by Vincent Juico

On October of 2014, I started writing for the Business Mirror. The life of a sportswriter or sports journalist is that of telling a story. Storytelling to your readers about subjects and topics that don’t get a lot of press and that don’t get a lot of hype. I’ve written about sports stories that not a lot of people know about.

As sports journalists, we have a responsibility to our readers, we owe it to them to make sure we have accurate, correct and precise facts, statistics and information before we put our work out there.

There’ve been times wherein I’ve come up with something to write about with only an hour left before my deadline without compromising quality.

I’ve had my share of interviews with professional athletes both active retired. One interview I did was with former UFC heavyweight and former UFC light heavyweight champion, Daniel “DC” Cormier.

Another was with arguably, the greatest men’s volleyball player ever, Karch Kiraly.

Part of a sports journalist’s life is trying to get your work to places and spaces where a lot of eyes can see what you’ve written. To generate an abundance of opportunities where your work and your name can get a boost of awareness.

I take advantage of invitations to press conferences, roundtable talk and focus group discussions to ask the questions that will tell a story and inform my viewers and readers.

When the outbreak started and as the pandemic rages on, I’ve had to be creative to navigate through the screeching halt of on-ground sports events. On-ground sports events bring a treasure trove of talking points for sports media practitioners like yours truly.

I’ve had to dig deeper and research further for newsworthy stories to write about and talking points to discuss. I’ve had to look for other avenues to get my work and my two cents worth on sports issues both here and abroad.

Podcasts have been around even before the outbreak, but we’ve seen its proliferation especially among sports journalists. I’ve co-hosted a few to have my opinion and insights known to peers, readers and viewers.

I’ve also partaken and participated in virtual press conferences to make queries out of an insatiable curiosity.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people who’ve given me a platform to do what I love, thank you to Ed Andaya, President of TOPS, Brian “The Godfather” Yalung of Sports Bytes, my good friend Benny Benitez of Pinoyliga.com and Mr. Jun Lomibao, my sports editor at Business Mirror.