The man behind the keyboard
Growing up in a small town outside of Scranton, Pa., I was always involved in sports. I started playing basketball and golf when I was 7 years old. I fell in love playing these sports because they were fun and I was naturally good at them. When I wasn't playing on the court or the course, I was watching these and other sports on television. I would get up every morning before I left for school and watch ESPN's SportsCenter to check and see how my favorite teams and players performed in the most recent game or tournament.
I went to Sacred Heart High School in Carbondale, Pa., where I played on the varsity basketball and golf teams. During my sophomore year, I realized that I wanted to work in sports, but I knew my athletic ability wasn't going to take me to next level in sports. It wasn't until I received amazing grades in my English classes that I realized that writing was my strongest attribute. As a result, I found my calling in journalism.
After four years at Penn State, I graduated in May with a degree in journalism with an emphasis in sports journalism and a minor in philosophy. In addition to my degree, I have experienced the news field first hand through my stringing work at The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa., my internship at The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md., and my volunteer work at Voices of Central Pennsylvania in State College, Pa.
Currently, I am a sports reporting stringer for the The Times-Tribune. So far, I have mostly helped cover high school school football games on Friday nights. In addition, I have reported on other local sporting events such as the Steamtown Marathon, high school soccer, and amateur boxing.
At the Times, I worked as a sports writing intern during the summer of 2008. I reported on a wide variety of local and high school sports throughout the Eastern Shore area. Also, I covered game stories on the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Single A Baseball Affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. In my two months there, I wrote 40 sports stories on an average of three stories per week.
At Voices, I reported on news stories throughout the Centre County area, ranging from education to environmental issues. I wrote at least one story per monthly issue while contributing story ideas to weekly staff meetings.
My dream is to cover professional and college sports. However, I am willing to write regular news stories since they play important roles in our daily lives. Also, I am flexible to move to any part of the country. I hope that a newspaper will give me the chance to make a difference in the sports and news world.
