“That was the worst demo tape I’ve ever seen.”
This was the feedback ESPN reporter Brooke Weisbrod got on her first-ever demo tape she submitted.
The year was 2003. Weisbrod, then 23, was an all-conference winning basketball, softball and tennis player at Coastal Carolina University who had come off a bad back injury waterskiing a couple years prior to playing professional basketball in Germany—an injury that left her sidelined in the sport for life. While watching a game at her alma mater, Coastal’s former athletic director and a mentor of Weisbrod’s called her over and had her jump on a headset to do a quick interview during the broadcast.
“I had moved to Chicago and started in advertising as a media buyer but had never done an interview before,” she says. “I just winged it and it was like a light bulb burst on…I was immediately hooked.”
That’s when the demo tape came in. “I convinced the food manager at the ESPN Zone restaurant to let me rent the booth and sent the demo tape to a former executive (who later become an incredible mentor) at ESPN who was in the regional office,” she says. “I proceeded to call him every two weeks to follow up after I got the feedback.”
In the meantime, she took voice and acting lessons and also took improv classes at Second City to sharpen her delivery. The hard work paid off. “I got to call two games in 2004 on the weekends and little by little, started getting more games during the week,” says Weisbrod, who went on to cover women’s college sports, not yet quitting her day job in advertising at United Scrap Metal in Cicero, where she honed her skills chatting about sports and the metals market with the CEOs and factory workers.
After she was laid off from the metals industry in 2012 due to the recession, Weisbrod took the plunge to full-time freelance, calling men’s and women’s sports for a variety of stations, including ESPN. “I think I had nine W-9s at one point that year,” she recalls. “I worked seven days a week for four months at a time, for seven straight years.” In 2016, Weisbrod joined ESPN full-time as a sports broadcaster.
Today, Weisbrod continues to cover women’s sports, including the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the WNBA, and the Chipotle High School Basketball Nationals.
Preparing for each game is intense; she’ll travel to the game site and thoroughly study the players on both teams, jotting down notes on her player sheets next to the names and jersey numbers.
“I watch film, read notes, read what the beat writers are printing, talk to coaches, observe practices and start organizing it all on a game board,” she says. “I’ll look at stats and see where there might be storylines—for example, one player might have only played six minutes but then suddenly be called into an important game and hit a big three-pointer.”
Weisbrod’s passion for the game lies in these storylines. “You’re able to analyze the game, but also do a deep dive and make so many connections along the way and share those moments of energy from the game with people watching at home,” she says. “That’s what makes this job so special.”
Throughout her career, Weisbrod has remained a huge champion for women in sports at all levels. In 2017, she created Skills and Score, a nonprofit organization that provides free sports and arts camps to Chicago Public School students, and she is also the co-founder of the Chi-Side, a sports media training program for basketball players ages 11 to 18. She’s also a motivational speaker on the subject, regularly traveling around the country for events and has worked with major companies and organizations like Nike, the WNBA and major universities.
Just like athletes, Weisbrod works hard each day to hone her craft. “My job is to constantly learn, to keep finding ways to be better,” she says. “A good coach will reveal your character and help you build up that resilience and toughness.” It all traces back to that first demo tape.
“If he didn’t see something in me, he wouldn’t have said anything at all,” she says. “In this job, and in sports, so much of the work is being bold enough to ask questions, get the feedback and improve every day.”
You’re able to analyze the game, but also do a deep dive and make so many connections along the way and share those moments of energy from the game with people watching at home. That’s what makes this job so special.