Mississauga, Ontario
First media job:1997 - Co-hosting sports show on CKCU-FM on Carleton University's campus.
Career highlight:I'm a huge baseball fan, so covering a few World Series has been a big thrill for me. I've also enjoyed the chance to cover the FIFA World Cup in Germany, the Olympics and multiple Stanley Cup Finals. I also spent three weeks chasing Barry Bonds around North America as he tried to break Hank Aaron's home run record in 2007. I believe Sportsnet owes me those three weeks of my life back.
Special interests/hobbies:I have a wife and two daughters, who have virtually no interest in sports. This leaves me with nobody to play Tecmo Football with at my house. My wife does understand my random Arrested Development references, so that is her saving grace. I also enjoy writing, cooking and debating the merits of the Expos acquisition of Mark Langston.
Bio: In December 2001, I had a very difficult choice to make: Keep my job in the Ottawa Senators PR department or jump 'to the dark side' and take a TV reporting job with Sportsnet.But getting into sports journalism is what I always wanted to do. I went to high school in Richmond, B.C. and that's when the reporting bug really bit me. It's also when I realized I didn't have a future in Major League Baseball, so I had to figure out a way to keep sports in my life on a daily basis!
I decided to come out to Ottawa in 1994 and take the journalism program at Carleton University. The journalism program was fine, but they seemed to want to turn all of us into hard news reporters on Parliament Hill. So, I started co-hosting a sports show on the campus radio station at Carleton. I'm not sure anybody was ever listening to us, but it was my ticket to start covering Ottawa Senators and Ottawa Lynx games.
After graduating, I landed a job in the PR department of the Ottawa Lynx baseball club. Working for a minor league team was great, but it also meant I had to pull the tarp when it rained and be the mascot in an emergency (I was Lenny The Lynx on two forgettable occasions). I ended up moving on to the Senators PR department, which was fabulous. I had the opportunity to write press releases, work closely with the players, take road trips with the team and even work cool concerts at the Corel Centre.
During my time with the Senators, I was able to serve as a colour commentator for Rogers telecasts of Ottawa Lynx games in the summer. It kept my 'journalistic blood' flowing, so when the opportunity at Sportsnet came along, I jumped at it. It's probably the best career move I've ever made and working for an organization like Sportsnet on a daily basis is so much fun, it really doesn't seem like work most of the time.
