MacLean's Funny Skit From FOX Sports San Diego
MacLean's Teases For San Diego Padres-New York Yankees Series
Men's lacrosse senior Joe MacLean has been a productive part of the Titan program for three years, helping the team win the 2013 MAAC Championship, but the midfielder knows he is a student athlete and so far, he has made the most of both titles at the University of Detroit Mercy.
When I entered UDM as a freshman, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to be on TV. I knew it wasn't going to be easy so I focused on working hard in the classroom, but I soon learned that to get on television, it was more than just doing well in the classroom. I needed to get experience and the only way I could gain experience was doing internships.
Entering my senior year, I now have two internships under my belt and professional experience that helped me already get a job offer.
My first internship I did was with WXYZ-TV, also known as Detroit's ABC affiliate Channel 7. When I started, I had experience reporting with the Varsity News, but when it came to technical skills, Professor Jason Roche's single camera video class, Professor Tom Stanton's journalism classes, and Professor Cynthia Langham's speech class were the only tools I had in my journalism toolbox. However, when I left, I was able to see the broadcasting industry from a professional angle and perform some tasks at a professional level.
The experience that helped me the most was assisting Heather Catallo and Ross Jones with coverage of the Kwame Kilpatrick corruption trial. As a native Metro-Detroiter, I was aware of the ongoing investigation of political corruption and about the text message scandal and helped cover the proceedings at the trial.
After the fall of 2012, I applied for an internship with FOX Sports San Diego. I've never been west of Chicago so a summer in southern California sounded promising. After accepting the internship, I searched for housing in the area and after some early ideas fell through, I found a spot living with an officer in the Navy named Kevin Spinoza at the Coronado Shores in beautiful Coronado, Calif. If you were to open google maps and search Coronado Shores La Sierra Tower, you would see that I lived literally on the beach.
The Coronado Shores was 7 minutes away from Diamond View Stadium where I worked, spending most of my internship working with production assistants. On my first day, I took a tour around the office and met some of the employees. One person I was surprised to meet was Laura McKeeman, who was Miss Florida 2012, since she worked as a sideline reporter during Padres and Chargers game. Sadly, I only worked with her once and she is engaged to Josh Rutledge, an infielder for the Colorado Rockies.
The job of a production assistant is to do whatever your producer asks of you. I learned quickly that producers are very well "picky" and when they ask you for something, they want it sooner than soon. The jobs they ask PAs to do include editing teases, ingesting footage, logging tape, and helping talents on shoots. One of the PAs that worked at FOX Sports San Diego was Rod Allen's daughter, Rachel Allen, and it was great to know a Tigers' fan out West.
A specific job I did on a few occasions involved helping cameramen with interviews in the Padres clubhouse. Anytime I found myself in the Padres facility, I paid attention to how a major league clubhouse operated. I saw when the players arrived, what was said on and off the record before and after interviews, and how the players treated the reporters.
Bud Black, the Padres manager, always had a smile on his face when he talked to reporters. One time "Buddy" asked Kelly Crull, one of our sideline reporters and a former Oklahoma City Thunder reporter, a trivia question on who Red Holzman was. Crull had never heard of Holzman, but luckily for her, I did. As soon as Buddy looked away from her, I whispered to her, "Hall of Fame coach for the Knicks." After Buddy's interview was over, Crull answered his question with a confident smirk. Impressed, Buddy tossed her a baseball and said, "There's your prize." Crull then proceeded to thank me and gave me the ball. I was pretty thrilled I knew the question, but the situation reaffirmed my confidence that I could do this job for a living.
Other highlights of my internship were meeting Michigan native and legend Dick Enberg and working the Opening Day horse races at Del Mar Raceway. My dad had given me a heads up that Enberg was a Michigan native before I left Detroit so when I was introduced to Enberg, I confidently told him I was a Michigander. I could tell I got a few brownie points from him as we both had a lot of love for the Great Lakes State. Seeing a living legend like Enberg do his job every day let me experience a consummate professional at work.
Major League Baseball's All-Star Break did not mean FOX Sports San Diego took a break. The producers relied heavily on the PAs for Opening Day at Del Mar. They needed us to make promotions, commercials, and segments for its broadcast. The event was on Wednesday, July 17, and we had Monday to edit everything the producers needed and Tuesday to set up the FOX Sports set.
When Wednesday arrived, I was given the job as runner, which required me to relay the recently shot footage from the cameraman to the broadcast truck. I wore tennis shoes because I thought I literally had to run whenever the cameraman gave me a P2 card (basically a giant USB drive) to deliver to the truck. From 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., I must have burned over 1,500 calories and earned the respect of every employee working Opening Day. Del Mar's venue is massive and our truck was always at least a half mile away.
At the end of my internship, my supervisor/producer let me edit the tease for the San Diego Padres-New York Yankees series. The Yankees series took place from August 2-4, but he didn't tell me I was responsible for the tease until the day before the game. Luckily, I had spent the past week ingesting footage for the Yankee tease, however, I thought I was doing it for someone else. Having seen all the Yankee footage already, I knew where I could find all the good shots. It took me just south of 16 hours to complete, and I had it ready six hours early for my supervisor to approve.
I saw my tease once the pregame show started and right before the game began. It was refreshing seeing something that I had made on television. When my internship came to a close, I had made enough good impressions that I got a job offer from my supervisor. He knew I still had to complete my senior year, but told me he would hold a spot for me. I was ecstatic to know I had been offered my first job and a pathway to my dream career.
The internship was no cakewalk and there were times where I doubted my abilities. However, my trials as a student athlete at UDM had prepared me to face the obstacles in San Diego independently and confidently. All the early morning workouts, practices, and hours studying had disciplined me to go above and beyond the bare minimum, and I don't know if I could have done it without the active schedule I have experienced at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Titan fans, remember to follow #DetroitsCollegeTeam on Twitter and Instagram at @DetroitTitans and remember to like the Titans on Facebook.
