Sports
SPORTS JOURNALISM
Local sports journalists share stories, thoughts from their time working in the field
Indigo Coylewright
Photo courtesy of Evan Dudley
For Edwin Stanton, his career at The Tuscaloosa News isn’t just about sports; it’s about coming home.
Stanton started his career with The Crimson White at The University of Alabama and now he hopes to finish it in the very town he started. Stanton is the executive sports editor at The Tuscaloosa News. He’s written about sports his entire career. He also is now back to the same beat he got his start with, covering Alabama football. He enjoys seeing his old bylines posted on restaurant walls and now hopes to write even more.
“I love Alabama sports,” Stanton said, “and being around Alabama national championships.”
A newspaper professional since the 1990s, Stanton also enjoys putting the newspapers in readers’ hands and giving them a product they can enjoy.
He loves being around people, including those he works within the newsroom as well as the Alabama coaches, players and staff. Stanton has had the opportunity to cover many great football playoff runs, as Alabama is often in a position to win some significant titles during the football season.
Josh Bean – like Stanton, a veteran sports journalist – has covered many stories and gained even more experience throughout his career. Now he hopes to pass it on to the next generation.
Bean is the managing producer for sports at AL.com. However, he hopes to eventually start teaching. He started writing for his school newspaper during his senior year of high school and worked in many internships during college. He also started working for a small weekly newspaper, which Bean said, “helped me figure out what I wanted to do.”
Bean is excited about the challenges and opportunities that changing technology affords to modern journalists. And as technology in the newsroom advances, Bean sees that his role at AL.com may change.
“I like that I have the ability to be creative,'' he said. “I like every day to be different.”
He covered many football games in his journalistic career, however there is one that stands out to him. In the 1997 Alabama state 1A semifinals, the Westbrook Christian Warriors faced off against the Parrish Tornadoes. After the game, the referees were assaulted by players, coaches and fans alike.
“I came to cover the game ... We became breaking news reporters,” he said.
Experiences like that are some of the reasons Bean enjoys journalism because every moment could become a story, and he is never off the clock.
As he said, “You are always a reporter.”
For some, sports journalism has been a dream and passion for their entire lives. But for Evan Dudley, this was never his dream.
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“I have always felt fulfillment of telling others’ stories, ” Dudley said. “I love giving others a chance to shine.”
And although he has not always told stories through his writing, Dudley shared them through music.
“Throughout my twenties, I toured around the country,” he said.
Playing music and bringing joy to people is Dudley's true passion.
Dudley got his first taste of journalism during high school when he took a journalism class. He also started a morning news show in his school with a friend. However, throughout high school, his dream was to become a musician, and he did. He toured the country and eventually, he decided to settle down back in Alabama to work with less traveling.
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I love giving others a chance to shine.
Dudley started working at AL.com to use his writing to tell others’ stories, the true meaning behind his work. And although the two professions are very different, the connection between them is very similar.
“I learned to love it,'' Dudley said. “Anything worth a d*mn in this world is about people.”
His music was meant for people, and now, so is his writing.
Dudley started writing about The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) after its football program was shut down after the 2014 season. According to UAB President Ray Watts and the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, the football team would cost more than $49 million over the next five years.
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However, almost exactly six months after the program was terminated, due to the fundraising of more than $27 million toward the football program and the general outrage of the public, the program was reinstated. That year, the UAB Blazers started working on a $22.5 million football practice facility and it opened a few months before the 2017 football season.
That season, the team tied its record for most wins and became bowl eligible that year after winning seven games. The year after, the team won 10 games and made it to the conference championship against the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders. In the final game of the regular season, the team was matched up with Middle Tennessee, and the winner of this game would be the home team for next week's bowl game.
Middle Tennessee blew the Blazers out, winning 27-3. UAB came back with a vengeance and challenged the Blue Raiders at home the week after, eventually defeating Middle Tennessee, 27-25. The Blazers went on to win the Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl, the first in school history.
”I am going to keep telling that story,” Dudley said.
He is also starting on a book about the football program. Although journalism was not always his dream, he has learned to love it.
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