Beau Bagley Visits Speech Students at Bassett Middle School

KTSM channel 9 Sports Director Beau Bagley spoke with The Iceman Brandon Cohn's 7th and 8th grade Speech classes on Wednesday at Bassett Middle School.  Bagley, a ten year sportscaster in the Sun City, and television sportscaster of the year, shared many motivational and comical stories with the Speech students at Bassett.

Beau began by talking about his job as the KTSM Sports Director and all of the sports that he currently covers.  Bagley described his love for El Paso, and mentioned that he plans on staying here for the long run.  He spoke about his educational background, including growing up in Los Angeles, and attending Florida State for college.

Bagley mentioned that he has always loved sports, and didn't even have a career plan until his junior year of college, therefore it is alright for students to take their time in deciding what they plan on doing in the future.  Originally Bagley wanted to possibly pursue public relations in sports, but after graduating from Florida State he began an internship at WNBC in New York City.

Bagley told the students that he had the opportunity to cover an NBA Finals game between the Knicks and Spurs, and that particular moment convinced him that sportscasting would be his career path.  After a brief move to Atlanta and back to LA, Beau explained to the students that he worked for a while in Yuma, Arizona before coming to El Paso in 2006.

The students asked Beau several questions, one of the more amusing ones being what his first impression of the Iceman was when we met a decade ago.  Students chuckled as Beau discussed a few of his bloopers that have occurred on television.  Bagley answered questions about some of the famous athletes that he has interviewed including Steve Nash, and Amar'e Stoudemire.

One of the more humorous stories that Bagley shared was when he did a high school football broadcast with former KVIA sports reporter Autumn Sam.  Sam, who was much taller than Beau at 6'1" sat at the desk towering over him, so Bagley sat on two phone books to make up for the height difference.  The class and I loved this particular story the most.  The students found it interesting that Bagley gets nervous when he speaks in front of large crowds, and he insinuated that it is alright to have those moments when speaking in front of people.

Bagley concluded by mentioning that he is a multimedia journalist, and that it is imperative to adapt to the changing world that we live in.  He gave the students great advice by mentioning, "people who can do a little bit of everything make themselves indispensable to their employers."  Beau also told the students about his late father-in-law Paul Strelzin, and how much he influenced and meant to the community.

My special thanks goes out to KTSM Sports Director Beau Bagley for taking time out of his busy schedule to come speak with my students at Bassett Middle School.