Photo courtesy of Ryan Morik.
Ryan Morik’s job, as of now, is very simple. He can sit in his home in Cedar Grove, N.J. waiting for any story regarding New York sports to break. Morik is an editorial producer at SportsNet New York (SNY), but what has now become his career choice began far before he even graduated from Ramapo.
Morik was the sports editor at The Ramapo News from January 2015 to December 2016. During that time, he also had his own radio show on WRPR, the campus radio station. There, he also talked about sports. He has had the goal of working in sports journalism on his mind since his senior year of high school, and now he has finally made it into the business.
While playing baseball in high school, Morik did not give much thought to his career options. However, as his playing career ended, it all started to become more clear to him.
“When I was a senior in high school, freshmen were playing over me on the baseball team,” said Morik. “I realized playing baseball wasn’t really an option.” Morik also said that he never considered a career where he had to deal with numbers, such as accounting. He did, however, have some experience when it came to writing — specifically when it came to sports.
“I joined my middle school’s newspaper when I was in sixth grade and the first article I ever wrote was about my school’s girl’s soccer team,” said Morik. Of course, writing for a middle school paper is not the experience that jobs are looking for, but it planted a seed in Morik that would eventually inspire him to make such work his career.
Morik decided to join The Ramapo News as the sports editor because he believed that it would give him the best experience that he could get at the time. He was set on what he wanted to do and joining the newspaper was the first big step to get him there. He credited working at the newspaper for preparing him for the business.
“It was the best experience I ever got,” Morik said.
He said how valuable it is to become a dedicated writer and reporter, highlighting the significance of working in an organized setting.
“Anyone can start their own blog and say ‘Derek Jeter got a hit today,’ but not everyone can go to a player and ask what was going through their mind,” he said.
During his time at The Ramapo News, Morik learned how to report and write on a variety of sports. After graduating college, he began looking for jobs and used a connection of his to begin working at NJ.com writing about high school sports. After doing that for over a year, he attended a career fair where he wanted to take his next leap. However, the road from here was not easy and even had him doubting his career choice at times.
“Every full-time writing job that I’ve ever applied to has been a ‘no,’” said Morik when discussing if he ever had doubts. He discussed how important it is to persevere in the journalism field. “You have to believe in yourself.”
All of that belief finally came to fruition for Morik when he connected with someone from the New York Mets. He moved to Queens and secured a job in ticket sales at the beginning of the 2018 season. He eventually became an intern in the media relations department, and this is where he created the connection for his current job.
“The move to media relations was the kickstart for my current job,” said Morik. Shortly after accepting the position, he was offered a job as an editorial producer, where he writes and edits stories while also publishing articles to the SportsNet New York website.
“I think I have an unorthodox career path, but it’s worked out so far,” said Morik. That is how it is for a lot of people trying to get into the world of journalism. A big part of it is connections, but prior experience also plays a role in getting a job. Morik used his experience as sports editor of The Ramapo News to get acclimated with the world of sports journalism, and he still credits that experience as what kicked off his career journey.
bschmid@ramapo.edu
