As senior Weston Haywood comes closer to the transition from high school to college, he has become increasingly excited about his dream career: Sports Broadcasting.
Weston knew that he wanted to go into Sports Broadcasting since his junior year. He began new sports and immediately knew that that was what he wanted to do. For the past year, he’s been taking FHC’s news broadcasting class, FX, to help prepare for his future career. FX has helped him learn many skills that are essential to sports broadcasting, and it’s also been an excellent experience for him.
“Sports broadcasting and FX connect because there’s a lot of technical parts to sports broadcasting,” Weston said. “In FX, there’s also a lot of technical parts, so that’s kind of the biggest connector between the two.”
Joining FX introduced him to so many things that would help him get ready for his next few years at Michigan State University. As Weston continues to prepare for the shift from FHC to MSU, he’s thought of the many reasons he’s most excited about going into Sports Broadcasting.
“I love sports, and I love watching sports,” Weston said. “I consider myself a pretty energetic person, and I think that ties really well with my dream job, Sports Broadcasting. I’m most excited about actually talking in front of a live audience on TV. Also, maybe meeting some of the athletes.”
Since Weston knew that he’d wanted to do sports broadcasting since his junior year, he’s had plenty of time to think about what sport he’d like to cover the most. There are many different sports that he enjoys watching and covering for FX, but one sticks out the most: basketball.
Weston played basketball in his junior year, and he immediately found his love for the sport. Because of the energy and liveliness that goes into it, he has become more hopeful about covering it in the future.
“In my opinion, [basketball is] the most fast-paced,” Weston said. “You never really know what’s going to happen because anything could happen just like that.”
Weston has been covering many different sports for FX, which is another thing that has introduced him to his love for announcing basketball. Since he’s been announcing for many other sports, he’s learned how to do many behind-the-scenes things, and he’s learned the best ways to cover all of the different sports. There are so many lessons that he’s learned, but to him, there’s one lesson that stood out over the rest.
“The biggest lesson that I’ve learned from FX is that it takes a team to accomplish what you really want to do,” Weston said. “In FX, we have stories that we need to complete, and I think that will tie into sports broadcasting because it’s going to take a team to accomplish the broadcasting.”
Teamwork is very important to Weston because there are very few things you can accomplish without other people’s help. Along with learning about teamwork, he’s also figured out some of the most important things to have for broadcasting.
There are so many things that are important to being an announcer, but one of the most important things is to be able to be an energetic and enthusiastic person. Because Sports Broadcasters spend many hours a day covering sports, they need to be able to have energy for their busy workdays.
Along with being an energetic person, another critical skill is communication. It’s helpful in day-to-day life but also crucial for the broadcasting industry.
“Communication is probably one of the biggest skills you’re going to need [for sports broadcasting],” Weston said. “You have to talk for hours constantly at a time. I also think that you have to have a set of skills in sports so that you know what you’re talking about.”
For the past year, Weston has been doing many different things that will be helpful for him in college and the broadcasting industry. He’s begun dreaming about his future career, and he’s getting more excited as he gets closer.
There are so many things that Weston hopes to accomplish in the future, but, in addition to being energetic and learning to work as a team, there are two more things that are crucial to him.
“I’m hoping to be a well-known sports broadcaster with all of the big guys up there,” Weston said. “One day, I hope to accomplish announcing for the NBA or college.”
