Aubrie Tolliver: Right Where She Belongs

Story and photos by Mike Drew

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A young, aspiring journalism student, Aubrie Tolliver says she has always had a passion for sports.

“I’ve been an athlete my entire life,” she says.

Tolliver, now two weeks into the Broadcast and Digital Journalism Master’s program at Syracuse University, says she is right where she needs to be. “I’ve had more just overall experience with broadcast journalism from my two weeks here than I did my entire undergraduate career.”

Finding her way

Within the broadcast journalism realm, Tolliver says her true passion is sports. She comes from an athletic family.

Her father played football at Stanford and exposed her to cheerleading at an early age. From there, she exposed herself to softball and played for 10 years, including her college days at Sonoma State University. As a junior, she started 31 of the team's 63 games, all while earning All-Academic honors in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).


Looking ahead

A California native, Tolliver grew up admiring Amy Gutierrez, the sideline reporter for her favorite baseball team, the San Francisco Giants. She watched Gutierrrez, night after night, interviewing and joking around with players, and fell in love with the concept.

“From that moment I said, ‘I need to be that. I want to be that,’” she says.

While the question of whether that vision will come true remains to be answered, Tolliver says  choosing a career in sports media was definitely the right life path for her to pursue.

“I know that I want to be in the action. I want to be talking about sports.”

Here is a transcript and audio version of my interview with Tolliver:

Q: Hi, I’m Mike Drew. I’m sitting here with Aubrie Tolliver, a member of the Broadcast and Digital Journalism program. Aubrie, what made you decide to come to Syracuse?

A: Well, I realized about halfway through my junior year of undergraduate that I wasn’t getting the education or getting the knowledge that I wanted to do to pursue a broadcasting career because I had originally signed up to be a communications major so I could eventually work my way into sports broadcasting. I just wasn’t getting that sort of knowledge from the school that I was at. So, about halfway through my junior year, I started looking at grad schools and of course when I Google searched “best sports broadcasting schools in the country”, of course Newhouse was the first one. So, I ended up applying to Newhouse and Arizona State because they were the top two schools and I said “If I don’t get into either, then I’ll go from there. But if I do, I will 100 percent choose Newhouse since it has such a prestigious name.” So, that’s why.

Q: What are your initial impressions of the program? I know it hasn’t been long, but initial impressions?

A: Probably…It’s been an amazing two weeks. I have had more opportunities thrown my way. I’ve had more just overall experience with broadcast journalism just from my two weeks here than I did my entire undergraduate career. So, right now, it has been unbelievable.

Q: When was the first moment in your life that you knew you loved sports? Describe that moment for me.

A: Oh, well I’ve been an athlete my entire life. I’ve been playing softball since I was ten. I’ve been cheerleading since I was probably four and my Dad had a big influence on that too because he played football at Stanford. So, I grew up an athlete and I just remember watching a Giants game one night and Amy Gutierrez, who’s the sideline reporter for Comcast SportsNet, was doing a live broadcast from the dugout during a game and all of the athletes, all of the baseball players behind her were just pulling her leg, throwing seeds trying to make it on top of her head. Sergio Romo was making faces in the background and from that moment I said, “I need to be that. I want to be that.” That’s been my main goal and that’s what I’ve been striving for since.

Q: If you could pick a particular role to have in sports media (reporter, broadcaster, what have you), what kind of role would you choose for yourself and why?

A: If you were to have asked me that question four years ago, I would have said, “Oh I’m definitely going to be in front of the camera as a sideline reporter. I’m going to be interviewing players.” But, recently I had the opportunity to work with our Sports Information Director at my undergraduate school and I fell in love with his role of just being able to sit and watch a game, input stats, talk to players, talk to coaches. Really, I can’t choose what role. Right now, my thoughts are jumbled about where I want to be, but I know that I want to be in the action. I want to be having relationships with players, coaches, I want to be talking about sports. That’s all I know for my role.

Q: Last question for you as a female. How would you characterize the opportunities that are currently being given to females in sports media today?

A: Um, that’s a tough one. I think that we are being given a lot more opportunities. To know that there’s a female ESPN play-by-play, she’s up in the booth. I got to listen to her through Spring Training and I thought “Wow, that’s definitely a step in the right direction for females.” I do think, however, that there should be more opportunities and not just keeping other male sportscasters on schedule basically, which is how, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the MLB Network show MLB Central, but the female that works on that is mostly in charge of just asking the other guys questions or saying, “Ok, this is going to be our next segment…”. So, I definitely think there should be more opportunities and I think that we’re going in the right direction.

Q: Aubrie, thanks for the time.

A: You’re welcome.