Student Spotlight: Emily Coffey

Emily Coffey draws from the storytelling skills she learned in the theater to tell narratives on a different kind of stage.   

The Newhouse master’s student aspires to take the microphone as a sports broadcaster after earning her bachelor’s degree in theater arts at Vanguard University with a concentration in musical theater. Now a broadcast and digital journalism graduate student, Coffey is especially interested in telling stories about athletes and coaches instead of doing play-by-play.  

She’s grateful for how the lessons she learned as a theater major can help make her stories sing as a journalist.  

“As far as storytelling, I didn’t know how much that would correlate with this career, like writing scripts and songs growing up, as well as being different people and characters,” said Coffey, of Oceanside, California. One of the first assignments that sparked her interested at Newhouse was when she interviewed Syracuse men’s assistant basketball coach Allen Griffin and delved into how he first got interested in hoops as a child.   

It’s a smooth transition when she takes her reporting on air. Coffey also had a long interest in sports media.  

“Emily’s background in theater has proven to be an incredible asset to her in the transition to sports reporter and journalist,” said Olivia Stomski, director of the Newhouse Sports Media Center. “Her tone and pacing are professional, and the common nerves of the camera are far less of a concern to her after years of high-level performance.” 

Coffey had just graduated from Vanguard when COVID-19 hit in 2020. She ended up moving to Los Angeles in hopes of working in television and film “since it was opening faster than theater during the pandemic,” she said.  

“I moved out and ended up serving tables, but not enjoying life. I moved back in with my parents and questioned what I was doing. Then I remembered I love sports broadcasting,” Coffey added.  

She started posting NFL and MMA clips on TikTok and gained a small following. Once those caught on, she wanted to further her education, learning how to be a good broadcaster and journalist, so she emailed Stomski.  

They connected immediately during that virtual conversation, so much so that Coffey decided to venture east to Newhouse.  

“I knew that if I was going to go back to school and make the investment especially after being out of school for a few years, I wanted to make sure that I had professors and people there that really care about making me great and then also help me when I’m out of school,” Coffey said. 

Stomski said she recognized a “spark” in Coffey as soon as they started chatting.  

“She is smart and hardworking, driven and curious, determined and kind, all at the same time,” Stomski said. “I knew that she embodied what we have built here at the Newhouse Sports Media Center, and I was excited for her to not only become a grad student here but to represent the school in future.” 

On campus, Coffey takes advantage of every opportunity that comes her way as she figures out her career path. She has made appearances on ACC Network Studio shows, writes articles for the Newhouse Sports Media Center, serves as a sideline reporter during games and co-hosts “Newhouse After Noon,” a daily afternoon sports talk radio show through ESPN Syracuse and Cuse Sports Talk.  

“‘Newhouse After Noon’ has been great because every week, I’m like ‘Can I even do this?’” she said.  “I think it’s pushing myself and realizing, ‘Emily, you are capable of doing that, you just have to do it. People wouldn’t tell you to do it if you weren’t capable.’”  

After she graduates from Newhouse this summer, Coffey sees herself going into sports talk, working on new platforms and creative, interactive ideas emerging in the sports media landscape. 

“The sideline reporter or side cage reporter for MMA or NFL is cool, but I also would love to do more of a talk show, more sit down, more interactive shows,” Coffey said. “Or a post-fight, postgame, halftime show would be ultimately where I’d love to go.”