A Labor of Love

June 11th, 2012 was a night that many hockey fans will never forget. After five nail-biting games, the Los Angeles Kings and the New Jersey Devils met in a sold out Staples Center to decide who would be the next Stanley Cup champions. The Kings, who had only seen the finals once, during the days of Wayne Gretzky in 1993, and the Devils, who had not only made it to the finals five times, but had actually won during the 2002-03 season, faced off for a game that was forty-five years in the making. When the final buzzer sounded and the scoreboard read six to one in favor of Los Angeles, the fans went wild and sports journalist, Charles Smith, stood up and clapped his hands for something he’d been waiting to see since he was a teenager.

Having set out into the world with hopes of being an actor, Los Angeles native and founder of Inside Sports, Charles Smith found passion where he least expected it. His work in television and radio, while marginally successful were never anything he was truly able to latch onto. Instead he found a career in something he’d always loved but never imagined would be useful to him, sports. “I never wanted to be a sports writer – necessarily, because my background is in acting and film. It was really just on a whim that I started my own sports show.” He was working on a comedy show on access television, when the producer asked if he wanted to be a part of something else. He would later look back on that moment and say, “That’s where everything really got started.”

He now works as a beat-writer for Examiner and AXS, writing about the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks, and every season he does the NHL weekly power rankings for CBS. However, it wasn’t an easy road to get there. He recalled this journey with both frustration and satisfaction for having ran the gauntlet and survived. “I did some radio shows for a while, but with radio you can have a job one day, and then get called in the next day to find out that you’ve been cancelled or the station is closing down, and that’s just the nature of the business. Then the internet took off and everything became easier.” His climb through the media took him from one medium to another during a time when the news was transitioning platforms and technology was on the rise, opening doors that had always been jammed shut for people without money and friends in high places. “That’s when I created my own website, Inside Sports and started writing.”

His love of sports started when he was a kid, with his favorite football team, the Miami Dolphins. It wasn’t until he sat down to watch a game with his father one night that he learned that sports are about more than just your favorite team and the rivalries that accompany. It’s about a love of the game and a deep respect for those who play it. “I’m not going to miss out on the career of a great player just because I don’t like the team they’re on. Hockey fans, whether you’re a fan of the Ducks, the Kings, or whoever, you’d be crazy not to watch the Blackhawks, with players like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, who are ridiculously good.” This makes it difficult when covering both the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks, because as every southern California hockey fan knows, you can’t love one team without hating the other. When asked about this, he replied, “I’m a Kings fan. I grew up and was born in L.A. I’ve been a hockey fan for twenty years before the Ducks were even a team, so I already had my loyalties in place. The Ducks for me are just an excuse to see more great hockey live. So from the selfish side of it, I enjoy watching the Ducks.”

We closed our interview with some thoughts on the field of journalism and some advice for those who are pursuing it. “I’ll tell you what journalism is. You’re not going to get rich, and if you want to call me a pessimist, go ahead. However, you’re going to do what you love, and you’re going to get to do a lot of cool stuff involving what you love to do. I’m talking bucket list stuff, the kind that people would enter contests for a chance to do, and that’s the cool side to it.” For him it was never easy. He worked hard for everything he got, taking several jobs along the way, some of which lasted longer than others. Was it worth it? He thinks so. At the end of the day, he’s doing what he loves to do. “Journalism is a labor of love, and if you really want to, you’ll get that fulfillment, especially with the internet. You’re building your resume with everything you write.” Success might not happen over night, but as Charles Smith has proven, good things come with patience.

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