My Journey Into Sports Journalism

Roberto Rojas is well known in sports media, working social and digital for @beINSPORTSUSA. Below is all about his journey into sports journalism, a passion he's turned into an already successful career.

On a personal level, I never thought I would've taken this career. When I was a kid, I always dreamed of following into the footsteps of various soccer players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Neymar. To play for the biggest teams in the world, be a celebrity, and recognized internationally. That's the dream, isn't it? Soccer was always a passion of mine thanks in part to the influences vested upon from my parents who were also brought on to it at a young age, that when they immigrated to the United States almost three decades ago at a time where the so-called "beautiful game" was not exactly at its highest popularity. In any case, I decided to invest myself in this sport and play in the hopes of trying to make it somewhere.

Unfortunately, it didn't work. After playing four years of high school, I knew that making it as a professional would not be my calling but I knew I still wanted to be involved in the sport it in some shape or form heading into college while I enrolled at Sacred Heart University. The summer before heading into my senior year in high school, I had kind of my "eureka" moment was when I was watching the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and saw so many journalists and reporters enjoying themselves and talking about soccer: what more can you ask?

And so, it began there. I started writing for the sports website called VAVEL where I was able to be much more confident from a written perspective talking about international soccer and dive into the sports journalism world. Around the same time, I also started my professional Twitter account (follow me at @RobertoRojas97) and making connections with those in the industry. From there, everything went by so quickly and so great that heading into the following summer in 2015 at the young age of just 17, I was in the press box at Gillette Stadium in Boston for the CONCACAF Gold Cup where I was able to write match reports live in-person for Haiti against Honduras and the United States against Panama.

It was a cool experience and one that I'll always be grateful for. The following year, after continuing to write for VAVEL and gain more experience writing many different types of articles for a sports blog, I attended the Copa America Centenario where I had the fortune to cover the team I followed: Paraguay. I was able to go to all of the three group stage matches against Costa Rica in Orlando, Colombia in Los Angeles and the United States in Philadelphia, being able to feel that real experience on assignment as a reporter, as well as making some memorable connections along the way.

Throughout the time of my college career, everything was on the way up. I knew more people, I felt more confident, I was appearing on TV and radio both nationally and internationally in numerous countries in different countries: it felt like I was at the spot where I was in and even as 22, I still find it absolutely incredible and shocking to have achieved everything that I did in a short span.

I went to England to watch Newcastle United in the Premier League, I appeared on CTV News for the World Cup in 2018 as an expert, I went to Brazil to cover Paraguay yet again in my first international assignment in the Copa America last year, it was all like a dream.

Never in my life did I ever imagine that I would go from writing in my room about the Premier League to going to watch Lionel Messi up close multiple times in five years and I'm super fortunate on how everything has gone about.

My final piece of advice to people that perhaps are in a similar situation of breaking into a journalism industry that is always needing of imaginative people with fresh new ideas is to never give up on your dreams, always dream big and don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it. There is no secret to success but only you have the opportunity to paint a perfect picture for the rest of your life.