Jeremy Schaap is one of ESPN’s longest tenured and most respected journalists.
He began with the network in 1994 — just 6 years after graduating from Staples High School. He hosts “e60,” “Outside the Lines,” “The Sports Reporters” and other shows.
Jeremy has covered the Olympics, World Cup, Tour de France, World Series, Super Bowl, US OPen golf and tennis, men’s and women’s Final Fours, New York Marathon, Daytona 500, NBA finals, Kentucky Derby, and … chess boxing.
Among his awards: 14 Emmys, a Peabody, 2 Edward R. Murrows, and ESPN’s first-ever Robert F. Kennedy Award for human rights and justice reporting. He earned that for revealing the conditions of migrant laborers in Qatar before the 2022 World Cup.
I could go on and on. But I won’t.
Instead, click below to see our very revealing chat on “06880: The Podcast.” Like Jeremy Schaap, it’s a winner.
The Staples High School field hockey team won their 6th state championship — and 2nd in a row — yesterday.
The Wreckers beat Darien 5-2, at Wethersfield High School. They put the game away with 3 straight goals, breaking a 2-2 draw. Goals came from Leah Larit (2), and Emma Larit, Alex Hackett and Sofia Fidalgo.
It was a clash of titans. Staples was seeded first in the class “L” (large schools) tourney. The Blue Wave were second.
They’re longtime rivals. The Westporters — ranked number 8 nationally — lost only once all year, to out-of-state Camden (New Jersey) Catholic. Darien had only 2 losses before yesterday. Both were to Staples.
And … the Blue Wave were victims of the Wrecker juggernaut in this year’s FCIAC final, and last year’s championship game as well.
Well done, coach Ian Tapsall and all the girls. Now, Darien and the rest of Connecticut: Get ready for a three-peat!
Staples field hockey: once again, state champs! (Photos courtesy of Staples High School Athletics)
Speaking of sports: ESPN journalist — and Westport resident — Jeremy Schaap hosts a special screening of his new E60 documentary tomorrow (Monday, November 18, 7 p.m., Westport Library).
“Pat Tillman: Life, Death, Legacy” highlights his career as a football star with the Arizona Cardinals, followed by his life as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan. His death (by friendly fire) received national attention.
After the film, Schaap will lead a discussion about it, and Tillman’s legacy.
And the New York Times — no easy reviewer — loves the first effort, from the 2002 Staples High School graduate.
Hilary Leichter writes:
Public and private moments of upheaval are the catastrophes in Chris Knapp’s fantastically dense and omnivorous debut novel, “States of Emergency.”
Climates both marital and global, existential terror and immediate terror, the dissolution of borders between countries and also people — such a list only simplifies the vertiginous simultaneity achieved in these pages.
Knapp doesn’t just tighten the perceived distance between our inner lives and the world around us; he erases it.
The result is a masterfully digressive story that moves across perspectives, time zones and time periods.
Imagine a 24-hour news cycle that name-checks Walter Benjamin, Frantz Fanon, the New York City water supply, the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges and Chris Martin’s 2016 Super Bowl halftime show, and you’ll have something approximating the serious and often playful intellectual terrain of this novel. Knapp’s narrator is a flâneur with push notifications.
Click here for the full review. Click here for more information, and to order “States of Emergency.” (Hat tip: Jeff Wieser)
Chris Knapp
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1972 Staples High School graduate Jeff Scher is a filmmaker and animator. He works in a Cross Highway studio, a few steps from his house.
He says: “In the pursuit of tiny post-election joys, here’s a new video I made for the Tom Petty estate. It premiered Friday.
“It’s an unreleased song from the ‘Long After Dark’ album that’s been re-released, with new songs from the original session.”
The video includes a couple of shots based on Compo Beach.
The Heida Hermanns Piano Competition never gets the local attention it deserves.
But the event — set for November 22 and 23, at MoCA CT — is one of the most prestigious in the piano world. It celebrates emerging talents, ages 18-35.
This year’s 3 international finalists — Nick Bai, Carter Johnson and Yongqiu Liu — were chosen from over 70 pianists, who submitted videos of their performances. The trio will premiere a new commissioned work, by composer Lowell Liebermann.
Chair of the jury panel is Frederic Chiu, the local resident, internationally known pianist, and a previous Hermanns winner. The winner receives $10,000.
