My First Love: Sports Writing
I first began writing when I was about 7 or 8 years old.
In the beginning, I was definitely a sports nerd. I would write game recaps for simulation sports that I would do on pen & paper. I know, definitely nerdy, but when the sun went down, and I couldn’t play sports outside, I wanted a way to keep the game going. So I figured out a way to simulate baseball, basketball, and football games using only a paper, some imagination, and a little love for the sports.
From these games, I would create game write-ups so I could go back and look at my events. My parents called it “paperwork” and I always had it scattered all over the house. This founded my love for sports and numbers, and eventually, I moved on from that “paperwork” to more complicated formulas and writing. I soon began trying to find every piece of sports statistical information I could find, and yes, I did read the book, Moneyball, before the movie came out.
Finding My Passion
Using this information, I would write various articles in my notebook about the information I found throughout middle and high school; and completed formulas that better reflected a setter’s performance in volleyball, a W.A.R stat for high school baseball, and a better QB Rating. I also have a paper somewhere in my google docs that has correctly predicted the last 3 of 4 NBA M.V.P. for the last couple seasons that i compute about January of every year.
Anyway, I have always had a love of writing and sports, but never did much with it. I made a newsletter for my friends when I was in 6th grade, but didn’t really use social media in high school, so I never got into spreading my research to the world. In college, however, I got the opportunity to work for the Yankton Press & Dakotan as a part-time sports writer. This came after a stressful semester my sophomore year, where I discovered what I have always wanted to do was write (Thankful for my father, who is a reading teacher!).
From there, I became a better writer thanks to the efforts of myself and the staff who helped me along the way, but I still felt like I had a different journey. I decided to start my own blog late in 2020, when my friends, Pete Turner and Tom Turner, contacted me just after I started to build the blog. What great timing! We added another friend, Alex Wilson, and brainstormed names when I thought of Digital Z Sports. We then opened the site on September 14th, 2020 and had a ton of fun!
After a few months, I decided we needed a bigger place to post then a google site, so I bought a domain and in December of 2020, we started right here at DigitalZSports.com
The Start of Digital Z South Dakota
I had a new internship coming in the spring of 2021 and decided that it was time for me to move on from the P&D. I am thankful for the start it got me in South Dakota sports, but I was ready to move on and cover South Dakota sports for myself.
Over the next year, I have had a ton of fun writing about sports in South Dakota. I’ve had great phone calls with coaches, talked to fans and others and provided an outlet for the fun side of sports.
What Makes Us Different
You see, I believe that sports are an escape from the everyday reality for most people. I mean, that’s how college sports started, a mental break for students from their studies, and it has transformed to what we have today. So with Digital Z South Dakota, I wanted to give people a break from their everyday lives. No politics, just sports. Yes, on my personal page, I share my opinions about everyday culture, but no one needs to see that. And I believe every company should give fans the opportunity to follow sports and only sports if they so desire.
Fans shouldn’t be required to see my or any other writer’s personal political opinions to get the sports news they desire. If fans want to follow the writer, they can, but they also should be allowed to NOT follow the writer. So giving people that freedom to follow is part 1 of what makes Digital Z Special. Part 2 is this:
In the age of social media, everyone has already seen the play-by-play.
Everyone knows what happened already, they could see it on their phone. What sites like myself, and The Athletic (great buy btw), have discovered is that fans want to see the fun stuff, and what makes sports so great.
I think this is where traditional media can fall behind in some aspects, they are too play-by-play and not enough inside stories. SO when journalist post columns, I enjoy reading them because they are being themselves and giving us the honest, and fun parts of sports (1 great writer at this is Jeremy Hoeck, who tells the game story from a column-style format).
And that is what I think makes Digital Z Sports so special. We are exciting, honest, and fresh. We aren’t going to give you the same old same old, and we still give you the sports you want.
We also aren’t the enemy of any page or newspaper and tv station. We just want to give you more fun coverage of what you love:
Sports.
As we begin year 2 of this journey, we expect a lot more expansion. But don’t think you will be getting a diluted product. It will be how we have always been and better…Fun, Exciting, and Honest!
Great article! From the time you were very young, you always had pencil and paper wherever you went.