An Interview with Christine Brennan

Christine Brennan (Christine Brennan)

Christine Brennan is an award-winning sports writer for USA Today and a  commentator for various news outlets, including:  ABC News, CNN, PBS NewsHour, and National Public Radio.

She’s a renowned national public speaker and has covered the past 16 Olympic Games. Her book, Inside Edge,  was a 1996 national best-seller and she has authored several others including Best Seat in the House. 

Brennan became a groundbreaking journalist when she began her career at the Miami Herald in 1981 as their first woman sports writer. And again as the first woman to cover  Washington’s NFL team as writer for the Washington Post in 1985. 

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Getting the Job

Samantha Ponder on the set of ESPN College Football, 2015. (Instagram/Samantha Steele Ponder)

The sports industry is vast in the number of opportunities it offers to future job hopefuls. With opportunities in sports marketing, sponsorship, media, sports goods, sports facilities, higher education institutions, and professional organizations- the sports world is at the finger tips of the youth. While the industry is growing at a spectacular rate so is the competition to land the job. 

Creating the Business

Lauryn Hutchinson was a student-athlete at Virginia Commonwealth University where she played soccer. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Masters of Education Degree in Sport Leadership.

Lauryn Hutchinson (VCU Athletics)

There she met Tiffany Roberts-Sahaydak – a former member of the United States Women’s National Team- and through those connections and a recently granted dual citizenship, Hutchinson was able to begin playing for Trinidad and Tobago’s Women’s National Team.
Hutchinson’s father, a Trinidad and Tobago native, and Roberts-Sahaydak sent her to play in her first international tournament- the 2011 Pan American Olympic Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. Since then, Hutchinson has become a regular starter as a defense specialist and was selected as a member of the national squad for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

While competing as national soccer player, Hutchinson also found the time to create FYP in 2011. Find Your Passion LLC is a platform to spread positivity and make a difference in people’s lives. Their mission is achieved through motivational speaking and seminars, camps and clinics, social media, and fashion. 

It Doesn’t End With The Win

(Ronald Martinez, Getty Images)

If you watched the Women’s World Cup this past summer, you have some idea of the controversies surrounding the event. Women competing from all nations banded together in October 2014 to file a lawsuit against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association claiming gender discrimination in the decision to play the tournament on turf.

The lawsuit was later dropped in January, but the controversy drew international attention leading up to the tournament and throughout the length of the competition. Abby Wambach was quoted in a previous interview saying “There’s so many different debates around this. But the reality is, the men would never play [the World Cup] on field turf…So for me, it’s a women’s rights issue, it’s an equality issue.”