As mentioned in a previous penpal blog post, my professional penpal is Mitch Brown. Mitch Brown is a sports professional who has worked as a journalist, sports anchor, sports director, and current role, a corporate content creator.

I conducted an informational interview with Mitch, asking him 6 pivotal questions that help to explore his awesome sports experience!

1. What made you gravitate towards the news sector?

  • Mitch Brown: I wanted to be on TV. I worked at the Mace & Crown. I did W. O. D. Radio. I took a TV news class, and that’s when it was confirmed that I wanted to really dive into that type of writing, TV writing, telling stories with visuals behind them.

2. What was your favorite memory of being a sports anchor?

  • I would say the Kentucky Derby was a great memory. One of the two great memories for me is covering a college football national championship covering NFL teams and being a part of national championship runs in just about every state that I’ve worked in.

3. What are some key skills required to excel in the field of sports anchoring?

  • Flexibility, being able to adapt on the fly. Knowing your sports, you know, loving the game, loving every sport equally because you will at some point have to cover hockey, softball, and tennis. Other than that, make sure that you’re fun and informative. Those are the two keys, being fun and informative in sports. People want fun with sports, people want information as well.

4. What do you consider the most challenging aspect of being a sports anchor?

  • The long hours, uh, it’s long hours. Is your mental fortitude strong enough to say, Hey, on Sunday, I might work 14 hours and then have to be back at the station or be at a press conference at 9:00 AM the next morning? Are you ready for that? Are you gonna be on time? All those things matter. Your time management matters in sports because press conferences will start without you. I’d say just being ready for it. So many different things can change. You have got to be able to ad-lib and improvise. Sports is a little bit less scripted and you want to be able to make sure that you’re able to adapt without needing a teleprompter.

5. What is one thing you’d want people to know about Sports broadcasting?

  • You get in it because you love telling stories about sports and the people in your community, whether, you know, I think it’s high school, I think more of a high school level, just the athletes you get to meet. You know, at that level, that you go on to see make it to the pros. I think the best part of it all is seeing that trilogy from them going to high school to college into the pros. I saw basketball players in Hampton Roads and football players, who are in the NFL & WNBA, and it’s just really special to see.

6. Your current position seems different from the others, what does your current role entail?

  • My current role still entails telling stories. I’m just telling them from a corporate voice now. So, I find the people inside our company. I tell their stories on LinkedIn and social media and also to our employees. Um, and you know, so it’s a little bit of both. You face outward, you face inward, and you talk to employees, you talk to prospective customers and people and competitors. Crafting stories in a different space. Now I still get to shoot, I still get to write. It’s still a lot of everything that I did.