Tarleton State University Athletics

Entering 2025-26, Jake Withee will begin his third season as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Communications. He was elevated to that position in June 2023 after spending his first two years at Tarleton State serving as Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations, starting July 2021.
 
In his role, Withee oversees multiple divisions of the athletics department, including Media Relations, Marketing and Fan Engagement, Creative Services, and Video Productions. He also serves as the sports information primary contact for he football and beach volleyball programs.
 
From 2021-23, Withee was the head of the sports information track, and the primary contact for football, women’s basketball, women’s tennis, men’s golf and women’s golf. He oversaw sports information efforts across all other programs and assisted in game day operations across all sports.
 
The 2025-26 season will mark Withee’s 12th year in sports communications. Prior to Tarleton State, Withee spent seven years with the Phoenix Suns organization beginning in 2014, working with the NBA’s Suns, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, and the NBA G League’s Northern Arizona Suns in basketball communications. The last four years of his tenue there, Withee was the head of PR for the Northern Arizona Suns, serving as Manager of Communications for the club, with roles in media relations, public relations, content creation, game operations and community relations. Besides working hundreds of NBA, WNBA and NBA G League home and road games, Withee has worked special events like the NBA Finals, the NBA Draft and the NBA Lottery.
 
Withee also spent years working as a media member, most notably as a News and Sports Web Content Editor for KTAR.com and ArizonaSports.com as part of Bonneville Media, one of the largest sources of news and content in Arizona. Additionally, he helped cover the San Diego Padres during spring training for the San Diego Union-Tribune and has had stories published in several Phoenix-area news outlets.
 
A Rifle, Colorado, native, Withee received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University in 2016, while also earning a minor in criminal justice. He and his wife, Whitney, were married in 2018. They have two children, Owen and Sawyer.