Jamie Ross, a former St. Thomas journalism graduate, is living out his dream as the Toronto Blue Jays beat reporter for MLB.com.
The 29-year-old has been living in Toronto for the last two years reporting front-to-back on the Jays. Ross has covered everything from scouting, features, drafts, trades, free agents, and game coverage for the Major League Baseball website.
Ross also freelanced for the Canadian Press. He did hockey coverage for them last year and is hoping to do more again this year. He says it can be difficult being a freelancer, “If I pitched a story and they liked it,” he gets paid but, “they don’t always like the (story) pitch.”
He also freelances for the Globe and Mail covering college hockey, and recently began writing sports for Vice News.
After completing high school he took three years off to decide what to do with his life said the former Aquinian news and sports editor. “My late teens and early 20s were times to have fun.” During this period he played junior hockey.
At 21 he started school at STU and during his second year he fell into journalism, “I was enthralled by it,” said Ross.
During his second year he became the sports editor for the Aquinian. He was the news editor during his third year and wrote for the Canadian University Press in his fourth. He also did an internship at the Times & Transcript in Moncton.
Ross said that his greatest memory at STU was working for, “The Aquinian for sure, hands down. My closest friends were from The Aquinian,”
The journalism program taught Ross to have thick skin.
“You will need it while working in the world of journalism. Everyone has an opinion, there is all kinds of veracity.”
After graduating he took an internship at the sports department at The Daily Gleaner.
Ross said journalism professors Don Dickson and Mark Tunney were influential during his studies.
“I feel like what I learned from those two guys gave me the ability to work in the real world,” said Ross. “The [journalism] industry can be nasty.”
