Behind the scenes

Familiar name finds himself in new sports role

Readers of the Cape Breton Post may have noticed my byline in the sports pages over the past month.

Just over a month ago, I transitioned into a new role with the Post as the newspaper’s sports reporter, taking over from T.J. Colello, who for the past 15 years kept our readers informed about the local sports scene in Cape Breton and did an outstanding job. Don’t worry, T.J. hasn’t left the Post, he’s still part of the team, just in a different way.

Although change can be scary for many, readers should not worry. Local sports coverage remains an important aspect of the newspaper’s coverage and, hopefully, our coverage will increase.

Many readers may already know who I am, but for those who don’t, let me introduce myself.

In May 2016, I graduated from Holland College’s journalism program in Charlottetown, P.E.I. Today, I’m proud to call myself a Holland College alumnus. I’m 24 years old.

I’ve been with the Post for almost two years now, and prior to that I spent nine years working with the New Waterford Community Press, a weekly community newspaper based in my hometown.

With the Post, I began on Dec. 1, 2016, as a general news reporter, before taking over as the full-time Northside/Cape Breton reporter in June 2017. During that time, I also filled in as the sports reporter on Friday nights.

I’m also currently working on a column focusing on New Waterford and surrounding area. It appears in the paper once a month on the Glace Bay/ New Waterford page.

Sports has always been a passion of mine.

Growing up, I played hockey, baseball, soccer and bowled. Yes, I’m from New Waterford and never played basketball (as hard as that may be to believe), despite attending and graduating from Breton Education Centre, the home of the Coal Bowl Classic. I quickly realized when I tried hoops in elementary school that my career wouldn’t involve playing on the hardwood court. I accepted that.

Sports has done a lot for me over the years, and today I volunteer as a baseball coach and also put in time as a minor hockey on-ice official.

With that being said, I enjoy following all sports. I may not have played all sports, but I like to consider myself a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to following sports, not only locally, but nationally and internationally as well.

Now that you know a little bit about who I am, today, I’m proud to launch a new weekly column to be known as Sports Chat.

The new column will include discussion, analysis, gossip, insight and predictions, mostly on the local sports scene from major junior hockey to Atlantic University Sport topics, basketball, football and, of course, the local elite level and minor level sports. However, that’s not to say something won’t cross my desk nationally or internationally that will become a topic of discussion for the column.

I’m looking forward to this new column. I certainly hope the sports enthusiasts of Cape Breton will look forward to reading the column each week on Tuesdays.

Although this is only an introduction to the column, I encourage readers if they have a column or sports story idea they’d like to share, to contact me any time. I can be reached by phone at 902-563-3849 or by email at jeremy.fraser@cbpost.com.

I’ll always be open to comments and suggestions when it comes to the sports department and I’ll try my best to respond in a timely manner.

For now, keep watching the sports pages of the Cape Breton Post for local stories on our athletes and teams.

Jeremy Fraser is the sports reporter for the Cape Breton Post. He’s a longtime Montreal Canadiens and Montreal Expos/ Washington Nationals fan, hoping that one day he will see one of his professional sports teams win a championship title. Sports Chat will appear in the Cape Breton Post every Tuesday. Jeremy can be reached by emailing jeremy.fraser@cbpost.com.