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12/23/2022 12:07 PMGrowing up in New England, working in sports was always a dream for Jake Gadon. The Old Saybrook High School graduate now finds himself realizing that dream thousands of miles from Town Beach and New Haven style pizza. Jake recently became the lead sports anchor for CBS News in Sacramento, California. In California, Jake keeps the Sacramento and Bay Area up to date on local sports coverage ranging from the Sacramento Kings’ promising young team, to the 49ers’ upcoming playoff run.
Jake is excited to begin this next chapter of his career in the Golden State, but he is also reflective and thankful for the journey that has brought him there.
“It’s the definition of a dream job,” says Jake. “This is something that I envisioned trying to do when I left Old Saybrook at 18, and what I really thought became a reality at 22 when I was leaving college and entering the industry. It’s awesome to see because it shows you that your hard work pays off. Everyone talks about, in my generation, wanting the now. We want everything now, instead of trying to enjoy the journey and see how you go from [point] A to B and B to C. It makes everything much more rewarding.”
After graduating from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, Jake’s first job in the industry took him to Odessa, Texas, a small community in West Texas known for oil fields and high school football. Anyone familiar with the Friday Night Lights novel and subsequent on-screen adaptations knows how important football is to that area of the lone star state.
“High school football down there is a part of life,” says Jake. “They don’t lie when [they say] the most important things are faith and football. It’s really interesting to see some of these small towns on a Friday night; you’re driving all over the region to cover these high school football games, and nothing’s on in the town aside from those bright lights by the high school, and everything’s closed. You pull up and know exactly where you’re going because it’s a community event on a Friday night that everyone goes to: a high school football game. It’s incredible the community that rallied around these 16, 17, 18-year-olds and how it could affect everything around them.”
After his time in Texas, Jake traveled north for his next job as a sports anchor and reporter at KOAA in Colorado Springs, covering local colleges, as well as the Denver professional teams. While there, he was able to report on the Colorado Avalanche’s recent Stanley Cup run and follow back-to-back NBA MVP and Denver Nuggets star, Nikola Jokic, whom Jake called “the most low maintenance superstar I’ve ever gotten to work with.”
Jake was working in Colorado when COVID-19 shut down the sports industry and forced media companies to pivot around completely foreign circumstances. The turbulence that rocked the industry forced companies to reinvent themselves while the sports world stood still. Jake used some of the skills he’d developed along the way to help the team in Colorado Springs however he could.
“COVID was very interesting,” says Jake, “to the point where we cut sports for a couple months and I worked with our digital team, helping them cultivate how to get information out, how to update the COVID numbers each day, exposure rate, etc., trying to help them in any way… I was able to use those skills that I used on a daily basis with the sports broadcasting stuff to actually cultivate social media a little more and help our digital team.”
Having spent the entirety of his career away from his native East Coast, Jake has learned plenty about the passions held by sports fans all over the country. Yet he still believes some of the most hardcore live here in New England.
“We are brutal on the East Coast,” says Jake. “If Russell Wilson was the quarterback of the New England Patriots and was doing what he is doing…I don’t know if he’d be able to show his face in Boston. That’s what I love about the East Coast. It’s not just a team, it’s a way of life. When the Patriots win on a Sunday, Monday morning is so much better than if they lost.”
Perhaps the most tell-tale sign of Jake’s Connecticut roots can be found in his unconventional pro sports fandoms. Like so many CT kids torn between two rival cities, he landed with a foot in each, rooting for the Yankees and the Patriots. He finds common ground with most Nutmeggers in Storrs, rooting on the Huskies.
“I’m a big UConn Huskies’ fan, that hasn’t left…anytime I can say I bleed blue, that’s a good day,” says Jake. “I think you’ve got to represent where you’re from, I do not lose that, that fandom and being from the East Coast, I love representing this area and representing the town quite honestly. It’s what made me who I am today, I definitely keep it with me.”
Jake graduated from Old Saybrook High School in 2012 and credits OSHS with not only providing him a setting to grow and develop as a student, but explore different mediums, eventually finding a combination that successfully quenched each of his interests. He looks back fondly on guidance he received from teachers and coaches.
“Jeanne Proctor was the English teacher at Old Saybrook High School and kind of took me under her wing when I got there my freshman year,” Jake says. “I tried out for the musical there and I fell in love [with acting…] She helped my writing transform, I knew what I wanted to say but I couldn’t put it down on paper and she helped me change that and be able to connect all the dots… That was the cool thing about Old Saybrook, it was such a small town, you could put your hands in everything and kind of test the waters with everything and see how each fit for you.”
Jake was able to see the sports media industry up close early on thanks to Old Saybrook connections. He has been close with Jay Rothman, a family friend and former ESPN executive and producer. Jake considers him an important mentor in navigating the sports media landscape.
“[A mentor of mine is] Jay Rothman, who’s actually from Old Saybrook, he used to be the executive producer of Monday Night Football,” says Jake. “He led the way for me as well in terms of trying to show me what this industry could be like. My senior year, I remember going to intern with him at the NFL draft up in New York at Rockefeller Center…I saw that firsthand and I sat there like ‘this is what I want to do.’ That’s kind of how the small town cultivated in me to leave here and chase my big dreams.”
Rothman has seen that big dream potential since Jake was young, but he always insists on keeping Jake grounded, making sure he remembers what makes him special and authentic.
“I think it’s more about being himself,” says Jay. “To get to where he’s gotten by being persistent — it’s a tough field to make it in — it’s very competitive and if you think about the thousands of kids that graduate each year that want the same jobs, it’s tough. So, navigating through all that being confident, being super confident, and believing in yourself, in your skillset, which he has. He’s got a ton of reps and I’m just proud that now he’s making a mark for himself in a new and bigger market.”
Jay and Jake have sat down for plenty of discussions on the realities of the industry and the meticulous attention to detail required to stand out above the rest in a crowded and coveted field. Above all else, Rothman feels Jake’s persistence and dedication have propelled him to where he is today, and will continue into a promising future.
“I share with him two buzzwords,” says Rothman, “persistence and determination. Jake has shown both, and that persistence and determination has gotten Jake to where he is now and I don’t think he’s done… who knows, he could be the next SportsCenter anchor.”
Jake recently traveled back to Old Saybrook and made sure to stop in at all the spots he feels make the shoreline special. The Northeast is a place he carries with him no matter where the job takes him. It is a strong foundation of his past but not something he has ruled out for the future.
“I’m so proud to be from this town,” says Jake of his hometown. “I tell people at every stop I go to, there is nothing better than an Old Saybrook summer, going to Town Beach on the water and sitting there, getting a lobster roll at Liv’s, getting a pizza and salad from Pizza Works. That was the first stop I made when I got off the plane today. This town is so special, I love to get back to it as many times as I can, I feel like I owe it so much. To take a kid who had a dream, support it, and say ‘Hey, go out there and do it’. I hope one day I can come back here, back to Connecticut, back to the Northeast, in my career and I’ll be able to report on the sports that I grew up watching, and that would be the ultimate goal.”