Sports Anchor/Reporter
Anchor Reads
Being in studio for me was more enjoyable than doing something live in the field. There's a lot more control, so you can be a bit more eloquent with your word choice with a prompter in front of you. Anchoring is, in some ways, much easier than reporting. Here's a few different anchor reads from me. It's interesting to see how my confidence improved across my three stations.
2021 World Series Analysis
Most people, even if they weren't baseball fans, were more than aware of the Braves in 2021. Before the season got underway, MLB pulled the All-Star game out of Atlanta. The stars had aligned for Hank Aaron and Phil Niekro, both of whom died prior to the start of the season, to have special tributes on the national stage with the All-Star Game. Throw in a first half that saw the team below .500, injuries to Ronald Acuna, Marcell Ozuna (and legal issues), and a re-injured Mike Soroka, no one thought the team had a shot and they'd faced more adversity than most teams face in a 10 year period. The second half was something special, but getting to break everything down outside of Truist Park was even more special for me...and I grew up a Mets fan.
2020 Sarah Fuller Debut
I talk in another section about how some stories are more effective as a VOSOT rather than a package. Sometimes sound isn't available and you have to just run with a VO. Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller, regardless of only getting the chance to kick once and the style, made history. That to me was more important than the opinions of people who think girls don't belong in football. It was even more important than some of the highlights I ran. Generally, I like to show as much action as I can prior to there being something story worthy. That's just the role of the sports person: to be the entertaining change from the murder, mayhem, and other bad news. You'll also get to see a little of my style and my ability to change tones where appropriate.
2020 Live Sports on Location
There's a saying about Live TV: anything can happen. In this case, I was covering a signing day for 3 football players signing scholarships. Signings a big deal for local coverage, especially when someone is signing division one. I show my success and my failures, though this one was out of my control. Midway through my interview, our signal cut out. My producer mentioned my signal had been lost, but never told me we came back. I had no idea if I was still live or not, and simply kept on trucking. That's the best advice I can give. Thankfully, this was the only time that kind of issue ever happened to me.
2020 UGA Tennessee Preview
This was by far one of, if not my favorite things that I did with sports. Since we weren't in a big college town, my news director did not value this type of analysis and previewing. This preview was actually for a sister station in Tennessee. For the cool part, go ahead and skip to the 2:00 mark. I'd never done a film break down like this before. I had to time the video in the background. I said UGA hadn't done that specific play against Auburn before with Jordan Davis. In the 2021 National Championship game, Georgia ran the exact same play which allowed Zamir White to score. Seeing that happen was one of the coolest, full circle moments I've had. Something I'd talked about over a year ago was once again relevant. Even though I wasn't working at that point, I shouted at the TV as soon as it happened and saw Davis lined up where he was.
2020 Sports Stop Monologue
Fun fact about the week of March 8th, 2020. My sports director had taken a vacation that week so he'd have a break prior to the start of the Augusta National Women's Amateur and Masters coverage. That week was a crisis as the NBA suspended their season indefinitely that Wednesday night and the dominoes didn't stop. By Friday, most of the sports world was at a stand still even down to the high school level. This segment lead our 6pm newscast and I was asked to be a voice of hope. Quite frankly I was terrified. I had a feeling my job was in jeopardy and thought I wouldn't be working by Monday. At a time of crisis, it's just as important to stay calm and positive. What was happening was much bigger than myself and despite my own fears, I had an audience and viewers who were just as scared, if not more than I was. There are very few moments that I found myself thinking "what I'm doing is incredibly important for society and not just for entertainment and information." This was one of them.
2021 Masters Patron Announcement
As I've said by other clips, any press release from Augusta National was the ultimate news of the day that more often than not fell on my shoulders to cover. This was a great exercise in ad-libbing. Our producer had us slotted for 1:30 to talk about this and stick to the script. My co-anchor Meredith has covered plenty of Masters tournaments and had a lot more to say and talk about than I thought we would actually go over. Like in the Live Sports, you've got to be able to roll with the punches and go beyond the script.
2019-20 Stand-up bits
Just some general creative stand ups I did while I was working as number 2. My options for creative stand ups were a bit more limited as director. I think you have more fun when you're not in charge and you can get away with having a bit more of a focus on your individual task at hand. As a director, you get more exposure and you cover more. On the other side, you realize the scale and weight of trying to balance your entire viewing area.