Opinion | What it’s like managing a sports section without any sports

Joe Perrino, Sports Editor

Well, to answer the headline, it’s honestly not as hard as you’d think.

A year ago in May of 2020, I had my initial interview for The Panther with Jasmin Sani, the amazing editor-in-chief. On my list of desired positions, I’d initially put that I wanted to be a sports writer for my second straight year. But closer to the interview, I changed my mind and decided to apply for sports editor. 

As Jasmin and I finished up our conversation, a negative thought crept into my mind: what if this pandemic goes on for long enough that Chapman sports don’t happen next year?

I laughed it off and reveled in a congratulatory email that I’d been selected as the new editor of the section. Yet, as the summer months ticked by and COVID-19 cases continued to grow, I slowly came to a realization that there would, in fact, be no sports at the start of the school year.

Long story short, I was freaking out.

“What the f--- am I going to report on?” I thought. “Will I get fired? What’s the point of a sports section without any sports to cover?” 

Eventually, when our first issue came around in the first week of August, I obviously wanted to figure out what exactly the university was planning for fall athletics. I came to find out sports were pretty far down on the list of priorities. Things seemed like a lost cause. 

But to my surprise, that’s where all the doors opened.

With a little digging that involved watching sports, research and previous interviews, I was able to find unique, interesting content for us to report on. Cool stories emerged, like a house full of baseball players preparing for the MLB draft and Orange County holding “Kobe Bryant Day.” I found stories all around just by paying a little closer attention.

The Black Lives Matter movement, also, became closely tied with all levels of sport, which gave me the opportunity to showcase the activism and thoughts of Chapman athletes. That helped me realize I could expand our content to professional sports as long as there was a Chapman angle. 

From there, we went into NBA, NFL and MLB content, going so far as to connect sociological theories to sports. Sports on Chapman’s campus slowly began ramping up, but there were only so many stories we could do on teams stepping onto Wilson Field again.  

Then, just when I was getting starved for content, a gem fell into my lap at the beginning of the spring semester: some programs got news that they were coming back. It was a glorious day. I thought I would go the entire year without reporting on a single live event.

We took advantage of the anticipation, running multiple stories about sports’ return, with coaches’ and players’ reactions. It was free content.

Then eventually, the wait officially ended.

After six months of no sports, my terrific writers Christine Chang, Braeden Lueken and Dominic George could all report on actual Chapman sports games again. 

But the real story isn’t the sports returning, of course. It’s the fact that we managed to find ways to come up with fresh content in a time where there weren’t any games. Heck, I was even a finalist for a sports writing award, and the story wasn’t even about a current Chapman sport or athlete.

I guess it really is true what our adviser Jeff Pearlman tells us every week. There’s stories all around you; just go out and find them.