Tuesday, October 6, Corvallis, Ore. – For the first time in Club history, the Staff Member of the Year is being awarded to a group, not just an individual. The Corvallis Knights social media internship team has been named the 2026 Staff Members of the Year, as voted on by the team’s front office. The social media team consisted of Oregon State’s Faith Nashif, Taylor Bennett and Maggie Hobart, Liberty University’s Paige Doerr, and University of Oregon’s Hailey Loupe.
The fivesome helped bring the team’s online presence to a new level. Engagement skyrocketed across all major platforms – Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok. TikTok saw the largest jump, with a 126.1% increase in viewers.
The team was responsible for pregame, in-game, postgame, promotional and marketing content across all four platforms, including non-gameday posts. Frequency was at an all-time high, and fans and players raved about the quality – as evidenced by engagement levels, highlighted by the TikTok viewer jump, a 66.3% jump in Facebook engagement, and 18.3% and 17.6% increases in Instagram and TikTok followers, respectively.
“Online engagement was an area we felt we could really grow this last summer. We brought on a larger social team than we have in past years, and the dividends paid off immediately,” said Knights general manager Heather O’Malley. “They were engaged and active from day one. They didn’t wait for direction – they took charge of the posting schedule and took pride in the quality of their work. The social media team was a huge success for us, and we are grateful for their contributions. They’ve set a high bar for future Knights.”
The enhanced online presence also helped spurn a dramatic increase in YouTube livestream viewership. Online viewers jumped by 60.2%, the largest season-over-season bump since the Club began offering a livestream for the 2018 season.
Hobart, a native of Colorado, graduated this past spring. Nashif and Bennett parlayed their experience with the Knights into similar social media roles with Oregon State Baseball for the upcoming season. Doerr, daughter of former Knights player and OSU pitching coach Rich Dorman, will finish up her final year of eligibility with Liberty softball next spring. And Loupe, a mid-season addition to the socials team, heads back to Oregon for her senior year as a member of the UO Dance Team.
“We’re very excited to watch these young professionals continue to grow.,” said director of operations Derek Buchheit, the team’s internship program manager. “As a front office we learned a lot from these students. They really knew their stuff and we are tremendously proud of the work they did this past season. We’re very boastful that previous Knights interns have gone on to manage the social medias for the Portland Thorns and Timbers, and George Fox athletics. We expect to do the same for all five of these young women someday.”
Aside from social media content, all members of the team assisted in other aspects of gameday operations, including on-field promotions, group outing hospitality, and box office sales. The dynamic ability of each was paramount to the team’s overall operational success.
“Juggling real-time posting responsibilities alongside general operational duties is not an easy thing to do,” said Buchheit. “We had a competitive hiring process, and expected a lot from this team, not just on the social media side but also on the ops side. They did not disappoint.”
The organization’s Staff Member of the Year Award is one of the club’s highest honors. Previous winners were Sue WHATSHERNAME (2025), Amanda Knight (2024), Connor Heath (2023), the late Jennifer Beaumont (2021), Derek Buchheit (2020 & 2022), Sarah Hoechlin (2019), Nicole Schroeder (2018), Jared Carr (2017), Melissa Sullivan (2016), Anna Seydel (2015), Brooks Hatch (2014), Lil’ K and Mack the Knight (2013), Jeremy Ainsworth (2012), Bre Miller (2011), Doug Blair (2010), Brian Brooks (2009), Stro Strohmeyer (2008) and Holly Jones (2007).
This past summer, the Knights earned a playoff berth for a 19th consecutive season advancing all the way to the WCL championship game at Wenatchee. The hometown team opens its 2027 campaign with its popular 14th annual Science, Engineering & Art Day game at Goss Stadium on Tuesday, May 25.