. The ‘Jacks set a then-school record with five games aired on television, including a Bracket Busters win on ESPNU over Long Beach State and SFA's NIT game at Stanford.
He has been a baseball contact for 11 years at both SFA and Sam Houston, and has been fortunate to be a part of the complete college careers of a three first-round MLB Draft picks. In 2013 at SFA he handled the year-long promotion of the No. 8 pick in the MLB Draft – Hunter Dozier – in a year that saw him earn multiple all-America honors on his way to becoming the highest draft pick in Southland Conference history. Less than a decade later at Sam Houston he was on hand when Colton Cowser went No. 5 overall to Baltimore Orioles in 2021, and then headed up the promotion of Walker Janek to win the Buster Posey Award before being selected No. 28 overall by the Houston Astros in 2024.
But the highlight of his Bearkat tenure came in May 2021 when the Sam Houston Bearkats claimed the 2020 FCS national championship, a title that Rikard was with every step of the way.
Additionally, Rikard has served on several official statistical crews, serving as the official scorer at the 2014 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament and multiple conference basketball tournaments around the state of Texas. He has also served on the statistics crew both the 2010, 2016 and 2019 FCS Championship games as well as the two Acvocare Texas Bowls, the Armed Forces Bowl, the Heart of Texas Bowl and the 2019 Stagg Bowl.
Rikard resides in Huntsville with his two dogs, Ally and Kayuh.
