Decades of change
Star Tribune sports reporter Rachel Blount shares advice and stories.
By NATALYA ARAVALO| Web Editor
Rachel Blount has been a sports reporter since 1991 – 31 years — at the Des Moines Register, Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She has persevered through the early years of sexism with women in the locker room. Today she is happy to say things have changed. Some.
Can you tell me about your journey to your job as a sports reporter for the star tribune?
“They [The Star Tribune] actually called me and offered me the job. I was not really looking to change jobs. I was working at The Des Moines Register … and I got a call from the sports editor at the Star Tribune. He told me they had a job open to cover the Minnesota North Stars (the NHL team before the Wild). I responded and said: ‘That’s really nice but, I don’t know anything about hockey — I don’t even watch hockey; I’ve never covered it.’ The sports editor didn’t seem to care. He believed that if somebody is a good reporter and a good writer they can learn different sports. I didn’t need that hockey experience. I grew more interest, I mean it was a bigger city and a bigger newspaper. I came up [to Minnesota] and interviewed and they offered me the job, and I took it. It was pretty cool.”
How does a day in the life look for you personally?
“On Mondays, we are given an assignment. I usually write one or two feature stories, or I’ll cover a specific athlete. Sometimes I’ll preview a game or meet with other sports representatives like managers to gain more ideas for stories and whatnot.”
“I had to leave, I could not eat Thanksgiving dinner.”
What kind of hours do you work?
“Oh man. The hours are unpredictable. Seriously. I basically work when things are happening. When I get the assignment at the beginning of the week I have a pretty good idea, for instance if I’m writing a profile of an athlete I might interview them at 11 o’clock in the morning and then work on the story later that afternoon. If I’m covering a game I’m probably working at night or on weekends. But a lot of times unexpected things will happen. Maybe on a day you were planning on having off you’ll get a phone call saying there is news happening that needs to be covered. There was one time on Thanksgiving day I was having Thanksgiving with some friends who were in town, and the phone rang just before they were putting the turkey out on the table, and it was somebody telling me that this team that I was covering had just made a trade. I had to leave, I could not eat Thanksgiving dinner. I had to get up and leave and go report and write this story. I’m expected to be on-call 24/7. If something happens, you have to cover it.”
“I got to write that story that connected and told everybody the behind the scenes information about what happened and how it happened.”
What is the best part about being a sports reporter?
“The best part without a doubt is being given the opportunity to meet and interview a lot of really interesting people. You get to attend and write about a lot of really cool events. The Olympics were my favorite event thus far. Since I’ve been a sports writer there have been all these places I’ve gotten to travel to in order to cover the Olympics, and they’re places I’d probably never have the opportunity to visit if it wasn’t for this. You know, I’ve been to Russia, to China, Australia, Japan, Greece, and Brazil. All these places that maybe in a lifetime you’d never have the opportunity to go and do that. I got to not only go to those places but also was able to cover the Olympics and write stories about these events, you know that millions of people at home are watching this on TV and they’re all cheering and excited and I was there actually watching it in person and I got to write that story that connected and told everybody the behind the scenes information about what happened and how it happened. It’s just a really cool thing to do. It’s a great feeling to do that.”
Who was a mentor and how have they impacted you?
“I never had anybody who I formally would ask to be my mentor. Although there have been people who were simply there to give me advice. People that I went and got advice from when I was younger in particular. Not really a formal relationship, but lots of informal ones where I would just call somebody up and say, ‘Hey, can we talk about life for a little bit?’ or I would see them at a game and before the game I would ask any questions I may have had. Also on my own I would always read other people’s writing, people that I respect and looked up to. I would read and think: ‘How can I learn from this and incorporate it into my writing?’ ”
“You have to be really curious, not everybody is curious. People go through life not really wanting to know all of the information.”
What would you recommend someone to do in order to get an internship and what would you look for in an intern?
“Somebody should definitely get themselves some experience in writing and reporting by working for the student newspaper in high school or college. Even community papers [a lot of people are doing this now], or blogs — online entities. People look a little less at education and a little more at practical experience or a work portfolio now [for internships]. They want to see that you’ve been out there learning how to do this, that you’ve been interviewing people and writing stories. They want to see the stories that you’ve been writing and to be able to judge whether or not you get it and understand how to do this. When you interview for these positions you have to be outgoing, and show that you won’t be shy, that you can go out there and interview people you’ve never met before and ask them hard questions if you have to — if the story is about some kind of wrongdoing, you have to have the gumption to be able to ask them hard questions. You have to be really curious, not everybody is curious. People go through life not really wanting to know all of the information. If you’re a reporter, you have to want to dig deeper into the things you already know. You want to be the first person to know and the person who knows the most.”
“You lose friendships over this sometimes…”
How do you find balance between your social and professional life?
“That is definitely hard to do. You have to really work at it. You have to make sure that when you have the day off that really you take that day off. It can be really tempting to have the day off, it can be like; ‘Oh, wow, there’s a Wild game on TV. I should probably watch that because I might be covering them next week.’ Sometimes you gotta just put your foot down and tell yourself: ‘No, on my day off I’m going to go shopping or go to the movies’ or something just to make sure you do that. You also have to rely on your friends to understand how your schedule is. You lose friendships over this sometimes because maybe one night you have plans to go out to dinner with somebody and then you have to cancel on them last minute because something came up, you have to write a story. So in the end you have a group of friends who understand it and won’t be mad when that kind of thing happens.”
Being a sports reporter, or reporter in general can have its pros and cons — just like any other job out there. A reporter is being given the opportunity to write and learn and be able to connect readers with their own reality. Sure hours are hard and demanding, but how terrible can anything be if you’re doing what you love? Being good at what you do because you love it is key for a successful [aspiring] writer.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
