If you’ve ever attended a youth sporting event in Salem or the surrounding areas there is a chance you’ve crossed paths with Jeremy McDonald.
McDonald is a local sports writer and photographer who focuses his talents on the high school and youth athletics scene here in Salem. He tries to attend a few athletic events each day, all while conducting interviews and quickly putting together written pieces summarizing the game and highlighting some of the standout athletes. On top of that he runs his website, jmcdonaldmedia.com, as well as an official Instagram and Twitter page where he records scores, posts timely stories, and live tweets games.
When asked to estimate how much time he puts into his work he responded, “In the neighborhood of six to eight hours a day; most weeks it’s a six-days-a-week thing while other weeks it could be seven. I always try to peek my head out to do something if there’s a game or practice happening.”
McDonald covers everything. He writes about all of the major seasonal sports like football and volleyball, while also shining a spotlight on sports like track and field, swimming and lacrosse that don’t get enough recognition. In all the sports he covers he ensures to diversify the different levels of competition he writes about. His stories not only shine a spotlight on highschool athletes from all classifications but also on middle school football teams, little league teams, and summer baseball teams. The wide selection of athletics combined with the diverse levels of competition that he covers has encouraged a lot of growth on all of his platforms.
“I’ve dabbled with [middle school] football and basketball through the years, those kids are going to be the next High School athlete’s you see and read about. I remember two years ago when the Stayton Boys Soccer team reached the 4A State Title Game, I was driving up to Hillsboro Stadium to cover their game versus Woodburn and it dawned on me that a good chunk of the juniors and seniors on that team that year I saw their seventh and eighth-grade years at Stayton Middle School.”
Mcdonald finds his motivations in the kids. He alludes to the fact that as a high school athlete nothing feels better than being pulled aside for an interview and seeing a story online about you and your team’s win the previous night. For him, providing these invaluable experiences to young athletes makes all of his work worth it.
“My biggest thing is that the kids deserve it. I don’t charge anybody anything for what I do and I don’t make any money out of it, but it’s my full-time job. I learned writing those first two years out of college in California that it’s about the kids over fame and the money. […] these are the moments the kids will remember when they’re 25, 35, 45 when they tell their kids about getting interviewed after a game or having a line written about them. Plus having my three-year-old daughter Natalie with me at games gives me a new sense of motivation because I want to show her what it’s like to be an athlete. Win or lose, just go out there and have fun.”
McDonalds website can be accessed at https://jmcdonaldmedia.com.
