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As a native Atlanta, Georgian, and the third son of two University of Florida graduates, I was engulfed in the world of sport. When I was very young and not able to participate in sports quite yet, I always found myself watching my two older brothers participate in little league, cheering on my father in his hockey league, attending my local high school’s Friday night football game, making the drive down 400-South to watch my beloved Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Falcons or traveling to “The Swamp” every Fall to cheer on my parent’s alma mater. 

 

Life moved ever so quickly and it became time to apply to colleges. My soul was set on the Orange and Blue that drapes over Gainesville, FL., but my fate quickly changed. I was not a candidate for the University of Florida thus paving the way for me to become a student at the University of Alabama. Since a young age, sport and Southeastern Conference football has reigned supreme over all else in my house. I was just three years old when I put on my first pair of cleats and ran onto a soccer field and quickly came to the realization I loved sports, but soccer was not for me. From roughly five-years-old up until my junior of high school, I participated in a variety of sports including football, hockey, basketball and baseball. My one true love was the latter. Being on top of a pitching mound throwing no-hitters was some of the best moments of my life.

 

Unfortunately, my competitive playing years ended due to a shoulder injury, which resulted in surgery the Winter before my senior year of college. Being that competitive baseball was no longer in my future, I began to use past experiences, lessons and insightfulness to pursue the other side of sport, from a sports reporter perspective. I have come a long way since being the sports editor for my high school’s newspaper carrying out interviews with my friends, mostly to get them out of class for a minute or two.

 

Many years and experiences later I am receiving a Bachelor of Arts Communication with a focus on News/Sports Media from the University of Alabama and have a plethora of experience in many different news fronts.  

 

Among the many opportunities that that I have been a part of over the last few years, there is one lesson that stands out above the rest and that is nothing can replicate the real-world experience in the field and in newsrooms. Since the Summer of 2020, I have held several internships within sport industry. At this early point in my career, I feel fortunate to have the experience of developing intriguing articles about young prep athletes for Perfect Game Baseball, humbled by following the University of Alabama Women’s Softball team all the way to the Softball World Series as their beat writer for Gannett’s Tuscaloosa News. Additionally, I am proud of my experience in publishing articles about star professional athletes for the Atlanta Falcons Training Camp Guide at Score Atlanta, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. In all, I have covered Tuscaloosa-area high school sports including basketball, football and softball, contributed to Alabama basketball NCAA tournament coverage and Alabama football pro-day/A-day. In the summer of 2021, I contributed to the North Georgia Football Friday preview and several other pieces.

 

As a result of these opportunities, I have been published on the front page of the Tuscaloosa News as well as featured in several other pieces in the sports section. I also have bylines in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo Sports and several other publications.

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The people that I have worked with describe me as hard-working, dead-line oriented and one that is willing to take on a leadership role. In addition to my experiences, I have full understanding of social media and the value of promoting content. I have experience with camera shots, cutting and editing b-roll/interviews, compiling into Soundbites, voice overs, news packages and teases. I also have knowledge on how to write scripts for news packages for the directors and production rooms.

 

Note to aspiring journalist

Get yourself in the real world and cover as many sports as you can whether that be local high schools or covering a team at a university. Evan Grant (Texas Rangers beat writer) urged me to put myself out there and gain real-world experience and it is the best advice I have received to this day.