New Sun Rise sports writer back where he started

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 5/19/15

There I stood in the Warwick Public Library more than four years ago, sifting through various polls about whether Stephen Strasburg was destined to become the greatest pitcher in baseball history and …

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New Sun Rise sports writer back where he started

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There I stood in the Warwick Public Library more than four years ago, sifting through various polls about whether Stephen Strasburg was destined to become the greatest pitcher in baseball history and various other silly questions.

I received a text message from my father, reading “Hey, Mr. Reporter. How about you email the Beacon?”

My fascination with sports reporting doesn’t stem from an obsession with Peter Gammons, or a dream to meet David Ortiz. It helps me cope with the fact I cannot play contact sports because of a hereditary bleeding disorder called hemophilia. I would envy all of the athletes who got a chance to hit that walk-off home run, or score the game-winning touchdown. So, the next best thing was to write about them and that helped me on to a career path in sports journalism.

It’s all of the fun of athletics without (most of) the risk of injury. So, I gave it a shot and emailed former sports editor William Geoghegan. He was nice enough to take in a 16-year-old Warwick native and sports fanatic, who had never written an article in his life, and make him a freelance writer. My first game was a Pilgrim boys’ basketball game against West Warwick and, yes, the story was awful.

I freelanced very intermittently for the next three years, writing a piece every several months and sometimes going an entire year without one. However, my schedule was not exactly flexible. I have been at the University of Rhode Island for the past three years, and over the course of writing more than a hundred articles for the campus newspaper, “The Good 5 Cent Cigar”, and school work, I lost track of freelancing.

After having embarrassed myself in my first few efforts at the Beacon, I decided that two years as sports editor at the Cigar and three overall years as a sports reporter there had prepared me thoroughly enough to give it another shot. After William left for the South County Independent, I contacted Kevin Pomeroy to see if any more help was needed.

He was happy to oblige and, after reading my story from the Hendricken-Cranston East football game, said my writing had improved tremendously and I was freelancing regularly. Please, don’t go searching for that Pilgrim-West Warwick game story.

Long story short, after Kevin left and I found out the Beacon was hiring some sports assistance for Matt Metcalf (one man covering three cities for as many newspapers is a tough, debilitating task), I jumped at the opportunity. That’s why I’m here, and I am truly living the dream already at age 20.

Whether it is a 56-point blowout on a rainy day or a basketball game that comes down to the final shot, there is always a story to be found. I love this aspect of sports writing. Athletes, coaches, fans and even officials have a reason they are there. Sports is so much more than what is on the surface, and that is one of many factors for why I find this sector of journalism so fascinating.

There is still a bevy of stories waiting to be told and numerous moments waiting to be created out on the field or in the arena, and I am ecstatic that I will have the ability to find and cover them. I am back home in Warwick (even if it’s just from Kingston), and I am ready to get down to business.

Good thing I sent that email back in January 2011.

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