Ever since my Sophomore year of High School in 2015, I’ve known that I wanted to join the Sports Media Industry. I used to take journals and write articles upon articles. Now that I’ve reached 87 career articles, it’s time to reintroduce myself. My name is Dacota Haynes. I was born and raised in Longview, Washington which is a smaller city about an hour north of Portland, Oregon.
Just like you, I have my favorite sports teams. It should come as no surprise that being from the Pacific Northwest and the teams in this region, I’m a huge Portland Trail Blazers fan. Some people here at Vendetta would even say that I am a crazy Blazers fan. But enough about my favorite teams, that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
Before Covid happened, I was supposed to be the play-by-play announcer for the Northwest Nazarene baseball team. However, the gig was unfortunately canceled, and I was sent home. By talking with a friend I’ve learned a lot about this industry. I took the tips he gave and started networking with other content creators and broadcasters.
By networking with others I found Vendetta Sports Media, who happened to be looking for writers at the time so I reached out and got the position. I’ve loved every minute of my time with Vendetta. Writing for the website has allowed me to express how I feel about sports. Did I ever see myself as a sportswriter? No. I was more of a broadcasting and podcasting guy, but I’ve learned a lot from the experience. However, I am very excited to have this opportunity to write articles and I am very thankful that Trey Daubert gave me this opportunity.
I’m currently on a podcast called Final Take with Shane Davis.
Throughout the year of 2020, I learned how much you have to adapt in the sports industry sometimes. You really do have to fake it until you make it. Without the people close to me in 2020, I probably would have given up in the summer. Things just were not going the way that I had wanted to. But I had friends and family that were there for me to push me every step of the way.
So what have I learned from the Sports Industry over the past year? You’re not always going to get what you want. You have to be patient and adapt to what’s going on around you.
Now that I’m a senior at Northwest Nazarene, I’m doing play-by-play for the NNU softball team. Outside of calling softball games, I’ve had the chance to network with other broadcasters the past few months and further my career pursuit. This networking has helped me get to where I want to be professionally at this point in my career. When I graduate from NNU in the fall, I’ll be looking to attend a graduate program to learn more about the journalism industry and gain additional experience. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
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