In May, Katie Richcreek was graduating from Azusa Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in sports journalism. Now, Richcreek is working for the worldwide leader in sports, otherwise known as ESPN.
She is currently stationed at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut, and is serving as a digital media associate. It has been quite a journey for Richcreek, who has passionately pursued a career in sports journalism for many years. Her résumé over the past four years speaks for itself.
Richcreek’s first job in journalism was with The Clause student newspaper at APU, where she served as opinion editor in her sophomore year, and then as sports editor in her junior year. In addition to The Clause, she commentated sporting events with KAPU radio as a sophomore, and worked with APU’s sports information desk.
Going into her junior year, she applied for her first internship with Bleacher Report. It was a paid 12-month internship, but they hired Richcreek as a writer for their digital team directly after the internship ended.
Last summer, Richcreek began her second internship with The Orange County Register sports desk where she shadowed the beat reporters for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels.
As a senior, Richcreek became the news director of Capture, APU’s television broadcast, and in the spring semester, she interned at KABC. This past summer, Richcreek had another internship with the Los Angeles News Group (now known as the Southern California News Group).
Earlier this year, Richcreek also received an invitation to the Sports Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. It is a summer program that helps set up college students, specifically minorities, with internships and jobs in sports journalism.
In addition to all of the professional organizations that Richcreek has worked with, she is thankful for the educational experience she received at APU.
“My experience on campus gave me a lot of opportunities to try a lot of different things. APU is a relatively small program, but I had the opportunity to build a portfolio for news writing, news editing, radio and for broadcasting through Capture. So I was able to bring all of this together, and I noticed that even though we are a small school, my résumé compared to other applicants was strong because I had a wide variety of experiences,” Richcreek said.
The news of ESPN hiring Richcreek excited many of her friends and fellow students here at APU. Mandy Mayfield was thrilled when she first heard; however, she wasn’t surprised. Mayfield graduated with Richcreek and worked with her as an executive producer for APU Capture.
“I really enjoyed working with Katie. As a colleague, her work ethic and knowledge encouraged me to be a better journalist,” Mayfield said. “In life, I think it’s important to surround yourself with people who challenge you in the fields you’re passionate about, and that’s something Katie did for me.”
Mayfield also appreciated how much of a team player Richcreek was. She described Richcreek as someone who was easy to work with and would do anything she could to help others.
“When Katie was news director, she never made those that were working under her feel as though she was above them. She empowered them and created a space where everyone could grow,” Mayfield said.
Richcreek is aware that she wouldn’t be where she is today if it wasn’t for faculty and staff that mentored her at APU. There were two people in particular that helped her the most through her journey in sports journalism.
“With APU, there were people who were willing to invest in me. The two biggest influences there for me were Joe Reinsch and Brooke Van Dam. They both were willing to foster my skills and help me grow by giving me opportunities, and working with me,” Richcreek said.
Brooke Van Dam, Ph.D, worked at APU for the past five years as a journalism professor and was the head adviser for KAPU radio and Capture. Van Dam left APU after the 2015–16 school year to become faculty director and associate professor of the practice of journalism program at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies.
“She always took opportunities. She right away started working for sports information, and right away started working for KAPU radio and The Clause. She had multiple internships. She didn’t just do the one that’s required [for journalism majors]; she did a bunch of them,” Van Dam said. “That’s what I think is the night-and-day difference. She wasn’t waiting for us to find them for her; she found them by herself, and that’s a huge difference from a lot of other students that I’ve seen.”
Van Dam went on to explain why Richcreek was a perfect fit at ESPN, and why her work ethic and personality made it easy for her to get hired within such a competitive field.
“What I do now, I work with a lot of top-tier journalists, and the thing that they are always telling me is that at a certain stage, everybody is talented, everybody has the ability to do something and when it comes down to it, people want to work with people that they like. So if that’s a tiebreaker, Katie’s going to win because she’s really easy to talk to, very upfront about where she’s at in a story, she can hold her own in a tough conversation and she takes feedback really well,” Van Dam said. “All of those qualities make her ideal for something such as the ESPN fellowship that she has.”
Reinsch helped mentor Richcreek in the sporting world. He serves as APU’s sports information director and helped encourage her through the past four years to continue to pursue her dream as a sports journalist. He believes that she carried herself to a higher standard, a standard that all APU students should have.
“She represents the best of APU students in that she asked a lot of questions and truly wanted to learn things. Not just to know the answer, but to know the why behind the answer,” Reinsch said. “She wanted to know how to continue to get better, continue to improve, and be the best that she possibly could be.”
Reinsch knows that Richcreek’s talent, desire and résumé is what led to her becoming part of the worldwide leader in sports.
“It’s a foot in the door of a company that has proven they can do sports better than anybody else, and that’s not disputed. For them to recognize in her, that this person can contribute to this overall great product, speaks a lot to her personality, intelligence, skill set and motivation,” Reinsch said.
Over the next 12 months, Richcreek will be part of a rotation with four different development teams. She is currently working with the content development team, which oversees fantasy sports, combat sports and e-sports.
Richcreek’s goal after the 12 months are up? To earn a permanent job with ESPN. She is aware that there is still a lot of hard work that needs to be put in in order for her to reach that goal.
Her best advice for other young journalists is to gain as much experience as possible, while also networking and building relationships with others.
“It’s so important to get as much experience as you possibly can. It will help students find out what they want to do, and help groom their skills,” Richcreek said. “Also, find people that can help you along the way. Every single one of my internships that I ever had, including my job now, I got because I had people who were willing to help me grow, and I had networked a lot, and that made a huge difference in the long run.”