Meet the 2019 Award Winners: Vermont Sportswriter Austin Danforth

Today’s award spotlight is on NSMA 2019 Vermont Sportswriter of the Year, Austin Danforth. Danforth has been a sports reporter for the Burlington Free Press for the past 8 years. The University of Vermont Graduate mainly covers college soccer and golf, highschool boys basketball and ice hockey, and high school girls soccer and girls baseball.

This would be Danfords second time winning Arizona Sportscaster of the year, his first being in 2015, all in affiliation with the Burlington Free Press.

Danforth briefly spoke with NSMA on his career and other thoughts regarding the industry.

NSMA: What was your career path like on your way to your current position?

Austin Danforth: Graduating into the recession of 2008 ... wasn't ideal. After a couple of years working for a weekly paper in Alexandria, Virginia, where I split time between news and sports, I decided to decamp home to Vermont and find a different gig. Could've been anywhere but it just happened to be an opening at a small daily in southern Vermont. I used that role at the Bennington Banner, which required doing a bit of everything writing, shooting, pagination to vault to the Burlington Free Press, the largest daily in the state, where I've been ever since.

NSMA: What is your favorite thing about your job?

AD: Reporting on games is always a rush, but I really love getting to dig into enterprise work (who doesn't?) and devote some undivided attention to something with narrative weight. I also enjoy chances where I get to shoot certain events and exercise a different creative muscle behind the lens. But my favorite thing is how over time I've been able to develop a reputation in our market, among our readership, for the quality and integrity of my work.

NSMA: What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

AD: Awards are certainly fun and unexpected when you receive them two NSMA sportswriter of the year wins and a trio of similar Vermont Press Association honors are among them. True highlights that owe to the respect my peers have for my efforts.

NSMA: What is the best piece of advice you have for people pursuing a career in sports media?

AD: Make sure you've got the passion to sustain yourself. The recognition might not always be there, the encouragement might not always be there, the compensation might not always be there. But if you've got a passion for the job and a passion to get better every day, to prove something to yourself or take a specific pride in achieving something small, that can make up for a lot.