About me
I am a committed and hardworking Sports Journalist who currently works as a Deputy Editor for VAVEL (both English and US Versions). I have also previously worked as Press Officer for North Ferriby FC on a voluntary basis. I wrote Match Previews/Reviews for both the online and print based element of the club (my match reports were included in the official club programme). My appointment to North Ferriby came after running the Social Media elements of another Semi-Professional team, East Hull FC, who are in the same division (NCEL Division One). Previously to this, I played for and wrote match reports and previews for a football club in the Humber and County Leagues - Driffield JFC. My work was recognised by the Management at East Hull FC, who offered me the voluntary role of Media Manager back in December 2019 before my appointment to North Ferriby in February 2020. I left the role at the start of September after being made Deputy Editor at VAVEL, as I have been given PL and EFL DataCo Accreditation for this season to attend League One matches for the EFL Office of the VAVEL publication.
My interest in Sports Journalism is rooted in my current employment - Head of Media and Film Studies at Driffield School and Sixth Form, a comprehensive Secondary School in the East Riding of Yorkshire. After qualifying to teach English in 2011, I soon rose up to teach within and then lead the Media Studies department within Driffield School. The new specification of GCSE and A Level require the practical skills to use Photoshop CS6 in particular - something that I learned myself and now teach students to use for part of their qualification. This practical skill I mastered became a key part of my Media Manager role within Driffield JFC as well as East Hull FC. Teaching students how to use software that is standard in the industry allowed me to completely re-design and launch the club's Social Media accounts, something that the Chairman and Head Coach at the club have commented on as raising the club's profile off the pitch.
Despite still being employed in Teaching, I aspire to be a Sports Journalist. Since March, I have worked hard at producing content for both sports writing and Podcasting. I have contributed for the72 - an EFL based football website - and for vavel. I mainly write articles about Hull City as they are the team I have always supported, but will be covering all teams in League One this season with my DataCo Press Accreditation status. In addition, I also write for VAVEL MLS and VAVEL Rugby League offices - showing that I can write about a range of leagues and sports.
I also founded Tigers Tigers Blah Blah Blah Podcast, which was set up initially for fans to share experiences during the lockdown period with no live football available. The Podcast has branched out as time went on and it is now weekly with a different ex-player each week as a guest. I manage the Podcast and all the Social Media accounts but have a co-host to help me question the players and share club based experiences with. We have recently gained sponsorship from Hull City Ladies who plan to help us with facilities and merchandise to give away, and to my knowledge it is the only Club Podcast to regularly cover both men's and women's teams.
I am looking to change my career from teaching to working in any area of Sports Journalism, as I feel it is something I enjoy more than anything else. I would love to take a Sports Reporter or Journalist role on, as I feel my years of experience in the lower leagues around Steps 6 and 7 has prepared me well. My current portfolio on VAVEL is something I am very proud of, with around 50 articles written for that site alone - as well as my work on my Hull City Podcast, which has had 4,000 downloads since April and is growing in popularity amongst Hull City fans.