Speaking of music: On November 24 (The Klein, Bridgeport; 6:30 p.m.), longtime Westport resident and nearly as longtime instructor Bernice Friedson will receive the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras’ inaugural Inna Berson Wetmore Excellence in Teaching Award.
Friedson “demonstrates a commitment to the highest standards of music education, inspires young musicians, and makes meaningful and lasting connections to their students and our community through their teaching,” the honor says.
Friedson grew up half a block from Carnegie Hall. She gave her first recital at age 7, and later performed on WQXR and WNYC. As a teenager, she played with the New York Philharmonic and NBC Symphony.
She studied at Juilliard and Mannes Schools of Music. At 18 she auditioned for conductor Leopold Stokowski, and was accepted into both the City Center Opera and RCA Recording Orchestras.
After moving to Connecticut, Friedson played with the Norwalk, New Haven and Stamford Symphonies, and served as concertmaster for the Greater Bridgeport, Danbury and Ridgefield Symphonies, Connecticut Ballet, and Connecticut Grand Opera. She was concertmaster, violin soloist and assistant conductor of the Connecticut Chamber Orchestra, and founded the Connecticut String Quartet.
Friedson helped found the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Youth Orchestra (now GCTYO) in 1961. She was also a founding member of the Fairfield County String Teachers Association, and a specialist at Neighborhood Studios of Fairfield County.
She continues to teach violin and viola, coach chamber music groups, and prepare students for auditions at at her Westport studio.
Bernice Friedson, with instruments created by her violin-maker father.
“06880” photographers can’t get enough of this full moon.
Matt Murray snapped today’s “Westport … Naturally” image yesterday, as it rose over Sherwood Mill Pond.
(Photo/Matt Murray)
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And finally … on this date in 1973, President Nixon told 400 Associated Press managing editors, “I am not a crook.”
(Sports, music, literature — and everything else going on in town — are all part of today’s Roundup. Just like every day. If you enjoy our hyper-local blog, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
David Lloyd is one of ESPN’s longest-running anchors. He’s been with the network for 27 years. Right now, he’s the 7 a.m. host of Sports Center.
Before ESPN, David was a sportscaster in Macon, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Sacramento, and San Diego.
He’s a native Westporter, and a graduate of Staples High School and Colgate University.
The other day, David hustled down to the Westport Library from Bristol, and reversed roles: He was the interviewee, not the interviewer.
We chatted about the sports landscape when he was a young athlete here; his route to ESPN; memorable moments from his career, and what it’s like working for the “worldwide leader in sports.”
But we also talked about The Susan Fund. For 40 years, the non-profit organization that provides scholarships for students with cancer has honored the legacy of his late sister. That work is as meaningful as anything David does.
Click below for our conversation about sports, and much more.
Two years ago, Staples High School sports fans enjoyed junior Zach Brody’s call of the Wreckers’ girls soccer state championship match on WWPT-FM.
Last winter Zach was courtside at Mohegan Sun, announcing the boys basketball title contest.
Those broadcasts drew hundreds of listeners.
Zach Brody
This Sunday at 7 p.m., millions will hear — and see — Zach. He’ll be behind the mic when the Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies meet at neutral Bowman Field, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania during the Little League World Series.
It’s a legit Major League Baseball game. And — just 2 months after graduating from Staples — Zach will be a legit ESPN announcer.
The event is part of ESPN 2’s “KidsCast.” Zach was selected from 114 students at the Bruce Beck Sports Broadcasting Camp to air a full MLB game, on national television.
“KidsCast” may be a misnomer. Though Zach is still a teenager, he’s honed his skills through Staples’ intensive, high-level curriculum. He’s as serious about his work — and as good — as pros like, well, Bruce Beck.
Zach took full advantage of Staples. He played basketball and tennis; was a cellist in the Orchestra, and served as president of the Unified Sports Club, for special needs youngsters.
A friend who had taken a radio class with Geno Heiter raved about the instructor. But Zach marked it on his sophomore year schedule only as an alternative, in case he did not get into another elective.
He did not — to both his and the student-run station’s benefit.
Zach Brody (center), with his WWPT co-executive producer Devon Jacobs and instructor/advisor Geno Heiter, at the Drury Awards for high school broadcasting. The duo — and station — won several honors.
“I love all sports. And ‘PT has a huge sports culture,” Zach says.
