Today our speaker was Michael Coleman, Sports Director with News 12 Long Island.

Michael’s mission was to tell us about the importance of local sports news. Of course there is also the larger spectrum of sports news that he covers, but News 12 is more apt to cover the local teams from high schools and colleges than the city based operations.

He gave us his personal history as it relates to being where he is today. He grew up in Kansas. When he went to college he set his sights on broadcast communications. Being an athlete, and being interviewed himself while in high school, he understood the need for athletes to be well spoken. More importantly, the person doing the interview should be articulate. Today when Michael speaks to athletes, he will often speak to the coach first, and ask him who is best able to make the team look good. Who on the team will present a good image of the team.

Mr. Coleman appears to think of sports as a great personal building tool. He recognizes that few players will achieve pro sport ability, but the lessons learned in sports can be transferred to what he calls “Plan B.” In other words being in training to be a doctor or an engineer, or a teacher has to be the goal in most cases. Being able to carry off a professional athletic career is rare and should not be counted on.

He didn’t say so, but I got the feeling that he was a pretty good athlete himself. The experience made him understand the job he is presently doing, and no doubt, he is better at doing it, in part, because of the experience he had as an athlete.