Bobby Valvano's Background

I am going to be doing my feature article on the Jimmy V Foundation. Jimmy V's brother,Bob, recently came and spoke in my Sports and Media class. I hope to be interviewing Bobby Valvano one-on-one so I can get some inside scoop on how exactly the foundation works and how it got its start. The following is a little background of B.Valvano. He speaks about life and how to be good at giving an interview. I learned alot and he gave very vital information. Not only did he give good information, he is very experienced and the following biography is what I personally learned from Valvano's speech.
Bobby Valvano is a very ambitious, hard-working, and successful man. Since he graduated from Junior Wesleyan College, he has held titles that few people can claim. He began the first chapter of his career by becoming the youngest ever Division I coach. For 20 years he bounced around between Divisions I, II, and III, coaching basketball. Once he completed that chapter, he began doing what he is currently doing today; a little bit of everything. He currently is a host for ESPN radio, which airs on 420 stations across the country. In his free time from that, he participates in many other sports related events. He hosts a golf show, commentates NCAA basketball games, and writes a column for the New Albany Times. Valvano is full of experience and knowledge that anyone could learn from.
One of the main things that has brought Valvano so much success is the characteristic that he is unbelievably versatile. Employers can count on him to successfully produce, regardless of what they are calling upon him to do. Valvano stresses the fact that to strive in the communications field, a person must have a wide range of talent. Even if a person has more ability in one area, they have to at least be willing to learn other aspects of a job. Not only is that true in the communication world, it is true in most parts of life.
Valvano broke down the basics of how to be good at his job. Although his radio station has a lot of factual information, probably the most crowd-appeasing portion is the interview fragment. With experience, he has become more knowledgeable about the key elements of interviewing. One key to a good interview is being able to listen. When an interviewer gets a response; many times the response leads into another question regarding the original question. That sequence leads to a better story or broadcast.
Another characteristic to a good interviewer is he/she has to be brave. The best stories are when the interviewee gives interesting information that has not been reported yet. For that information to be given, the tuff questions must be asked.
Like Valvano said, the media are the eyes and the ears of the public. When a person is performing an interview, they must hold into respect how important the information is to the public. The interviewer must be prepared and professional during the meeting. There is a ladder of respect that each interviewer needs to climb when attempting to get a story. Normally the more respect that is shown, the higher up the ladder the interviewer climbs.
Valvano has a very impressive resume. He knows what it takes to win over an employer, and understands what many company's are looking for. The things he said employers are looking for are a smart, passionate person that is willing to learn and be open-minded.
He talked about a lot of things that we have learned about in class. We had a whole section about interviewing, and he made it very clear through experience on how to go about getting a good one. Within most things in the media, a person has to be objective. It is important not to mix too much personal opinion into stories that are written. We learned in class what an important attribute that is when reporting.
There are many things that I can do to help myself enter Valvano's profession. I am currently in the process of trying to get an internship with a media network. I am a strong believer in using every resource that is available. In this profession, it is very much about who a person knows or builds relationships with. Throughout the process of the whole ordeal, I have learned that I have to be brave and dive into what is going on around me. I have had to overcome a little bit of shyness that I have to hopefully set myself up for a successful career.
"Pick what you do with your time because you can't get it back," stated Valvano. That quote is very relevant to everything in life. I was impressed with Valvano and all of the advice that he handed to us. I think that he gave myself and the rest of the class a lot of inspiration to go out and get the job done regardless of what field we end up in.