My name is Tyler Piester and I am a sports journalism graduate student at Arizona State University. I hail from the great city of Galva, Illinois and arguably maintained the best lawn in the whole town when I lived there. I didn’t always want to pursue sports journalism as a career, in fact just a few years ago I wanted to become a public defender and eventually a member of the Senate for Illinois.
After taking a lot of boring political science and law classes, I quickly decided that this was not the career for me. I then decided to take a step back and really think about what I am passionate about, which is sports. I have always had a deep love for sports, and in particular the history of sports.
My favorite athletes of all time are Hank Aaron, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and “Mean” Joe Greene. I have always been an old soul though. I mean I literally listen to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin almost every day. To really support this idea that I’m an old man trapped in a young man’s body, I took a mental age test once and it said I was 83.
I’m starting to ramble, it’s time to get back on track. I found my way into journalism by soaking up all the sports media I could. I began listening to sports talk radio shows when I would drive home from work, and reading articles online about my favorite teams. It finally hit me that this was the career I would like to pursue.
Now came the big decision. Where do I want to go to graduate school to study my newfound dream? If it were up to me I would’ve blindfolded myself and thrown a dart on a map of the United States to determine my future. However, my family didn’t much appreciate that and decided that I need to do some actual research before I make any life-changing decision.
After I conducted that diligent research, I determined that I needed to go somewhere that would give me the best hands-on experience. Arizona State University’s Cronkite School was the best fit for me, and is ultimately where I decided to go.
Throughout my first semester at Cronkite, I really began to fall in love with writing in particular. I find it exciting to go out and interview coaches and players for my various projects I am working on. Now I want to go a step further and introduce some of my own opinions into my writing, which is why I am taking a column writing class for my Spring semester.
I feel that it is very important to have opinion pieces, because as a reader it is interesting to actually see other people’s perspectives and point of views. It helps add to the community of sports and sports journalism. During this class I would like to learn how to communicate my opinions in a polished, organized manner.
The major issue I see with the sports journalism industry is lack of credibility and the way in which people are presenting their opinions and ideas. From what I have seen, at least on my big 75’’ TV at home, is just a bunch of adults arguing with no facts behind what they are saying.
Who knows if this will ever happen, but I would like to think I could be someone who could help with that change.
