2008 Woodie Awards
Sports announcing: not just for men
Kasey Minnick
Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Sports
Bristol, Conn.: I believe this to be the best place on Earth. This place is home to ESPN headquarters where I will do everything in my power to get employed after I graduate.
Being the only female out of my immediate family, I grew up riding the coattails of my dad and uncles and watching any kind of sport possible on the "tube." Before the age of 10, I could honestly sit down and name the entire starting line-up of the 1993-1994 Philadelphia Phillies team.
Ok, so I guess you could call me a tomboy, but it's what I loved to do: research statistics, rehearse my play-by-play from my living room floor and stump anyone with sports trivia that wanted to have at it.
Entering Cabrini College as a photojournalism major (I wanted to write and photograph for sports magazines)I found this to silence me a bit. As I was relaxing while watching the Philadelphia 76ers, I looked at Dei Lynam on courtside and realized how much she truly knew the game and didn't even need the cue cards in front of her to do what she did best. I wanted her job. I started researching many ESPN anchors, starting with Rachel Nichols, being my favorite, and found that many of the women had it hard getting into the sports reporting industry.
Ask yourselves this: How many times did you hear a man say he would turn off the television because a woman just didn't know anything about sports? Oh, I have heard it my entire life, so how dream-crushing is that? This was even a bigger push to me. I was going to do this and people were going to see my true love for the game.
Would you believe my happiness when I received a call to my home from a secretary from ESPN in Connecticut? Yes, I screamed followed by tears. I was going to be phone interviewed for a possible internship for the summer. My job: I was to study up on all aspects of the sports world and be judged on my performance. I studied for days on end and felt like I knew more than ever before. To my disappointment though, I did not receive the internship and there was one strike against me as my confidence level was brought down a notch. Because of the small town I live in, many people knew of this opportunity that was given to me and I had to be the one to break the news to many of the Weatherlites that I wasn't granted my dream.
Being the only female out of my immediate family, I grew up riding the coattails of my dad and uncles and watching any kind of sport possible on the "tube." Before the age of 10, I could honestly sit down and name the entire starting line-up of the 1993-1994 Philadelphia Phillies team.
Ok, so I guess you could call me a tomboy, but it's what I loved to do: research statistics, rehearse my play-by-play from my living room floor and stump anyone with sports trivia that wanted to have at it.
Entering Cabrini College as a photojournalism major (I wanted to write and photograph for sports magazines)I found this to silence me a bit. As I was relaxing while watching the Philadelphia 76ers, I looked at Dei Lynam on courtside and realized how much she truly knew the game and didn't even need the cue cards in front of her to do what she did best. I wanted her job. I started researching many ESPN anchors, starting with Rachel Nichols, being my favorite, and found that many of the women had it hard getting into the sports reporting industry.
Ask yourselves this: How many times did you hear a man say he would turn off the television because a woman just didn't know anything about sports? Oh, I have heard it my entire life, so how dream-crushing is that? This was even a bigger push to me. I was going to do this and people were going to see my true love for the game.
Would you believe my happiness when I received a call to my home from a secretary from ESPN in Connecticut? Yes, I screamed followed by tears. I was going to be phone interviewed for a possible internship for the summer. My job: I was to study up on all aspects of the sports world and be judged on my performance. I studied for days on end and felt like I knew more than ever before. To my disappointment though, I did not receive the internship and there was one strike against me as my confidence level was brought down a notch. Because of the small town I live in, many people knew of this opportunity that was given to me and I had to be the one to break the news to many of the Weatherlites that I wasn't granted my dream.
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