Josh Padilla - Sport Administrator (Secondary) & Communications - Baseball Support Staff

Josh Padilla

Title:
Sport Administrator (Secondary) & Communications
Email:
jpadill3@kent.edu

Josh Padilla became the assistant athletic director for communications at Kent State University in February 2025.

A native of Tampa, Florida, Padilla came to Kent State University after three and a half years at Florida A&M University (FAMU) as the associate athletics director for communications & digital strategies.

After three and a half years at Florida A&M, Padilla led the Rattlers’ communications and digital media department to new measures. Padilla has led the charge to successfully nominate 224 SWAC Player of the Week, 139 All-SWAC (First and Second Team) honorees, 21 individual SWAC awards, and campaigned for Isaiah Land to win the 2021 Buck Buchanan Award (FCS National Defensive Player of the Year), being the first Rattler to win the coveted award. Padilla continuously provided information on the Rattlers’ football program to the poll voters and playoff committee as the Rattlers earned four straight top-25 appearances and an at-large playoff bid for the first time in over 20 seasons in 2021. Padilla also served as a Stats Perform FCS Top 25, Walter Payton, Buck Buchanan, Jerry Rice, and Eddie Robinson Award voter in 2023 and 2024.

From a digital standpoint, Padilla has grown FAMU Athletics tremendously. Across all accounts, FAMU Athletics earned over 250 million impressions and 15 million engagements. The Rattlers ranked in the top 50 in total engagements, and the top 60 in followers gained on the main FAMU Athletics Instagram, being the only non-FBS school to achieve those feats.

Padilla also led the charge in redesigning famuathletics.com, launching their digital streaming platform Rattlers+, and introducing the department’s first mobile app. In three seasons (July 2021 - June 2024), famuathletics.com had 5 million sessions from 2.1 million users, increasing by more than 194% from the previous seasons (July 2018 - June 2021).

Padilla’s work led to him being named the 2023 Southwestern Athletic Conference SID of the Year and 2024 HBCU Sports SID of the Year.

While at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), Padilla oversaw the social media accounts for the main athletics and football pages and assisted in photography, website design, and more. When he took over the social media accounts, the athletics Instagram saw the 2nd largest growth in Conference USA. Football Instagram saw the largest increase in Conference USA, gaining over 15,000 followers, more than the total number of followers for seven other Conference USA schools.

Before arriving at MTSU, Padilla served as Florida International University’s men’s basketball assistant director of basketball operations. During his time at FIU, he assisted in the daily operations of the basketball program as he helped oversee an operating budget of $400,000, managed equipment inventory, assisted in team travel, assisted in volunteer coordination, organized team activities, and worked with departments within athletics.

Also, he served as an academic liaison for the student-athletes working with the Student-Athlete Academic Center and helped improve the program’s APR from 933 to the program’s best 978, 980, 980, and 981 from 2014-2018.

Padilla earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation and sport management from Florida International University in 2015.