When I was twelve years old, I wanted to play professional sports. I thought that with effort and determination, along with a little luck, that anyone could be among the world’s elite athletes.
My parents disagreed. I had not played any sports to that point, other than two years of recreational basketball. My first season I had scored only one basket all season… into the other team’s hoop. Despite being one of the taller players, I was awkward moving on the court and often found myself out of position defensively. Essentially, I was a tiny, ten year old Meyers Leonard. The second season went much better, with my final season line of 1.4 points per game and 2.1 rebounds per game over 12 games. At least my points went in my team’s hoop.
I was starting to think my parents had a point. All of the effort and determination in the world would not make up for a lack of talent in athletics. Yet I wanted to be involved in sports to some extent. I had read enough books about football and baseball to be able to recite the largest moments in their respective histories at will. When Wheaties released their promotional box for Super Bowl XXX, it listed every previous Super Bowl winner, loser and MVP. I memorized it entirely.
By the time high school rolled around, I was announcing for football, Girls basketball and baseball, as well as doing statistics for baseball. I had taken every journalism class available to me to that point. I knew that if I could not be on the field, I would take my place in the Press Box. During the journalism classes, I sat next to a football player. He was a special teams player and occasional linebacker, and laughed at the idea of me being a sports writer.
“You don’t play sports. You’re nothing but a stat geek. Why should anyone take you seriously versus someone who has actually played the game?”
I ignored him, and eventually aced the class while he passed with just enough to keep his football eligibility. I thought it was a case of local ignorance. Yet, as I read pieces on ESPN and other sports sites, I found that sentiment to be more common than I thought. Pieces about statistics and analytics would always have twenty or thirty people chiming in about how the opinions of people who never saw the field were invalid. There were always too many people arguing too passionately about the topic for it to be trolling.
I thought for a while that maybe they were right. I would never have the insight of a player that had taken the field, the gridiron, or the court. I changed my style of writing. Making bold statements about the mindset of players and coaches was not my area of expertise. The people on the internet were right about that. Instead I would offer my uniqueness: statistics, analytics, and the numbers that make the game what it is.
I found recap writing to be the best medium for this, and wrote pieces for The Examiner about the Portland Beavers minor league baseball team. While I would do recaps, I also looked into player statistics and what it meant to the team as a whole.
It was that writing that drew me eventually to Oregon Sports News, and where I have happily written 180 articles over almost four years. I continued to learn the importance of fact checking and double-checking everything you write. I slacked off early on, and it cost me a chance to write for the Portland Winterhawks. I never stopped trying to improve, and make myself the best writer I could be. After all, I could be among the great writers with effort, determination, along with a little luck.
I still work to this day, and this time no one disagrees with me.
I would like to thank Arran Gimba, my editor, and Oregon Sports News for everything they have done for me. They have celebrated my successes, tolerated my failures, and pushed me towards my final goal. Thank you for everything.
Thank you to everyone who has ever read a piece of mine. I would not be able to advance were it not for you.
Sincerely,
Ryan Alastor Chase
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
