June 17, 2025
HELENA, Mont. – The Frontier Conference announced their 2024-25 annual athletics awards Tuesday. The conference annual awards included Athletics Director of the Year, Faculty Athletics Representative of the Year, Head Athletic Trainer of the Year, and Assistant Athletic Trainer of the Year awards.
Athletics Director of the Year – Matt Stepan (Montana Tech)
Stepan guided Montana Tech’s athletics programs to their third consecutive Frontier Conference Brandy Award (all-sports trophy). The Orediggers collected four Frontier team conference championships (including the postseason tournament champion in men's basketball), and five sports programs advanced to the NAIA national postseason. MT accumulated 65 Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes during the 2024-25 academic season.
Montana Tech also was awarded as the host site for the 2026 and 2027 Frontier Conference Basketball Tournaments.
Stepan served as the Frontier Conference Chair for the Council of Athletics Director. He also served as the Frontier Conference Football Chair, and FC representative on both the National Administrative Council and the NAIA-ADA.
Faculty Athletics Representative of the Year – Jim Croft (Providence)
Croft, a proud Argo alum, joined the University of Providence in 1995. He has served as the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) to the NAIA on behalf of all Argo athletes since 2012. He has also been web streaming games for the athletic department since 2002.
His research focuses on network engineering and operating systems, and the implications for implementing technology in automotive industry and athletics. Croft also teaches computer science and is a Microsoft-certified professional and trainer, as well as a systems administrator and engineer.
Sports Information Director of the Year – Brandon Stinson (Rocky Mountain)
Stinson completed his third season as sports information director at Rocky Mountain. He is the primary contact for all 15 RMC sports, including the roles of video streaming, social media management, website management, ticketing, head statistician, graphic design, gameday management, and photography.
Rocky Mountain athletics launched their YouTube channel, which grew over 1.6K subscribers in the first year. He created the ‘Bear Bites’ series, a student-athlete-led interview series that highlights Rocky’s ‘Athlete-of-the-Week.’
He was the sports information liaison when Rocky Mountain hosted the Frontier Conference Cross Country Championships and attended conference tournaments. He is an active member of the College Sports Communicators and NAIA-SIDA. Stinson serves on the NAIA-SIDA Publications committee.
He served as the FC voting member for the NAIA National Players-of-the-Week in cross country, track and field, and men’s basketball. He is the co-chair of the SID Advisory Committee.
Stinson served as the interim Frontier Conference Director of Communications this past fall.
He is a Montana State University graduate and received his master’s degree in sports and athletic administration from Gonzaga during his first year at Rocky Mountain.
Head Athletic Trainer of the Year – Trey Vincent (Montana Tech)
Vincent, a native of Helena, serves on the Frontier Conference representative on the NAIA’s Athletic Training Association Board. His primary sports at Montana Tech are women’s volleyball, men’s basketball, and track & field.
He graduated from Wisconsin-Oshkosh with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology-athletic training. He continued his education at Central Washington University with a master’s degree in integrative human physiology and joined Montana Tech in June 2019.
Assistant Athletic Trainer of the Year – Courtney Hicks (Providence)
Hicks, a native of Missoula, joined the UP athletics department in 2011. This past season, she worked with men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, golf, cross country, and track & field programs.
Hicks has covered every sport in her time at Providence. After being short an athletic trainer since October, she was tasked with covering the Argos’ sports programs.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in athletic training at the University of Montana, as well as a Master of Science in Organizational Management from the University of Great Falls. She enjoys hiking, watching movies, playing tennis, visiting friends and family, trying new restaurants, and reading.