SportsDiva72
Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2025
- Messages
- 51
Long before I was "The Sports Diva", I was just plain old Jo Ann Lawery, a student from "Little" Wagner College on Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City.
I was a History major and a Journalism minor at Wagner.
I wrote articles and did interviews with members of the Wagner College Seahawks basketball team, the hockey club, and even the new athletic director.
I even went down to Philadelphia to "cover" the hockey game between the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.
That was nice, but I was greedy, I wanted more.
Fast forward many years and I had left New York City and moved to a place that even after all these years, is more like "home" than New York City will ever be.
It's Boston, Massachusetts and for 13 years that was home.
I became a Boston Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins fan.
As for being a fan of the Boston Red Sox, I went to Fenway Park many times, but the New York Yankees fan in me won't let that happen.
I read as many sports publications as I could find.
One of them was a publication called The Boston Sports Report, which came out weekly.
I loved reading it except for one thing.
They only had one female sports writer, who later became my second editor.
I wasn't happy and I wrote the editor, Paul Woods, basically telling him, "do you think female reporters are there to look at player's butts?"
His reaction came quickly and it was in the form of a challenge.
"If you think you can do a better job, contact Heidi Holland , the media director of the Boston Bruins, set up an interview with one of the players, then we'll talk."
Was he kidding?
Am I being punked?
What had I gotten myself into?
Challenge accepted, Mr. Woods.
Although, when I met Heidi Holland, she wasn't alone.
With her was Darin Kimble, the Bruins player that I wanted to interview.
No, this wasn't a joke nor was I being punked.
I really did get to interview a professional athlete, and it was my first of many all the way up to 2006.
Guess what?
Once I started interviewing, I couldn't stop.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
I was a History major and a Journalism minor at Wagner.
I wrote articles and did interviews with members of the Wagner College Seahawks basketball team, the hockey club, and even the new athletic director.
I even went down to Philadelphia to "cover" the hockey game between the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.
That was nice, but I was greedy, I wanted more.
Fast forward many years and I had left New York City and moved to a place that even after all these years, is more like "home" than New York City will ever be.
It's Boston, Massachusetts and for 13 years that was home.
I became a Boston Celtics, Patriots, and Bruins fan.
As for being a fan of the Boston Red Sox, I went to Fenway Park many times, but the New York Yankees fan in me won't let that happen.
I read as many sports publications as I could find.
One of them was a publication called The Boston Sports Report, which came out weekly.
I loved reading it except for one thing.
They only had one female sports writer, who later became my second editor.
I wasn't happy and I wrote the editor, Paul Woods, basically telling him, "do you think female reporters are there to look at player's butts?"
His reaction came quickly and it was in the form of a challenge.
"If you think you can do a better job, contact Heidi Holland , the media director of the Boston Bruins, set up an interview with one of the players, then we'll talk."
Was he kidding?
Am I being punked?
What had I gotten myself into?
Challenge accepted, Mr. Woods.
Although, when I met Heidi Holland, she wasn't alone.
With her was Darin Kimble, the Bruins player that I wanted to interview.
No, this wasn't a joke nor was I being punked.
I really did get to interview a professional athlete, and it was my first of many all the way up to 2006.
Guess what?
Once I started interviewing, I couldn't stop.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
