Chris Irvine on success of Sports Journalism course
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 09:30:00 GMT
The success of our sports journalism students getting full-time jobs and work experience and placements in professional rugby league is documented in the current issue of leading rugby magazine Forty-20.
The University of Huddersfield, birthplace of rugby league in 1895, has an impressive track record for journalistic talent, not least because of the lecturing staff, several of whom are steeped in the game, a double-page spread article in the magazine says.
Senior sports journalism lecturer Chris Irvine is Rugby League Correspondent of The Times and Sunday Times as well as a regular broadcaster on the sport. BBC Television commentator Dave Woods, rugby league reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, also teaches on the sports journalism course, along with Peter Smith, a regular on the rugby league circuit for Sky Sports News.
Huddersfield Giants club play a significant role in the success story and each year take on three third year sports journalism on one-year placements to work one day a week in the media department and on match days. This year's threesome - Sean Freer, Sam Holtby and Tom Burley - have been busy on pre-season publicity material before the big February Super League kick-off.
Placements at the Giants have proved a stepping stone to employment, including Tom Stewart's move from there last summer to a media assistant role at Hull FC under James Clark, a first class honours graduate of the Huddersfield sports journalism course in 2010.
The same year produced Nathan Clarke, who'd never seen let alone as much as heard of rugby league when he arrived from Northern Ireland in 2007 but ended up as communications executive at the Rugby Football League (RFL) before being appointed communications manager for the World Professional Squash Tour in 2013.
Nathan was succeeded at the RFL by first class honours graduate Joe Smith, who has since returned to the University to complete his master's degree. There is a tradition of our third year students at the RFL doing one-year placements. Last year Liam Williams and Josh Barrowcliff were part of the World Cup media team.
This year's student in the media department is Kirsty Saynor, who worked at Underbank Rangers, Bradford Bulls and as part of the Festivals of World Cups publicity team before her RFL placement. Kirsty is also a regular contributor to the generic content for many Super League match programmes, along with a number of Huddersfield students, and has written a much-praised series of interview articles on women in league.
Some students are already in the industry before graduation, such is their rate of progress and willingness to grab as much work experience as possible. First class degree graduate Ryan Sparks worked as amateur rugby league reporter for League Weekly newspaper as well as writing for the Dewsbury Press while studying. When he graduated in the summer of 2014, he was immediately appointed sports editor of the Press. For the past 15 months, he has been Bradford Bulls' media and communications manager.
Luke Reynolds worked as a reporter for Yorkshire Radio, specialising in league throughout his studies, before joining Wakefield Trinity Wildcats as media assistant in 2012, then moving to the Professional Cricketers' Association as their social media executive, working with the England team.
Pete Stephenson made the switch from pitch to press box after an injury while playing that left him paralysed. He crushed two vertebrae and dislocated his neck. Pete not only got back on his feet but completed the degree course with an impressive 2:1 and worked as a league reporter for the Hull Daily Mail and League Express newspapers before landing a role at with Rugby League Cares organisation.
At the BBC, Shamoon Hafez is a regular contributor on league as a staff writer and Tom White works on television coverage as a BBC Sport library technician.
Of the present third years, Mathew Newton, amateur league correspondent for League Weekly, is on placement at the media department at Hull KR, Luke Mawson is assisting Ryan Sparks at Bradford, and Adam Etherington has spent the past year working on the media side at Castleford Tigers, including being part of the backroom team that went to Wembley for the Challenge Cup final last August. Second year student Adam Hughes is also filming the Tigers Under 19s as part of his studies.
As well as working for the RFL on the student game and writing Super League programme contributions, Simon Dent is part of an expanded second year media team this season at Halifax with Sam Duffy and Jess Softley, who filmed games at The Shay and away from home last year, alongside Michael Burton and Adam Hughes. Second year Josh Chapman combines his studies with his media role at Keighley Cougars.
Of our 2014 graduates, Matt Shaw and James Whaling, part of Premier Sports' 2013 World Cup team, maintain their interest in league, James writing about Sheffield Eagles for League Express while working for Mirror Online alongside another of our graduates Aaron Flanagan, and Matt freelancing for Radio Leeds and League Weekly.
Some of our first years are already on track, whether it's writing for superleaguefans.com, commenting on league for givemesport.com, or helping out the likes of the new Mirfield Stags and Conference clubs with their club press coverage.
"It remains the ultimate objective at Huddersfield to see our students graduate from the classroom to the press and commentary box," Chris Irvine said.
