Sports Writer in Grass Valley, Calif.

Company: The Union
Position: Sports Writer
Location: Grass Valley, California
Job Status: Full-time
Salary: $25,000 to $30,000
Ad Expires: October 5, 2006
Job ID: 677002
Website: http://www.theunion.com


Description:
Sports Writer - The Union, a six-day a week 17,000 circulation newspaper with 24,000 registered online readers, is looking for a sports writer. We're looking for someone to bring energy to our coverage of an eclectic sports scene. In addition to three high schools with traditionally strong programs, our Sierra foothills community also offers a vast array of outdoors sports to cover. One of our primary goals in the next year is to add video and audio reports to our web site. If you are interested in this position, contact Sports Editor Brian Hamilton by sending an e-mail to brianh@theunion.com or by mailing your application package, consisting of a cover letter, resume and five clips, to The Union, Sports Department, 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley, CA 95945.
-------------------------------

I used to work at this paper. If you're a young guy/girl and just getting started or if you love the outdoors, this is a great place to work. There are a lot of new people at the paper that I didn't work with, so I can't speak about working for them. But the town is nice, and it's a great place to be if you like the outdoors. It's nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains. You get the occassional snow, but not too bad. Grass Valley is located about an hour from Sacramento, 90 minutes from Reno, and about 3 hours from the Bay Area, so it's very managable to make a trip out there.

For me, the worst part of this job was dealing with the people at the big high school in town. My job was to be the beat reporter for this high school. I covered every one of their football games - home and away - and it still wasn't good enough. They just didn't like the fact that a reporter might write about them fumbling 4 times and having 10 penalties; or write about the quarterback being suspended. They were used to having the local reporters be like a booster. Hopefully that's changed, although it is the same football coach. On the flip side, you see some GREAT football. In the short time I was there, I saw D.J. Williams (Broncos), Donte Stallworth (Eagles), Onterrio Smith (formerly Vikings), Matt Barnes (a great WR now playing for the 76ers) Ryan Dinwiddie (former Boise State QB) play. The local team is annually in the hunt for the section title.

If you want more info on this job or the location, feel free to ask me. It's been 8 years since I was there, but I'll do what I can to help!

 

Onterrio Smith played here? Did he find the Original Whizzinator here too?

 

I believe he crossed the border and found it in Reno.

 

And this position is just about -- all together now -- 15 minutes from Tahoe.

Damn. That felt good. Always wanted to say that.

 

Is John Seelemyer (sp) still there?

 

He was the ME when I was there, but I don't think he's still there. GREAT guy to work with though.

 

When he was there, there were ALWAYS openings at that paper. Which makes me wonder if it was him or the location.

 

I'd hope it was location.

 

It was neither. Seelmeyer was great to work for. Extremely fair to both news and sports guys, which is rare in a ME, I've found. The location is great, too.

The Union is just one of those papers that has a lot of openings because it's a stepping stone. It's roughly 20,000 circulation, so it's a place where people right out of college are going to go and cut their teeth for a couple years and move on. When I got hired, I was one of four guys in the sports department. Within the first 4 months, 2 of the other 3 were gone, and about six months after that the 3rd guy was gone, too. I was only there 18 months, and within a year of me leaving, I didn't know anyone on the sports staff.

Take that for what you will, but my experience was that it was a great place to get some experience and then move on.

 

Nice part of California, and the paper is committed to the Web without ignoring the print product.