ESPN Boston's Brendan Hall came to visit the UMass sports journalism class Tuesday, and had some good stories and bits of advice for the class. Anyone who meets Hall will notice his laid back demeanor right away. He speaks as if he was just another member of the class, and I think that translates to younger crowds of aspiring journalists who hope to someday be in the business. There are so many guest speakers I have heard come into classrooms and basically say there is no hope for most if not all of the hopefuls they're talking to. That couldn't be further from the message Brendan Hall provides. Hall proves that if you keep plugging away, work as hard as you possibly can, and never turn down an offer to do anything that's even close to what you want to do it can happen for you. Or, as he put it in his words, "Be a bulldog."
A graduate of the UMass journalism program, Hall worked three internships before landing a job at The Boston Globe. He covered mostly high school sports with the Globe but also has covered the Bruins, Patriots, Celtics, and Red Sox as well. He did all this while working a day job as a substitute teacher, which shows the dedication it takes to "make it" in this field.
Another good message an aspiring journalist can take from Hall's visit is that you should always be looking for stories nobody else has. If you're at a sporting event covering the game, sometimes it's better to, instead of doing a piece on the happenings of the game, get another story surrounding a player with a unique back story, or maybe something else that's going on around the game itself. "You should be zigging while everyone else is zagging," Hall said.
Well-done!
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