<p>Marist College--Sports Communication. They have a great rep for kids interning at ESPN and later getting jobs there. </p>
<p>The</a> Communication Major - Sports Communication: Marist College</p>
<p>Check out Emerson College in Boston, MA</p>
<p>Another route to his love of sports is to major in whatever he wants to in college and pursue a manager position for a high profile revenue sport at the school of his choice. Some schools actually give scholarships for this so he should contact coaches in his junior year with his qualifications if interested. Then, after he learns A LOT from being on the inside of a collegiate program, he can use his connections (there are ALWAYS connections with a successful high profile sports program) to get an internship. For example, UCLA is famous for placing kids with Fox and I am sure other schools tend to send their athletes and insiders to certain other stations as well. I suggested this to a kid I knew who had been crazy about sports stats since the third grade. He is in his second year and loves the work and is meeting the broadcasters and tv people because he is around them every game day. It is a roundabout way, but he did not want to major in journalism or sports management yet wants to work in the sports world when he graduates. I honestly think he will one day be either broadcasting or, more likely, providing the stats and back stories to the on air personalities during games. And by qualifications, I mean that an applicant should be able to demonstrate maturity, responsibility, a passion for the sport, and a recommendation from someone connected with the school somehow (if possible). Being a team manager is like working full time (it is DIV I sports), but even if the kid decides he wants to go to graduate school and not go into broadcasting, having held a position of responsibility like that will look great an an application. It isn't often talked about and rarely admitted to, but SOME schools will allow a tiny bit of leeway for managers during the admissions process. TINY. As in, someone will carefully look over your application and try to admit you. The kid I knew actually traveled to some schools the summer before his junior year and visited coaches who had expressed an interest when he contacted them. Not exactly what the OP was asking for, but just putting another option out there for interested parties.</p>
<p>Here's a few current sportscasters, with their alma mater in parentheses (I've omitted the many Newhouse grads):</p>
<p>Jill Arrington (Miami University), Chris Berman (Brown), Bonnie Bernstein (Maryland), Joe Buck (Indiana University), Mike Breen (Fordham University), Gary Cohen (Columbia University), Linda Cohn (SUNY Oswego), Rich Eisen (University of Michigan), Bryant Gumbel (Bates College), Greg Gumbel (Loras College), Mike Greenberg (Northwestern University), Mike Hall (University of Missouri), Suzy Kolber (University of Miami), Steve Levy (SUNY Oswego), Al Micheals (Arizona State), Chris McKendry (Drexel University), Brent Musberger (Northwestern University), Kenny Maybe (UNLV), Jim Nantz (University of Houston), Mike Patrick (George Washington University), Jim Rome (UC-Santa Barbara), Dave Sims (Bethany College), Hannah Storm (Notre Dame), Suzy Shuster (Columbia University), Lesley Visser (Boston College).</p>
<p>Note that two of those listed went to SUNY Oswego.</p>
<p>some random general thoughts about sports ... the original posting wasn't too clear about the young man want to do
* Announcing - some schools such as Syracuse have a history of producing announcers ... I do not know if they have a sports announcing major ... but somehow their communications porogram produces a ton of announcers ... and I'd think there are other schools like SU.
* Sports stats - there are numerous companies such as the Elias folks who track, analyze, and provide stats for teams, web-sites, and the general public ... they must have employess
* Sports management (pro) - I'm not sure why this is out ... most new generation general managers have young quant jocks as special assistants to run various analyzes ... (and I would think sports management in college might be a possibility also)
* Coaching - pro, college, high school, or youth coaching keeps a lot folds in touch with their sports
* Recreation management - what about helping run the rec programs in a town
* College conferences and Pro Leagues - they have employees who compile and provide stats</p>
<p>BTW - a lot of these fields are tough to get into so an argument can be made that the pragmatic thing is to not try and go to something safer ... but I'd never make that argument. If someone can not chase their dream job at 22 when can they chase it? ... someone gets those few opportunities; and if you don't apply you have a 0% chance. We strongly advocate our kids chasing their dream jobs ... so they can always know they gave it a try. Said another way ... how many of you are going to watch the olympics in August ... for virtually all the 2008 Olympians the odds of actually making the Olympics sucked when they where younger; but the only ones going to China are the survivors of the ones who tried ... and they get to live the dream ... and the others who tried and didn't make it know that gave it a shot.</p>
<p>My S is a senior in college and started doing sports announcing for the campus radio station (Berkeley) this past year. He started off by volunteering to write and read a 3-5 minute sports broadcast a couple of times a week. Then, while still doing his broadcasts, he worked in engineering at the station during some of the Saturday football games (to pay his dues so he could get some on-air time later in the year), and then was able to do some on-air work during women's basketball, which finally led to being a play-by-play and color guy at some of the men's baseball games (including one against the big rival Stanford). We were able to listen live to these on the Internet, and it was a lot of fun. He plans to do even more games this year.</p>
<p>I think S would loooove to do this for a living, but he knows how tough it is to break into professionally. He has a great, deep voice, a remarkable memory and one of the best vocabularies of any play-by-play announcer I've heard recently (he once described a foul ball as rolling up "a shallow knoll" outside of right field. :) </p>
