Several people have asked me over the years, how did you get your start or how did you get to be a writer for 247Sports [or any other site]. Well, occasionally I have put my past in laments terms but I decided to answer that question thoroughly for those who want to know.
Why I Wanted To Be a Writer:
My passion for writing started when I was around seven or eight years old. I would take two or three pieces of printer paper, fold them in half, and make a short story book. My writing was probably equal in quality to the "drawings" I added in...hint: there is a reason I took only two art classes in four years of high school.
At the same time I grew up loving sports. I didn't start playing sports until little league and needless to say the fact that I made an All-Star team one of those two years was only because my coach voted all of us to play. Not everyone made the team, but the coaches solid was the main reason.
Anyway, before this becomes about my failed baseball career...or my other failed sports endeavors in basketball and lacrosse, I'll get to the point. My body for some reason never held up more than a year. My knees were pretty much dead by the time I hit high school.
During that same time period I began to frequent the Seattle Times sports forums as an outlet for my ideas. Then one night I did a Google search that kicked off my career.
Free writing opportunities, the search was.
BleacherReport.com popped up.
I clicked on the link and wouldn't you know it all I needed as an email to log me in and BOOM! I was a "writer".
Scary thought. Me, at thirteen years old being allowed to write stories that actually could go somewhere. At the time CBS was partners with BleacherReport so there was potential.
The good old B/R days:
The phrases dumpster fire, **** show, and well the list goes on and on, are all ways of summing up the beginning of my career with BleacherReport.com. I recently did another Google search to see if my profiles [yeah I made a few] were still there. It's pretty telling my credibility back then when the picture I had was me and Lisa Gangle, now Kerney, at Bobby Engram's softball game at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington.
Just reading the titles of my articles should give you an idea of how bad it was: Seahawks Fourth Overall Pick Grade: OLB Aaron Curry A+ and Why Seneca Wallace Should Be the Seahawks' Long-Term QB.
I will say this, BleacherReport gave me the platform that I needed even thought I didn't deserve it. There were good times and bad times. While working at B/R I got to do a job shadow with Seattle Times Seahawks beat writer [at the time] Danny O'Neil. Danny was one of the first legitimate writers that became a mentor for me.
I told Danny I wrote for B/R and he had heard of the site, which again gave me that platform to sound at least recognizable even if I wasn't credible. It basically got my foot in the first door and it led to arguably my best writing opportunity with Andy Benoit at NFLTouchdown.com to write solely about the Seattle Seahawks.
Lets Run up the Score at NFLTouchdown.com
Andy Benoit, who created his own website NFLTouchdown.com, also worked for the New York Times fifth down blog and CBSSports. It gave me an opportunity to hone in my writing skills, get feedback from a bright young journalist and writer in Benoit and it also gave me a good platform to still publish work on.
I started out just writing about the Seahawks but as Andy became more impressed with my work he allowed me to branch out and also gave me unique interview opportunities that showed me a whole new side of writing.
At the same point I began to grow out of my shell and take myself seriously in terms of being a credible journalist. Some of the interviews I was able to conduct were set up by Andy and some I set up on my own. My first was with Vince Papale, the real man behind the story not Mark Wahlberg.
I also interviewed Gregg Valentino, who also sent me his book Death, Drugs, and Muscle and appeared on E:60. Without question the almost two-hour interview I did with Valentino was the most unique and intriguing interview I've ever done. He was a personable guy with an incredible story that had nothing to do with the NFL. It was an experience interview flat out.
The biggest name interview I did during my two years at NFLTouchdown.com was with former Washington Redskins QB Joe Theismann.
The culmination of all the interviews and articles I wrote for NFLTouchdown.com was the feeling of being credible. I had no credentials but I felt confident in my abilities and that in a sense came back to haunt me and why I left the site.
I felt I had a good relationship with Andy and when I had learned that I wasn't considered for a promotion to managing editor it irked me a lot because he had said that I was the best writer he had. In hindsight I didn't really care for being an editor. I liked writing. Looking back I don't know why I made any deal of it but the fall out was one I regret without a doubt.
In the end Benoit now just writes for Sports Illustrated, the MMQB and I'm entering my third year covering UW athletics. We both moved on but a tip for younger writers...don't burn bridges and especially over petty, nonsensical things.
Continuing the process at RantSports.com:
After the fall out at NFLTouchdown.com I moved on to RantSports.com. The beauty of Rant was that I could do more than just NFL. I could and did write about the Seattle Mariners, UW Huskies, Seattle Sounders and anything else really.
What was different about my writing at Rant was I felt more free and as such I believe my writing improved. I could write a game story, but I could also tell a story column style. I also continued to get interviews and actually had my first two credentialed experiences working for Rant. I set both up, one with UW football and one with the Seahawks, as a part of my senior project.
UW allowed me to actually ask a couple questions to coach Steve Sarkisian after the Huskies destroyed Colorado 52-7. I also got to interview Sean Parker, Keith Price and a handful of others to really get a feel for what it's like as a credentialed reporter. For the Seahawks, I was just happy to be sitting third row in the press box and taking the game in and seeing how the pro's do it.
I wasn't allowed to ask any questions but I got to meet Seattle Times columnist Jerry Brewer and by that point I had also had a job shadow with Sounders FC beat writer Josh Mayers, who I consider to be a good friend and mentor still to this day. On that job shadow I got to meet Steve Kelley and he jokingly asked if I was the old UW center named Lars.
Fast forward to the Colorado vs UW game and the Seahawks vs Redskins game, he still remembered me. My conversations with Steve were some of the best I've had with a fellow journalist and we even had lunch to just talk about being a journalist, what it takes, my plans and all that. One of the best days of my life was just talking to Steve for an hour and hearing what he had to say.
"Beat a story til you can't beat it anymore," he said after the Seahawks game.
When the Joe Paterno story came up he asked me if I had written anything about it. I did. He didn't agree with my view point, a wait-and-see approach, but he said he liked what I had to say and the way it was written.
Those experiences were more valuable to me than any writing job I had, have, and will have in the future hopefully.
I left Rant sports for my first credentialed job my senior year in high school, think about that.
The RealDawg era begins...
Well, here we are. In the winter of my senior year I enquired to Ruth Robbins, the publisher of Realdawg.com about possible writing opportunities. She allowed me to work spring ball during my spring break. By the end of those two to three weeks she hired me on full time and the rest is history.
I started writing in the spring of 2012 and now it's 2014 and I'm still there, now on the 247Sports network. It's been a fun ride and hopefully one that will continue to stick for the next few years.
The next decision...
Currently I'm enrolled at Seattle Central Community College and I've got the fall quarter as my sixth and final one at the school. That means come January there will be a new school for me. Right now I'm looking at the University of Washington, Washington State University, University of Florida, Indiana University, Butler University and the University of Texas at Austin.
I will know around October or November which school that will be. Ideally UW would be the school because I'm already involved in covering UW athletics but eventually writers do switch beats. This blog will serve as the reporting grounds for my "official visit reports" in the fall.
Anyway, there you have it. For those who wanted to know how I got to where I am now that's the story. Hope you enjoyed it.
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