Dinner with Scott Allen, March 14, 2018
Not so long ago, Scott Allen played high school baseball for the Yorktown Patriots. After that he journeyed on a path that took him to the midwest and then back again to claim his dream job with The Washington Post. "I saw writing as a way to stay in sports," professed Allen.
On March 14, Allen spoke to a room full of Better Sports Club members and guests, where he entertained the crowd with stories about his path in journalism. Journalism is an Allen family tradition he said. He started writing his own game broadcasts as a child. In high school, he wrote for the Yorktown Sentry, which led to a post-college job writing for the Wyoming Casper Star Tribune. According to Allen, "A lot of people want to do this because it is a really cool job, so you have to be willing to go anywhere. For me, that was Casper, Wyoming. I learned a lot, including how to avoid deer and antelope on my way to games. I also learned how to cover just about anything. But I missed Arlington quite a bit." That ability to cover a wide range of sports and topics eventually led Allen to a job as a blogger for The Washington Post, where he covers the human interest stories in sports. In the last month, Allen has written about a group of Redskin players who purchased an XBOX for a child who became lost in a Game Stop and a youth baseball tournament game in Florida where Jayson Werth spent time announcing the game from the press box. (Werth's son was a player in the game.) One of Allen's favorite blogs was about a Maryland baseball player who committed to playing college ball, but was diagnosed with leukemia before his first season. That guy finally had his debut as a reliever. When he left the field, the whole team gave him hugs. Fun facts: Allen was a racing president for the Washington Nationals' first two seasons. And The Washington Post blogs are called "bogs." Read Scott Allen blogs here. |