Nice feature on John Doran ‘14 in the Winnetka Current.

John Doran, a Northfield native and member of New Trier’s class of 2010, graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., where he played both baseball and football, the latter on which he served as a long snapper. His long snapping exploits won him some fame when a trick shot long snapping video — which he said was him “just messing around” — he posted to YouTube, which a number of news stations picked up. 

Little did he know, but just as the long snap serves as a sort of bridge between possessions, that video served as the bridge between his undergraduate degree in English to his current career as a sports broadcaster. After he graduated, he was looking for what to do next, and decided to apply to the Green Bay television station that picked up his story. Lo and behold, he interned for a summer, which propelled him to his current job in Minot, N.D., at KXMC-CBS. 

Many interns, often doing it for college credit, don’t take full advantage of the opportunity — but not Doran. He worked hard, making video packages and helping with coverage of area sports, including Green Bay Packers training camp. 

“I really made the most of it and had a little bit of a reel,” he said. “Some videos of me anchoring, some packages I put together. I sent that out about a year ago, then I heard back from KXMC in Minot.” 

As an undergrad, he didn’t envision he’d end up going into something like broadcast journalism. He looked into PR and advertising as a senior, but after getting the internship and covering training camp and even the Packers’ draft that year, he was sold. 

“[I got to go] into the locker room every day, hold a microphone up to [Aaron] Rodgers and [Julius] Peppers,” he said. “Just kind of doing that stuff every day, I [thought] ‘Wow, this is really cool. I could do this.’”

In addition, he also covers area high schools, ranging from smaller schools to Minot High School, a school of about 2,100 students. He also gets to cover the local Division 2 school, Minot State University, which competes in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. This week, he was scheduled to head to Mankato, Minn., to take in the Minnesota Vikings training camp for a few days — although Minot is about a seven-hour drive from Minneapolis, most locals are fans of the Minnesota professional teams. 

Out of everything, though, he loves football the most, and has a weekly show with Minot State’s head coach, in addition to covering every game, including away games. 

“I’m kind of with them the whole year,” he said. “Obviously I’m covering high school [football] too, but these guys are on another level.” 

Having covered so many sports over the years, much of the experience has been about learning on the job. His internship in Green Bay, he said, gave him the foundational knowledge he needed, from how to get longer than yes-or-no answers to camera skills.  

“The very beginning is [a] steep learning [curve], but you’ve got to learn a lot fast,” he said. “After that, it comes a little easier.” 

He said it took a little while to get used to being in front of the camera.