My Heroes Around Women In Sport Communications
In the field of Sports Communications, there are many women who stand out, or who I could consider a hero. There are two specific women who I have looked up to ever since wanting to be a part of this job field. The first woman is Erin Andrews, who is very well known throughout the sports world and the broadcasting world. The second person who I look up to is Samantha Ponder.
To begin, Erin Andrews was born to Steven and Paula Andrews on May 4th, 1978, in Lewiston, Maine. She has one sibling, her sister named Kendra. She spent most of her childhood and teen years in Valrico, Florida, where her family moved to when she was six years old. In her youth, Erin was a “tomboy” who spent most of her time playing sports or at a sporting event with her father. In high school, she was a member of the National Honor Society, and she always performed well in school (Ol,2015).
Following her graduation of high school in 1996, Erin attended the University of Florida to pursue her dream of becoming a sportscaster. She had always wanted to be a sportscaster while growing up and was said to have known the world of sports better than some of her male friends (Wikipedia, 2019). She graduated college in 2000, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications. During her time in college, she was very involved. She was in the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and was also a member of the Florida Gators dance team (Wikipedia, 2019).
Shown in interviews, it is obvious Erin is a bubbly, kind-hearted woman. She had always been a hard worker, which goes to show in her career. Although she is obviously very high up in her career field, she exhibits nothing but a humble heart, and that is why I look up to her.
Right out of college in 2000, Erin landed a job with Fox Sports Florida as a freelance reporter. Soon after that, she worked as a reporter for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Here, she was said to be making the average amount for a fresh-out-of-college reporter. Up until 2004, she reported the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Thrashers, and the Atlanta Hawks for a new station called Turner South. Just that shortly after college, she had already made a name for herself and had that amount of experience with her. A bit into 2004, Erin landed a job with ESPN. She was to cover ESPN National Hockey Night. Throughout that year, she had reported for the College World Series, The Little League World Series, and the Great Outdoor Games (Ol, 2015). She was truly thriving in her industry and her hard work was paying off. Between the years of 2005 to 2010, she had covered and reported events such as the Big Ten college basketball games, ESPN College Football, Major League Baseball, and gave live coverage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. She has shown to me how hard work pays off and if I work for it, I can achieve it. She has been on multiple talk shows, speaking with Oprah, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jay Leno. Fame has caught up to her and by 2010, everyone knew her name. In 2010, she appeared on Dancing with the Stars and played 3rd over all with her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy. From 2012 to present times, she has been climbing the ladder in her industry immensely. She left ESPN in 2012 and began to work for Fox Sports, hosting many famous events. In 2014, she became a co-host of Dancing with the Stars, and then in 2015 to 2016, she co-hosted the CMT Music Awards. During this time as a co-host, she was said to have made around 2 million dollars. However, she wasn’t always making this much. She worked her way up to paychecks this large, and now has a net worth of 20 million dollars (Ol, 2015).
She has said multiple times how much she loves her career, but she had to work to get it this way. It wasn’t just given to her. She had to always put school first, and she moved jobs a lot. This has helped me see that my hard work will someday pay off, as hers did.
Just recently, in 2017, Erin announced that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. After two surgeries, she was cancer-free. This is inspiring to me because she may look like she has it all, but she still has gone through tough times such as dealing with such a powerful sickness. Mostly all of this information about her applies to me because I would love to be doing the same type of career path as her. Most of her experiences are my dream jobs. Things that can help me work towards my career goal are to try to put myself out there like she did, and to always stay focused in my studies, like she did.
Samantha Ponder, formerly known as Samantha Steele, is the second woman whom I consider a hero in this field. She was born on December 11th, 1985, to Jerry and Cindi Steele. She was born in Phoenix, Arizona along with her brother, Barron Steele. She is of an American Nationality and is part of a North American ethnicity (Chrome, 2017).
After growing up in Phoenix and graduating high school from Central High School, she enrolled in The Kings College located in New York, to pursue her dream of becoming a journalist and sportscaster. Ponder was said to have always been outgoing and involved in her schooling years. While in school in New York, she applied to be a hostess for ESPN Zone. Once she got this job, she made connections with a college football researcher, which led her to an internship offer with ABC. Soon after, she transferred colleges to Liberty University after a producer for the Liberty Flames Sports Network offered her a sideline reporting job. She then graduated from Liberty University in 2009 (Wikipedia, 2019).
Samantha has said that she has to constantly be watching games and keeping up on the sports world to be the best she can be in her field. With her success in the field even in her college years, she has kept a classy reputation and has shown kindness to everyone she has worked with, and this is inspiring to me. In 2012, she married Christian Ponder, the then Minnesota Vikings Quarterback. They now have three children. She has also spoken out about her faith and her Christianity, and that is very inspiring to me. I am as well strong in my faith, and I look up to her in that sense as well.
Shortly after graduating college, Samantha landed a job with Fox Sports Net as a sideline reporter. Not long after that, she was hired as the ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown Host. She currently holds this job. Her Net Worth is currently 10 million dollars and is said to be making a salary of around 4 million with ESPN (Chrome, 2017). She was not always making this amount, however. During her college years she accepted unpaid internships and did whatever she could to build her resume. She has made a name for herself in this field by hard work and dedication.
When talking in an interview about her career, Samantha had said, 'To be honest, I think the blueprint is that there is no blueprint, especially these days. Yes, school is important, your professors know a lot of things, but you can [break into the industry] a million different ways now. If you feel passionately about something, go with that. I wasn’t afraid to take that risk, so that’s what I would say to anybody coming up now: take the risk but be okay if it doesn’t work out. It was definitely a weird journey—not one that I would tell someone to replicate—but I would encourage someone to do whatever way they think works for them,' (Fitzgerald, 2019). By saying this, I find it inspiring because she reassures me that I don’t have to take the exact same career path as her or anyone else in the field, because everyone is unique. She spoke about how important school is, and this was shown through her stand-out grades. Through her, I can see that hard work pays off and I find this inspiring.
I take away a lot from her and her career path, and personal life. I feel like I can relate to her because she is strong in her faith and was strong in her schooling. These are two things that are important to me as well, and they are just two of the many reasons I look up to her in this field of work. She also minored in Journalism, and I am planning to do the same. Her example of making connections in college can help me to remember to do the same, because i know how important it is to network in this career. She is a hero to me for many reasons, especially in her work ethic. I also find it reassuring and comforting that she transferred schools and moved around a lot before settling down. As I work towards my career, I am inspired by Samantha to build an awesome resume and to make connections as much as possible.
References
- Ol, Jack (2015). Players Wiki: Erin Andrews biography. Retrieved from https://playerswiki.com/erin-andrews
- Kaplan, Emily (2017). Going Long: The Pain You Can’t See. Retrieved from https://www.si.com/mmqb/2017/01/24/erin-andrews-cervical-cancer-diagnosis-hotel-stalker-civil-trial-privacy-laws-fox-dancing-stars
- Fitzgerald, Katherine (2019). Sam Ponder is finally part of the conversation. Retrieved from https://partners.vice.com/secret/gameon/news/sam-ponder-is-finally-part-of-the-conversation/
- Chrome, B (2017). Samantha Ponder Biography. Retrieved from https://playerswiki.com/samantha-ponder
- Wikipedia contributors. (2019, February 11). Erin Andrews. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Andrews
- Wikipedia contributors. (2019, February 27). Samantha Ponder. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Ponder