<p>The irony for us is that he is now a huge fan of sports, but he couldn't stand playing or watching them all through childhood and his teen years. H and I, who grew up pretty athletic, still shake our heads at this unexpected development.</p>
<p>S's friend was a journalism major at BU and did the radio broadcasts for one of their sports teams. He was able to get a summer internship at ESPN in Bristol, CT. and was hired full-time after graduation.</p>
<p>Maybe the kid could try it out in h.s. to see if he really liked it. </p>
<p>At our high school, we always have PA announcers for the Varsity football games but none for the JV games. S and a couple of his friends ( all varsity football players) volunteered to "call" the JV football games since nobody else was doing it. The guys had a blast (using all their best ESPN speak) and the parents of the JV players loved hearing their kids' name called.</p>
<p>Does this young man attend a HS with a radio station? If so, have him start working there yesterday! My D worked at her school's station for three years, mostly behind the scenes, but everyone on staff was required to work on-air. </p>
<p>In this case, the experience would be especially valuable - as an EC that's indicative of a larger passion and also as a teaching experience. Nothing like speaking on air on a regular basis to help polish those public speaking skills!</p>
<p>Someone we know alma mater of S's school is a sports broadcaster in Georgoa. He was a Sports Management major,communications minor. Started at the college radio station and did announcing for school games too (he did that in High School as well).Did an internship and first job out of college was in a really small local market.Thats how you pay your dues and you build up to being in the bigger markets.He's 25 and on his third job switch. School is University of South Carolina.
Ithaca has a distinct Sports Broadcasting major.</p>
<p>Look into Univ of Maryland also. Friend of D's, interested in sports journalism, did a radio show his first year there; hope he's on his way!</p>
<p>check out Temple's school of comm.</p>
<p>I know a young man with a similar goal. He is at the University of Miami. Not sure what dept the program is through.</p>
<p>Thank you for all of the wonderful ideas. This should really get them started on their college search!</p>
<p>A great read to share with him/them....Jim Nance's "Always by My Side". It just came out recently and is a wonderful book.</p>
<p>Agree with a lot of what is said in this thread. Sports Management is NOT the way to go if you want to be in the brodcasting/journalism aspect of sports. Sports Management is more geared towards the business aspect of sports. Journalism, Communications are often the two most mentioned majors among employers. </p>
<p>There's a GREAT site that was recommended by a recent grad to me for people wanting to get in this industry called sportscastingjobs.com . The person who recommended it found a job in a Tampa sports radio station right out of college. He also had an offer to work in Monroe, LA.</p>
<p>A really specific major that lots of schools have is "Sport Communication" which is a blend of journalism, communication, and sport management. You might want to check that out.</p>
<p>A2wolves, Thanks for that tip. BTW, I have been following your posts about sports management even though my kids are not interested in that major. Hope all is going well for you.</p>
<p>Hudsonvalley- I don't know what surprises me more- that 2 of the sports announcers are SUNY Oswego grads (my alma mater) or their last names are Cohn and Levy. Things sure have changed since I was in Oswego. And lets not forget Al Roker got his start as an Oswego student too working weekends on Syracuse TV.</p>
<p>I would not be surprised that going to school in the proximity of a strong sports town may help with getting internships. Syracuse always had a real strong emphasis on sports. I still remember that 10 minutes of their 11:00PM newscasts was devoted to high school sports. And it is still that way today. </p>
<p>I'm gonna go with A 2 Wolves on this- a blend of communication, sports management and journalism may be a way to go.</p>
<p>There is an incredible amount of technology and "new communication" methods that are used in the sports industry. At Suny Cortland, there is a sport media and technology learning center which includes hand on work with video analysis and post production. I do not think my d has taken much advantage of these labs as she is aiming more towards a traditional sport management/marketing focus. But I do know there's alot of sport technology basics that need to be learned if one is trying to break into the sport communication field.
my hunch is that schools like Ithaca-Syracuse-Temple and maybe even Cortland may be places to check out. At least check out the curriculum and offerings at these schools and start using their communication/sport management programs as a basis of comparison.<br>
It probably also helps to be close to a sports oriented community in order to get internships and hands on experience. I'm sure Syracuse or Philadelphia would fit the bill.</p>
<p>got curious- so I just checked out the alma mater. SUNY Oswego does seem to have a pretty good School of communications too. They mention that there was a major renovation and they have a state of the art broadcasting and production facilities. I do remember seeing Al Roker on the Today show a few years back at the Oswego campus as they were naming some room or studio after him. So it may be worth your while to at least check out the Communication offerings at Oswego to use as a basis of comparison to other programs.<br>
Oswego- Who knew??</p>
<p>It has always been my dream to be a sports announcer as well, and I am headed to the University of Maryland in the fall as a journalism major. I would encourage you and your son to look at UMD as a possibility as many graduates now work at ESPN and other sports organizations including Scott van Pelt, Boomer Esiason and many others. </p>
<p>Like others have mentioned Syracuse and Penn State are other good options which I considered but ultimately I felt that Maryland was the best choice.</p>