Writing papers, articles, and editorials isn’t for everyone. If you’re like me, you dreaded taking those college Composition courses in high school. Most of the papers or essays were long, dragged out, and mostly about information you couldn’t care less about. It was in my first media production and marketing class where all that changed.
At Carroll High School back home, I took a media production and marketing class. This class was a student-run business dubbed Tiger Vision. Tiger Vision covered everything in the school district including sports, plays, music, academics, and more. One day during class, we were brainstorming ideas to improve our overall sports coverage. Unlike many other schools, Tiger Vision would live stream our sporting events through our YouTube channel. I always thought one way to improve our livestream was to have live commentary for our sporting events. My idea was originally for someone else to do it, but because it was my idea, my teacher assumed I wanted to. This was something way out of my comfort zone, but I agreed to give it a try.
I had always been good at giving speeches and other forms of public speaking because I had pretty good improvisation and rambling skills. My first broadcast was with another student who had agreed to help me out because I was very nervous. The first stream with live commentary was one of our most watched live streams that we had produced. I had begun to get comfortable broadcasting the games, and the views continued to escalate. Once I had gotten comfortable, I genuinely enjoyed broadcasting the games. I had always enjoyed watching and talking about sports, and with this opportunity I was able to find something I looked forward to doing every week.
Throughout my two years in Tiger Vision, I had called many volleyball and basketball games. I had received so many compliments on my work from fellow students, friends, the community, and even fans of other teams who tuned in. During a basketball playoff game my senior year, our current viewership during a live stream had come close to 1,000 viewers. The recording of the stream now has over 10,000 views, and can still be found on Tiger Vision’s YouTube page. My hardwork and success landed me a job with the local radio station in Carroll. During the fall of 2020, I traveled around the state of Iowa on Friday nights broadcasting high school football games. The support and outreach from the community made me fall in love with sports broadcasting even more.
In the Fall 2021, I joined the journalism program here at DMACC, which led me to joining a Digital Media Production class known as Banner News. This class allows me to do what I love: writing and talking about sports almost every day. I produce weekly sports stories about the DMACC athletics program, as well as produce sports content.
At Banner News I can jumpstart my journalism education and working career, with hopes to be a professional sports writer and broadcaster one day. I recommend joining Digital Media Production and Banner News to anyone who hopes to be a successful journalist and writer once they graduate. I challenge you to jump out of your comfort zone, and find something you truly love to do. You never know where it can lead your education, and your life as a whole.