BY CHRISTOPHER ROBBINS
John Parolin’s sports career today as a research producer for ESPN is rooted in his time at Stonehill.
Parolin, a former Summit reporter who also called sports for the WSHL, said his work on campus and as an intern helped him land his job today.
“It definitely did more for me than some of my classes.” Parolin said, who majored in communication.
While at Stonehill, he interned at Gillette Stadium and Fox 25 but he credits his internship at “WGAM,” a local New Hampshire radio station, with helping him get where he is today.
At that station, he was a part of the stats and analysis group and stayed up late into the night collecting stats for games. This also forced him to learn about other sports he knew little to nothing about to properly take their stats.
As a result of his experiences, he was able to land a job at ESPN as a research producer. Parolin researches and collects stats for Monday Night Football as well as the NFL Draft.
Parolin’s week begins on a Tuesday with writing eight to ten pages on the teams playing on Monday. Over the next two days he writes up 15 to 20 more pages of more in-depth notes on the players’ backgrounds, stats, and interesting facts to mention on the broadcast.
For the rest of his week, he checks graphics for errors and answers emails from people who receive his notes regarding any questions they may have. His notes go out to everybody involved in the making of Monday Night Football, including commentators Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, as well as the Manning Brothers for their broadcast.
During draft season, his job is to work with one of ESPN’s top draft analysts Todd McShay. Parolin works with McShay on matching players’ film from games with their stats, helping create a much more in-depth analysis.
He also collects stats on draft prospects before sending them over to McShay who then matches those stats with the game film to help better visualize the players strengths and weaknesses.
During his time at Stonehill, Parolin called sports games on the radio as well as writing about sports for The Summit and credits both with his success today.
Parolin said he believes the radio and The Summit gave him great exposure and a great platform to call and cover games. Parolin would call any game he could with one of his friends as it gave him a chance to get better the more he did it.
Parolin said he believes the radio gave him unlimited chances to get better and credits it for improving his ability to talk about sports.
He said students interested in sports radio or television sports should get involved early with college media, as he did.
Parolin may now be working professionally in the field, but he keeps up with Stonehill sports. He listens to the play-by-play on the radio and watches Stonehill games on NEC Front Row, an online streaming platform.