“It’s so inviting and inclusive. Sophomores can debate on the air with seniors. We all build cool relationships around a common passion.”
He learned the trade. Over 3 years he called football, boys and girls soccer and basketball, and baseball.
For 2 summers, he attended the Bruce Beck Camp at Iona College. He learned breaking news, SportsCenter-style news, commentary, podcasting, and play-by-play. The latter included calling an old New York Knicks game, with one of their broadcasters.
“It was very professional. There’s a friendly feel, with lots of collaboration. But there is also competition,” Zach says.
He listened to and watched his fellow campers intently. He heard feedback about everyone.
Meanwhile, he honed his own style.
Zach Brody, courtside at Mohegan Sun for Staples High School’s boys basketball state championship game. WWPT-FM broadcast that contest, and the state final in another division too.
“I like to have fun on the air,” Zach says. “I embrace the big moments, but I try to keep it light. I like getting a smile or chuckle from my partner or listeners.”
Of course, he says, “I’m still learning, growing and developing.”
Campers do not apply for the ESPN 2 KidsCast gig. The network selects 3 young broadcasters, based on tapes from the Beck camp. Zach got the call about making the call the other day.
He’ll work with ESPN producers, and their crew. He’ll do the usual intense prep work.
But Sunday night’s broadcast isn’t the only big thing happening in Zach’s life.
Yesterday, he left for college. He’s about to begin his freshman year at George Washington University.
He asked for — and got — permission to leave for a few days, right in the middle of orientation.
Zach Brody, in the Staples football broadcast booth.
“I’m over-the-moon excited,” he says about Sunday’s broadcast.
“I’m confident in my abilities. As long as I keep doing more than what’s expected, I’ll feel prepared.
“I know I’m very lucky to have this opportunity. I’m stoked.”
(“06880” often features the accomplishments of Staples graduates like Zach Brody. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
On March 11, Jimmy Pitaro worked at his home office in Westport. He’d just finished a senior staff meeting, examining different scenarios for his company in the onrushing COVID crisis.
That night, the National Basketball Association announced the suspension of its season.
The decision jolted Pitaro. The company he chairs is ESPN.
The next morning — as sports leagues around the world followed the NBA’s lead — Pitaro and his programming team began planning for every possible scenario. Their goal: keep the global sports network in business, when the business of sports had suddenly changed around the globe.
Jimmy Pitaro, at ESPN headquarters. (Photo/Joe Faraoni)
Pitaro gives his team plenty of credit. They obtained rights to WWE wrestling, and partnered with Korean baseball. They accelerated development of “The Last Dance,” a 10-part docuseries about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.
Behind the scenes, ESPN scrambled to set up in-home production systems for more than 550 on-air men and women.
The moves kept programming going 24/7, in more than 200 countries. That kept anxious advertisers at bay.
When live events slowly started again, ESPN found ways to cover them remotely. Gone were gigantic production trucks; in their place were producers, play-by-play announcers and analysts covered competitions from studios and homes.
Some of those changes may continue, post-pandemic. So will demand for sports documentaries. ESPN’s features on martial artist Bruce Lee, bike racer Lance Armstrong and baseball sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire found ready audiences.
The number of outside filmmakers pitching ideas now is “off the charts,” Pitaro says.
ESPN is looking for those that are “big, bold and needle-moving. We’re asking: How can we capture the zeitgeist? Where can we make an impact?”
The network is as much about story-telling and investigative reporting as it is about showing games and matches. Pitaro says he surrounds himself with “great people,” then trusts them to deliver.
Among them: fellow Westporter and ESPN producer Andy Tennant. The other day, over breakfast at The Granola Bar, they discussed shows like “E60,” the newsmagazine that Pitaro says combines “substance, heart and humor.”
Pitaro became chair of ESPN in 2018, after 8 years at its parent, the Walt Disney Company. From his first days at “The Mouse,” Pitaro and Disney chair Bob Iger talked about sports, and Pitaro’s opportunities there.
His athletic background is strong. A Scarsdale native who played football at Cornell University, Pitaro grew up in a house where “ESPN SportsCenter was the soundtrack of my life.” New York Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Rangers games were always on. His sister, Lara Pitaro Wisch, is now general counsel for Major League Baseball.
