B/R Sportswriting Intern success story: Alex Hall

Through the Bleacher Report Sportswriting Internship, I was able to work with some phenomenal people and vastly improve my writing ability.

I’ve been writing on Bleacher Report for a few years now, but the Internship was, to borrow a cliché, a whole different ballgame. With the guidance of Andrew Kulha, Neri Stein, Joel Cordes and many others, I was able to broaden my skills as a writer. I covered baseball, football, WWE, basketball and more and stepped away from my comfort zone a bit.

Bleacher Report does a fantastic job of giving opportunities to those who look for them, which to me is one of the most important things I learned during my Summer/Fall 2011 Internship. Since graduating from the program, I’ve worked with the Trends and Traffic team when it’s in need of some extra help, become a Dallas Cowboys Featured Columnist, and now I’m working as part of the MLB Spring Training team.

The Internship makes writers understand the importance of deadlines in the world of journalism, and the feedback given by the Internship editors or even the fans who write comments on the stories is something that is invaluable for aspiring sports journalists.

Even if writing for Bleacher Report is just a hobby, the Internship is something that any contributor should strongly consider taking part in. To take on another cheesy cliché, it takes your writing from the minor leagues into the big time, and you’ll notice that as the weeks go by. I know I did.

The Internship showed me that doing quality work and taking advantage of opportunities when they are given will get you far in the Bleacher Report community. I’ve always admired and respected the fact that B/R loves to build from within and develop the talent that it has on the site as well as making big waves by signing guys like Steven Goldman.

Because of the work I put in and the skills I learned in the Internship, I now cover my favorite sports team, the Cowboys, which is a great feeling. I’ve been given opportunities to cover events such as the upcoming Summer Olympics, spring training and the NFL draft as well as multiple paid opportunities when the TNT team is short-staffed.

There is no better feeling than writing about something you love and getting acknowledged by higher-ups in the company. I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate the coordinators, editors and leaders within the Internship program for the opportunities they gave to me, and I recommend all B/R writers apply for the program and work with them if you can.