My name is Stephen Smith and I am a product of the Midwest. Born in Topeka but raised primarily in St. Louis, my fate as a sports fan was predetermined and indoctrinated by my father, himself a native St. Louisan. My brother and I were subjected to being Missouri Tigers in the land of the Jayhawks, which, let me tell you, was not easy. The tradeoff of that is, seeing as my father moved to Topeka after the football Cardinals left St. Louis for Arizona but before the Rams later filled their place, he adopted the Kansas City Chiefs. We were raised on Sundays full of Dante Hall and Tony Gonzalez, laying the groundwork for my love of sports, a driving reason behind my path to ending up here.
My path to get here is unconventional. I stayed close to home for college, attending the University of Missouri-Columbia, which has one of the more notable journalism programs in the country, something the entire town prides itself on. In a cruel bit of irony, given where I am now and where I hope to end up going forward, I turned my back on the J-School at Mizzou. I was unsure of what I wanted to do and my father, himself an accountant at Arthur Andersen before the Enron debacle, suggested accounting, given its high job placement rate and stability within an ever-changing hiring environment.
For the next 5 and a half years, I spent my days buried in Excel sheets, learning how to always make assets equal liabilities plus stockholders equity and how to “correctly” file one’s taxes, which no one really knows how to do with absolute certainty and anyone that says they do is lying to you. As I got further and further along and transitioned from undergrad to graduate school, I never felt truly gripped by the concepts I was learning or excited by the career prospects I saw for myself. Rather, I felt a growing sense of dread, a feeling rooted in the concern that I had made a grave mistake choosing accounting that was caused by never being introspective enough to truly determine what careers called to me.
Upon entering the workforce after receiving both my BS and MA in Accountancy, these feelings continued to grow, with this unease manifesting itself in my outward demeanor, something those closest to me easily discerned. I still did not know what I wanted to do professionally but I did know that the accounting world was not for me, a realization that was both maddening, given the time, energy and money I had invested during school, and liberating.
Again, I have my father to thank for being the inspiration behind this drastic career change I have undertaken. A simple conversation between the two of us while sitting in the car waiting to pick my sister up from PSR was all it took.
“Well, you love to read. You always have and you always will. You also love sports. To me, the answer is clear. Have you ever thought about sports journalism? In my non-expert opinion, I think you should give it a shot. Just start writing and take a risk. Move to Europe and cover soccer for a year. Do something, because your current job is killing you and you have nothing tying you down besides a dog that will follow you anywhere and be happy there.”
It was as if the clouds parted above my head. How had I never thought about this? Finally, I felt driven by the idea of a career. Working within sports had never felt like a tangible option to me but now, it did.
Given how competitive the field is, I knew I had to return to school to best set myself up to get my foot in the door somewhere. I applied to many graduate schools for journalism not really knowing what I was looking for and what would best suit me, the Cronkite School being one of them. I ended up deciding between a handful of programs and set up trips to visit the schools, with Arizona State being first on the list. What could have been an agonizing choice was made about 5 minutes into my tour here and I have Aric Johnson to thank for that. His enthusiasm towards the program and his genuine, unabashed belief that it was the perfect place for me to grow and develop, even with my uncommon educational background, sold me immediately. My lack of experience would have deterred some recruiters, but thankfully, he was steadfast in his opinion and belief in me and I hope to repay him in the future.
I feel that journalists, particularly within sports, play an integral role in the everyday lives of so many. People, myself included, have relied on and will continue to rely on the work of sports journalists as a way to stay up to date with the current happenings of their favorite team or player and to gain access to information they are not privy to as common fans. I look forward to, in an ideal world, being able to fill that role for people and provide meaningful, thoughtful work that enhances my audience’s understanding and appreciation of a sport they cherish.
I hope that this class can teach me how to present my opinions in a respectful and researched manner. I have never written anything that deviates from strictly objective coverage and I believe it will be a challenge for me. It is imperative I learn how to do this, as I cannot be a well-rounded journalist if I am unwilling to tackle tough issues that require my own thoughts on them. Anyone can write a game story but not everyone can write a commentary on a player or a topical issue.
Though I am largely enamored with the sports journalism industry, it is certainly not without issues or challenges. I am concerned about what the industry will look like when I am entering the workforce, with AI seemingly only continuing to become more more entrenched within society, a trend that poses issues for prospective journalists. Additionally, I am concerned about the feasibility of starting and raising a family while having a job in an industry where pay is not one of the calling cards.
All in all, I was nervous to make this jump from a more stable industry to one filled with unknowns but I am now convinced I made the right choice at the right time. Sports journalism was an itch I knew I had to scratch and I am now in the middle of it. I am excited to see what the future holds for me and I hope to one day look back on this course as an inflection point in my career as a writer in whatever facet it ends up being.