Jimmy Pitaro, mid-pandemic. (Photo/Phil Ellsworth)
Pitaro’s wife, meanwhile, is actress Jean Louisa Kelly (“Uncle Buck,” “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” “Top Gun: Maverick”). When Pitaro joined ESPN he commuted to headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut from Los Angeles.
That was unsustainable. In mid-2018 the couple, and their 2 children, moved to Westport.
“It’s perfect,” Pitaro says. “My wife needs to be near Manhattan. It’s right between New York and Bristol. We love the water. We had friends here — including the woman who introduced me to my wife 27 years ago. We fell in love with the town.”
Their son Sean, a rising Staples High School senior, is a boxer who trains at Rich Dean’s Post Road studio. Daughter Josy, a rising sophomore, is active in Staples Players, and studies acting, voice and dance with Cynthia Gibb’s Triple Threat Academy. She also enjoys tennis, with Beth Norton at the Westport Tennis Club.
“We love it here. We couldn’t be happier,” Pitaro says.
Countless sports fans across the planet say the same thing about ESPN’s pandemic pivot. At a time of crisis, the company scored.
Joe Valerio — noted producer of ESPN’s long-running Sunday morning “Sports Reporters” series, and a longtime Westporter — died Sunday, of pancreatic cancer. He was 71.
Valerio began in the programming department in ESPN’s first days. But he was best known for overseeing “The Sports Reporters.” The show aired weekly, from 1988 through 2017.
ESPN reporter — and fellow Westporter — Jeremy Schaap paid tribute to Valerio:
Here is our tribute to Joe Valerio, the longtime producer of The Sports Reporters, who has died at 71, from cancer. Joe leaves behind his wife of 42 years Debbie, their children Caroline, Brian and Courtney, and 5 grandchildren. @MikeLupica@MitchAlbom@WCRhoden@GlobeBobRyanpic.twitter.com/0bPzvkpmuU
According to ESPN, “Valerio was known for his passion, sharp wit, and smarts. A groundbreaking program featuring newspaper columnists debating issues in sports, The Sports Reporters helped usher in a new genre of sports studio programming, while bolstering the profile of some of the most renowned sports personalities in the industry.”
(In 2017, Schaap reflected on “Sports Reporters”‘ impact. His comments include thoughts about Valerio. Click here to read. Click here for more on Valerio, from ESPN; click here for other tributes. Hat tip: David Tetenbaum)
There are 169 towns and cities in Connecticut. But 2 Westporters — one current, one former — have made Connecticut Magazine’ s “40 Under 40” list. The feature celebrates 40 Nutmeggers doing interesting and/or important work, all before their 40th birthday.
Andy Friedland now lives in New Haven, but he grew up here. Here’s the magazine’s shout-out to the 2008 Staples High School graduate:
With a sharp rise in hate crimes statewide nationally and internationally in the past 3 years, Friedland’s job as associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Connecticut office keeps him busy.
A former team leader with AmeriCorps, he is a primary responder to combat anti-Semitism, other bias incidents and all forms of bigotry. He works with schools, law enforcement and “whoever comes into the picture” to educate people about anti-Semitism and its local origins.
Friedland has led educational programs on topics such as the Holocaust and genocide and the separation of church and state. He has lobbied for and testified for the ADL’s initiative Backspace Hate for legislation to address online harassment, including cyberstalking.
Connecticut has good laws, Friedland says, but adds that it’s important to “keep laws up to date and take on the issues that are really important and dangerous.”
Andy Friedland (Photo by Harold Shapiro for Connecticut Magazine)
Dan Orlovsky grew up in Shelton, but lives here now. His writeup says:
Orlovsky has been famous in Connecticut since he was a teenager. In 2000, the senior quarterback led Shelton High School to an undefeated season and the Class LL state championship before being named state player of the year.
Despite receiving interest from traditional college football powerhouses, Orlovsky stayed in state and attended UConn. He rewrote the school’s record book — still holding every major passing mark in Huskies history to this day — and also led UConn to the program’s first bowl game, a 39-10 win over Toledo in the Motor City Bowl in 2004. Orlovsky was named MVP of the game.
The Detroit Lions selected Orlovsky in the fifth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. Serving mostly as a backup QB in his 12 years in the league, Orlovsky was uniquely preparing himself for his second career as an ESPN football analyst.
