Spotlight On An Up and Coming Sports Journalist: Andrew Constant

I decided I would switch things up a bit and do something wild and crazy and interview someone else who is similarly trying to break into the sports journalism biz (I know an aspiring journalist actually conducting an interview, insane! And it only took me two years of blogging to come up with this idea!). So, I rattled my brain for the perfect person to interview; I needed someone around my age, a sports nut who is actively involved in sports journalism, and preferably someone who is taking a somewhat different path to success from myself. After contemplating over some finalists, which I will not name in case this whole "spotlight on" blog concept is a success and I continue doing them, I realized I had to look no further than my own family.


Already looks like a pro. Photo from Andrew Constant.


The future of sports journalism, with Winnie the Pooh in hand. Photo from Constant family.






Yes, Andrew Constant, the focus of today's blog is also my cousin. Unlike myself who chose to go the broadcast journalism route to break into sportscasting, Andrew is going the other, but just as respectable route into print journalism, or more specifically, sports writing. Andrew is currently a freshmen at Towson University and we met up via the internet highway one day last week to talk about sports journalism and what he has already accomplished (and hopes to accomplish) at Towson.

Andrew, besides your wildly talented cousin, who inspired you to go into sports journalism?

After my freshman year of high school I knew that I wanted to be a journalist. My teacher was really instrumental in my decision. The sports part of it comes from my love for sports.


But why not Broadcast Journalism? Come on! We could have had a show on ESPN: Constantly Talking Sports! Why'd you ruin my dream?
I was never one that was comfortable speaking in front of people or a camera, thus I decided to go into print journalism. Also, I was always a good writer and it came easy to me.

Ok fair enough. So, how did you settle on Towson?
I chose Towson over my other schools for the opportunities. I was offered coverage of the Women's soccer team within weeks of being on campus. It was the best fit for me.

Clearly you're already involved on campus, what did you cover Women's Soccer for? Was it for your school paper?

Yes, our newspaper, The Towerlight, has gotten me into so many things sports related. I have made so many contacts and friends in just a few months thanks to The Towerlight.

What have you covered already?

In the fall I covered Women's Soccer, I just recently finished covering Women's Basketball, and I'll be covering Softball in the spring. I have also helped out by writing about Golf, Track, and Football.

Wow, that's a lot of sports and very different ones at that. What was the most difficult sport to cover?

The biggest challenge I have faced so far was covering the Women's Soccer team. They struggled through the season and after a while it was hard to write articles about a team that wasn't scoring a lot of goals. It was good for me to write about a team that wasn't so good as compared to a team that steamrolled their opponents.

Yeah, no one wants to lose and no one wants to write over and over again about a losing team, but that is good experience for the real world. Any difficult interviews?

I have encountered two difficult, post-game interviews. One was following a Women's Soccer game that they had lost with seconds to go in overtime. They had gone a bunch of games without scoring and they were on the verge of finally gaining a point. But a lapse in the defense cost them the game and the Coach was very upset following the game. It was hard to ask appropriate questions. Another was when I interviewed a member of the Women's Basketball team who was from Lithuania. She didn't speak great English and it was hard to understand what she was saying at times.

Ok, the question I have been waiting to ask, any embarrassing moments? Come on, you can tell your cousin.

I have yet to encounter anything embarrassing so far.

Liar. Fine, I'll let that slide, but if I ask again your senior year of college there better be a different answer. Where do you hope to end up on The Towerlight?

Hopefully by the time I'm a senior, I can be the Sports Editor. I will eventually be an Assistant Sports Editor this year, and I hope to move up to Associate within the next two years. But Sports Editor is the ultimate goal.

Any dream internships?

I would love to work for ESPN or The Boston Globe as an intern, but I also know of one with the Cape Cod Baseball League that would be awesome to do.

A summer at the Cape wouldn't be bad. And hey, if worst comes to worst, you can always cover Cape Cod Community College sporting events. Moving on, where do you see yourself in ten years?

In ten years, I see myself covering a baseball team for a daily newspaper. I can't say where that will be, but ideally I would love to cover the Boston Red Sox or the Atlanta Braves.

Finally, as an almost sophomore in college on the road to becoming a sports writer, what is the most important advice you can give to an aspiring sports journalist?

The most important piece of advice I could give someone interested in getting into Sports Journalism would be that you need to be able to adapt. You need to be able to cover sports that you don't know or like, you need to be able to work well with others, and you need to learn to not be a fan of the team you're covering. That's the hardest part. You can't root for the team you're covering. It's not professional.

There you have it all of you wannabe sports journalists, another perspective of breaking into the biz. The other great thing about sports writing is that even with people buying newspapers less and less, online journalism is a huge market now so as long as people are literate, you will have a job. If you are interested in sports writing, one of the most important things I would recommend is learning all you can about web design and being able to upload videos and pictures onto the web to compliment your articles. It's just another way to make yourself a more marketable employee.


Just because everyone loves a throwback. Andrew and I as kids. Photo from Constant family.