By Emily Horos
This is the third in a series of 10 stories celebrating the 10th anniversary of the APSE Diversity Fellowship.
I’m fairly certain I was the last person in my class to apply for the Diversity Fellowship when I hit the send button minutes before midnight on the application deadline. Some might say I procrastinate, but as a journalist, I like to say I just work well on a deadline. The truth probably falls somewhere in between as I didn’t feel I qualified for the program. I was a sports editor in title only as the lone member of my paper’s sports staff and thusly overworked and short on time. My class spent a couple of snowy weekends in Indianapolis and enjoyed a summer conference in D.C.
Thanks largely to the connections I made through APSE and the Diversity Fellowship, I found myself fielding multiple job offers over the next two years. In the summer of 2015, I moved from Atlanta to Aberdeen, South Dakota, to lead a five-person sports staff. Local papers shine a bright light on their sports programs and my time in Aberdeen was no different. The third-largest city in the state with a population of roughly 30,000, Aberdeen was a sports hub with two colleges and scores of high schools in the coverage area. There was never a shortage of story ideas. After spending the first decade of my career at small newspapers, I moved to The Arizona Republic in 2018 – thanks once again to an APSE connection. Since arriving, I’ve done a little bit of everything. I’ve supervised colleges, high schools, the NHL, and the NFL. I’ve become the go-to person for web metrics and analytics. I was recently promoted to deputy sports editor. However, one thing hasn’t changed – my goal of telling stories that people want and need to read. Since becoming involved with APSE through the Diversity Fellowship, I’ve become a better journalist and manager. I’ve made great friends and shared new ideas. I’ve achieved things I hadn’t even dreamt. People used to ask me about my career goals and I would give them an answer without ever thinking I’d achieve it. Now, that too seems within reach. ejhoros@gmail.com
Johanna Huybers: When I applied for the Fellowship, I had just been promoted to sports editor at my hometown newspaper, the Reno Gazette Journal. It was the culmination of 10 years of work, starting from an internship I had in high school compiling high school football agate to joining the copy desk full-time in college to leading that copy desk and becoming assistant sports editor. As a first-time manager and department head, I wanted to be the best leader I could be, so I applied for the Fellowship. Because of the experience and confidence I had in my abilities after the Fellowship, I moved onto other opportunities that pushed me outside my professional and personal comfort zone.
My first stop was in Phoenix, the first time I had ever lived away from home. I was the college and high school sports editor at the Arizona Republic, where I helped launch the inaugural high school sports award program and show, one of the first such events across Gannett. I also covered the 2016 College Football Playoff national championship, 2017 NCAA Tournament Final Four and several Fiesta Bowls, including a playoff semifinal game. From there, I moved to Salt Lake City and took a short detour from sports journalism. I joined Social5, a social media and marketing agency, as the director of content to oversee hundreds of clients, a dozen editors and approximately 50 writers, another new challenge.
When I joined Yahoo Sports, it was a dream fulfilled to work at a national outlet covering pro sports and to be colleagues with another Fellow in my class who has become a great friend, Marcus Vanderberg. The throughline from being a new manager in my hometown to covering the NBA, WNBA and NFL is the fellowships and relationships I built through it. It’s an honor to be part of the legacy of the program. jhuybers@gmail.com
Marcus Vanderberg: There’s no manual when you become a manager. No real set of directions that you can study (or cram) before you get the call. So as my professional career started to branch out at Yahoo Sports, I decided to seek help. Thanks to the recommendation and encouragement of my boss Melissa Geisler, I applied and was selected for the Fellowship and spent more time in snowy Indianapolis than I ever would have imagined.
Not too long after the completion of the program, I was promoted at Yahoo Sports before eventually making the switch to the editorial team to run MLB. The idea of running a sport would have been daunting and slightly intimidating if I didn’t have a newfound set of tools that I could rely on as I was finding my voice as an editor.
I learned so much during my time editing baseball and it made my transition to the NBA team that much easier. My time at Yahoo Sports recently came to an end in July as I accepted a position at ESPN.com as a Sr. NBA Editor, handing the keys over to my amazing friend Johanna Huybers.
None of this would be possible if Jorge Rojas and Michael Anastasi didn’t take the time to invest in four young journalists who all shared one common mission: Be better leaders. marcusvanderberg@gmail.com
Erik Horne: In the summer of 2013, I had no idea what the APSE Diversity Fellowship was, and when then-Boston Globe editor Joe Sullivan said I should apply, I certainly didn’t think I was good enough to be a part of it.
I came back from NABJ in Orlando and went back to work in little Ardmore, Oklahoma, as a sports editor for a supposed two-man newspaper I was temporarily running on my own because we were basically a pit stop for young writers. Within a few weeks, I had an offer from The Oklahoman to be its web editor.
Now, I’m a relatively agreeable person who’s probably not negotiated enough on his behalf over the last 15 years or so in sports journalism. But this one time — maybe the first time in my career — I had to tell Mike Sherman, the sports editor of The Oklahoman, that a condition of taking this job was that I had to be a part of the Diversity Fellowship. Good thing Mike was heavily involved in APSE.
What an experience. While my career took a detour into beat writing, which proved valuable and exposed me to incredible colleagues and experiences, the Diversity Fellowship was the first time I was able to step into a room with the most influential people in my industry and feel like I belonged. It was the first time I was able to commiserate with talented people like Johanna Huybers, Marcus Vanderberg and Emily Horos — people whose careers I’ve followed with great pride for their personal success and what our class has accomplished.
I also just loved listening to Jorge Rojas, Michael Anastasi and Malcolm Moran talk about the business and their experiences. I probably talked (and snored, sorry Marcus) too much. I was green. I was excited.
But the Diversity Fellowship was an affirming experience. Through the years of writing or editing, be it at The Oklahoman or currently with The Athletic, I think back to the APSE Awards, and being one of the few Black faces in a room full of the sports editors from the biggest papers in the country. They’re holding plaques. God bless, most if not all of them are white. And I’m thinking “I can do THAT.”
That thought, that opportunity, would have never crossed my mind without the Diversity Fellowship. ehorne@theathletic.com
