By Dan Alegria
I recently spoke with James Williams, who is currently a sports reporter for USA TODAY based in Southern California. James was a member of the APSE Foundation Fellowship’s 8th class.
First off, you and I have similar origin stories. We both got our start in the Viewpoints newsroom at Riverside City College. Tell me about that experience and how you got started.
I was on the football team for four years in high school. I didn’t play. But I really kind of fell in love with sports. So when I got to community college (at Cerritos College) … I switched majors two or three times. And this is something I tell people who are unsure about college or think a little less about the community college route, one I had a great time, but it gave me an opportunity to learn and explore different things.
I took the Journalism 101 class, and my professor at the time Walter Hammerwold, who was a sports journalist who covered Rose Bowl games like the Texas-USC championship game. I think ‘I’m in the right spot.’ I did one semester at the Talon Marks at Cerritos before my family said ‘Hey, we’re moving to the IE (Inland Empire). And I’m like, well, I’m kind of in this journalism thing … and the closest school to me was Moreno Valley College. But they weren’t going to JACC (Journalism Association for Community Colleges). I saw Riverside City College was and all the good things they were doing there. It was kind of a no-brainer for me.
I was happy to be at Viewpoints and spent a little bit longer at community college, you know ducking and avoiding math classes. We got it done and got some good times and some good memories at Viewpoints.
Eventually you became editor-in-chief of the paper, right?
Yeah, it took a little while and I think that was the other reason why I really hung around a little bit longer than I wanted to. The math class being the main thing. I wanted to be the editor in chief and really test myself. The biggest thing I wanted was to try and learn as much about journalism at the community college level. I really got into the mindset of wanting to leave a legacy, building a culture and wanting it to be better than it was.
At Viewpoints, you’re the editor-in-chief. Were you also juggling a role as a news assistant at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin?
When I first got to Riverside, I felt like I was starting over in a sense. Let me find some people so I can connect. I started adding people from The Press-Enterprise on Facebook … just so I can connect with and have in my network.
That’s how I became aware of you, because you had sent me a (Facebook) request. I was a big fan watching from the sidelines and happy to see great things happening for you.
Thanks, man. I appreciate that. And that’s kind of what the goal was, like, I just need people to become aware of me. They had the trophy case in the (Viewpoints) newsroom and it had some different names on it. Your name might have been on it and Brian (Goff, who was working at the Southern California Newspaper Group) was on it. I was just adding anybody (from Viewpoints) with the Facebook.
After seeing some of my stories (on Facebook), (Viewpoints staff alumni) Brian Goff reached out and said, ‘Hey, kid, you want a job?’ I had never worked anywhere. I never worked at the grocery store, McDonald’s, nothing. So I was like, sure, let’s do it. I ended up working part-time as a sports clerk answering the phone. I was always trying to parlay that into, ‘let me tweet this stuff out on social media.’ It really built a following for myself on Twitter. I really kind of developed and came into my own there.
How did you go from a new assistant to an assistant sports editor to teaching at Cal State Long Beach?
Whenever I was at JACC and meeting with other students and other editor-in chiefs, they (were) always like, they’re like, hey, come speak to our class. And I’m like, ‘Wait, like, I’m still a student too. … I was always hesitant. But when the pandemic rolled around, there was a part-time advisor at RCC teaching a journalism class. They asked, ‘do you want to speak to my class? It’s on Zoom.’ It’s very kind of casual. I spoke to the class, answered all their questions for … an hour and a half. I’m still talking to some of these kids on Zoom for, like, two hours after the class had ended. And I was like, you know what? I really love this. It really kind of jumpstarted me wanting to speak to classes, and once the pandemic opened up, I said, hey, let’s try this again to get into some classrooms now.
I was really looking to give back at the community college level and kind of help steer people in the right direction in the same way (RCC advisor Matt Schoenmann) did for me and others while I was at community college. But (to teach in) community college, you need a Master’s.
I was speaking to a class at Cal State Long Beach with one of my former advisors and she said, ‘It’d be great to have you talk to the class, but her class was always early in the morning. And I wasn’t trying to go to Long Beach early in the morning.
At the end of the class, she said, ‘Hey, come with me, I want you to go talk with the dean or the department chair. (In the meeting, I said) I don’t have my Master’s or anything like that. (The department chair says) ‘we have a class teaching news reporting and ethics. Would you be interested in picking up that class?’ And I was like, uh, yeah, yeah, I would. And that’s it. It just kind of happened suddenly. It was a late add-on class where I had about a month to put a syllabus together. It was super rewarding.
Let’s talk about your new position with USA TODAY Sports.
It’s been great. I’m doing more than UCLA football like I was at SCNG. I’m going to Laker games now. I’m going to Clipper games. I’m going to the Dodger Stadium. My first month at USA TODAY, I was covering the World Series.
What role did like the APSE Foundation Fellowship play for you?
I think the fellowship did a lot. One, I had a little bit of a relationship with Michael Anastasi (former executive editor at SCNG, President and founder of APSE’s Diversity Fellowship and the current senior vice president of news at the USA Today Network). He was the head of SCNG or LANG at the time. I had a couple interactions (with him). I think because Brian Goff spoke highly about me so, again, I owe Brian Goff a lot of credit. My sports editor at SCNG Tom Morris says, ‘hey, you really should do this diversity fellowship.’ I tried the SJI thing (in community college). They were really kind of looking for four-year juniors and seniors. So I was over the thought of applying for any of these kind of programs and fellowships. But when (APSE) came along … I was surprised, but excited. And it was nice being able to reunite with Anastasi, especially because we were in Nashville, we were in the Tennessee newsroom. He invited us into his home and cooked us a meal.
I’m in the room and meeting and shaking hands with the New York Post editor. The New York Times, Roxanna (Scott) was there. Iliana Limón Romero was there. (When she was hired by the LA Times) I’m like, ‘Oh, I met her, like, across the country, like a year and a half ago.’
It wasn’t long after the fellowship, that the phone started ringing. And it was Anastasi and he said someone wanted to talk to me about being this sports editor in Mississippi.
All of a sudden I’m going from a digital guy to potentially being the sports editor for the paper in Mississippi. (Note: James would remain in Southern California and was promoted to an assistant sports editor position with SCNG and covered UCLA football.)
Chris Thomas reaches out to me and he said, ‘We’re gonna have a job opening based in L.A.’ And we want you to consider it. I kind of read it as, ‘Kid, this is the job you’ve wanted. It’s in L.A.’
What was the fellowship experience for you?
The fellowship was super rewarding for me just beyond journalism. I had never left California, maybe other than like to go to Mexico when I was like three or four. And then Vegas, like once in I in high school. I really hadn’t been on a plane or anything. Going to Orlando, to Nashville, Atlanta, like, places I’ve always heard about. I didn’t have to pay for any of it, which is great. But, like, just to be in all these different places was, like, kind of bizarre, like, in just really, like, expanded my horizon … there’s life outside of California.
One of my roommates from the fellowship, he’s like, hey, let’s go to Waffle House. And I’m like, yeah, let’s go to Waffle House. So we’re walking through Atlanta up the street from the hotel at like midnight to go to Waffle House. And I’m like, yeah, I don’t know if I should be walking out in the streets of Atlanta at midnight, but here we are, so you know, it was cool. It was a good time with a bunch of people I didn’t know beyond two or three days of being at the conference, but it was a good time.
And I really enjoyed myself and there’s still a lot of other younger journalists or journalists that I guess are my age now that I still kind of keep in contact with because of the fellowship. It just really opened my eyes and really helped me get a better sense of journalism when it came to the bigger picture of things.