Orlovsky was already considered a rising media star when he joined the network in 2018. Now he provides color commentary in the broadcast booth (he recently called the Camping World Bowl on TV and the Rose Bowl for radio) and intelligent and insightful analysis on studio shows including Get Up!, NFL Live and SportsCenter.
Dan Orlovsky (Photo by Melissa Rawlins/ESPN for Connecticut Magazine)
Congratulations, Andy and Dan. And to all you other Westporters under 40: Get to work!
(For the full “40 Under 40” story, click here. Hat tip: Amy Schafrann)
And — according to Sporting News — it may be the start of “a different relationship in the future between on-air talent and TV networks” everywhere.
McKendry — a Westport resident — spent 20 years anchoring “SportsCenter.”
Now she’s a fulltime tennis sportscaster. As Grand Slam host, she travels the world covering the US Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open.
But that leaves plenty of time to raise her 2 sons.
Or — if she wants — to work for another network. (Just not on tennis.)
This summer, the former Drexel University tennis player hosted over 150 hours of US Open Coverage. The 16-hour days — for 2 long weeks — were grueling. But it was worth it. Ratings were up 8% over last year.
Sporting News’ interview with McKendry covered a range of topics. To read the full transcript, click here.
This morning marked the final broadcast of “The Sports Reporters.” ESPN ended the provocative roundtable discussion show after 29 years.
Joe Valerio
Westport has many connections to the Bristol-based broadcast. For the past 27 years the producer was Joe Valerio, a longtime resident whose son Brian graduated from Staples in 2003.
Former Westporter Dick Schaap was the 2nd host. On September 16, 2001 the show expanded to an hour, to explore (from a sports perspective) the terrorist attacks of 5 days earlier.
Schaap delayed hip replacement surgery in order to host that show. It was his last, as he died from complications 3 months later.
Another former Westporter — New York Times and Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts — was a regular panelist.
Jeremy Schaap
“The Sports Reporters” will be replaced by a morning edition of “E:60,” ESPN’s news magazine. Co-hosts are Bob Ley — and Jeremy Schaap.
The 1988 Staples High School graduate has returned to his hometown.
The other day, Schaap wrote about growing up with “The Sports Reporters.” He began with a tribute to Valerio:
When I think of The Sports Reporters, and I do, often, I think of the big brown paper bags filled with dozens and dozens of H & H Bagels that producer Joe Valerio brought to the set every Sunday morning—when the show was still in New York and before H & H went out of business. (By the way, how exactly does the best bagel bakery in New York go out of business, ever? A pox on Atkins.)
I think of those early mornings, still kind-of-warm bagels — the obvious but still true New York analog of the Proustian Madeleine — and, as they were being consumed, the pre-taping banter among the panelists. In the tradition of producers of talk shows everywhere, Valerio, who’s been producing the show since 1989, would tell everybody to save their best material for the set, not to leave it in the makeup room, but there was never more than semi-compliance.
Click here to read the rest of Schaap’s thoughts on “The Sports Reporters,” as he brings the Westport/ESPN Sunday morning connection full circle. And click here, to see some of the top reporters in the sports world give the show — and Joe Valerio — some love.
Lost in the uproar over FIFA’s bribery/racketeering/wire fraud/money laundering scandal is the fact that not only did Qatar probably earn its 2022 World Cup site selection the old-fashioned way — they bought it — but that they are now using slave labor to build its stadiums.
Up to 1,200 migrant workers may have already lost their lives in construction accidents. (Qatar claims the number is 0.)
Jeremy Schaap
Westporter Jeremy Schaap reported on the nation’s despicable work conditions for ESPN. Now, his “E:60” story has won a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, given for investigative journalism on social justice issues. It’s the 1st RFK Award ever for the sports network.
Schaap — a 1988 Staples grad who has returned to Westport to live — traveled to Qatar to investigate working and living conditions, and to Nepal, where coffins from Qatar arrive almost daily.
The 47th Annual RFK Awards for Journalism were presented at the Newseum in Washington, DC last month. For Schaap, speaking with Kennedy’s widow Ethel was both professionally rewarding and personally gratifying: His father, noted journalist Dick Schaap, wrote a biography of Robert Kennedy, published just months before the senator was assassinated in 1968.
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Some of those changes may continue, post-pandemic. So will demand for sports documentaries. ESPN’s features on martial artist Bruce Lee, bike racer Lance Armstrong and baseball sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire found ready audiences.
