Meet Joe Tuman! He is a multimedia sports journalist from Pennsylvania, graduating from Penn State University in 2025. He is currently writing as a sports reporter for the Winchester Star local newspaper in Winchester, Va and also hosts his own basketball podcast. His focus is on growing his career in all aspects, from analytics to writing and content creation, in hopes to one day cover the NBA.
For my sport communication class through ODU, we were assigned the task of finding and contacting a professional in the sport field to connect with for networking/assignments this semester, during the course of the class. In my journey to find a sport professional in my area to connect with, I started my search online using Google, LinkedIn and Facebook. I researched local universities and colleges, as well as community based organizations, digging into their programs and staff directories. After a few days of searching, I sent emails to potential penpals in hopes of gaining their time and knowledge over the course of the next few months. I sent a brief email explaining who I was, what I was looking for and what the expectations were. Despite spelling his name wrong in the initial email (I blame autocorrect…but also, how EMBARASSING!), Tuman agreed to work with me and go about this journey as my penpal. I am looking forward to having a local professional within the sport media field to collaborate with this semester.
I am particularly excited to collaborate with Tuman because of his versatile background and being relatively new into the field. Since he manages both a traditional print beat and a modern podcast, I hope to gain insights into how he balances objective reporting with the personality-driven world of audio content. I plan to ask him about his workflow for covering local games and how he leverages social media to build his personal brand as he chases that NBA dream.
Having a local professional to collaborate with is an incredible opportunity. I’m looking forward to the knowledge I’ll gain through this experience and seeing how a pro navigates the ever-changing world of sports media.
Cheers to the journey ahead!