Brendan Payne begins his first year at West Point as an assistant in Army's Office of Media Relations. At Army, Payne's main responsibilities will include handling the daily media relations' duties of Army's men's soccer team, men's and women's tennis squads and men's and women's swimming and diving programs. In addition, Payne will assist with game day operations for Army's celebrated football program and serve on the statistics crew for the ice hockey team.

Payne, 23, graduated cum laude from Springfield (Mass.) College in May of 2004 with a bachelor's degree in sports management. Prior to coming to West Point, Payne completed a six-month internship with the United States Olympic Committee's Media Relations Department in Colorado Springs, Colo. During his stint with the USOC, Payne wrote feature articles for Olympic Beat magazine, supervised USOC "Athlete of the Month" Award tabulation and edited a weekly round-up release. He also assisted in the preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece.

Payne, who hails from Springfield, Mass., served for two years as a student assistant in the Springfield College Sports Communications office under Sports Information Director John White.

Payne currently resides at West Point, N.Y.