Prepared for anything

Bryan Kurp stands behind a camera wearing a mask, with a dramatic sunset as background

Prepared for anything

How this OHIO grad made sports coverage work despite COVID

January 28, 2025

It was Bryan Kurp’s (BSJ ’22) junior year and he had landed the role of sports director at , the Scripps College of Communication-affiliated public media station where so many Bobcats get their start in broadcasting. It was a position that would normally have him traveling to University sporting events, sitting in the press box, filming the action and interviewing coaches and players—basically living his dream of becoming a sports broadcaster. Thanks to the students who went before him, Kurp was ready to handle the job.

“I knew how to go about requesting credentials going to the game, filming it, setting up the tripod and the microphone for interviews and stuff, and then doing standups, going back to the newsroom and editing it and then posting it on social media,” he says.
“I was very well prepared because of the people before me.”

But this was the 2020-21 academic year, so all bets were off. COVID safety measures prevented almost all media access to OHIO sporting events. Kurp found himself stymied from doing the thing he most wanted to do.

“One of my passions in college was covering games,” he says. “I love being in that environment.”

Knowing he could find a way to do his job safely, Kurp lobbied for equipment from WOUB, came up with alternative solutions to editing problems and eventually gained some access to the facilities and games. That obviously wasn’t the end to the challenges, though.

“There were times where I was getting ready to grab my camera from my apartment and walk over to the Convo and they said, ‘games canceled due to COVID isolations,’” he recalls.

The �� Convocation is pictured during a basketball game, with empty stands

Bryan Kurp in a selfie wearing a face mask and holding a large video camera on his shoulder, with an �� football game in the background. The stands are empty.

"Some really cool stuff"

With a skeleton crew of two, Kurp and fellow journalism student Joe Collins (BSJ ’23) nonetheless managed to cover some of the biggest Bobcat matchups in recent memory, including . March Madness was madder than ever that year, especially for Bobcat fans. And Kurp still found a way to get the story.

“At Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, which is where the tournament was held…we weren't allowed on the court, so we shot stuff from way up high. We had to zoom in our cameras a lot just to get decent camera shots,” he says. “Then we did all of our interviews over Zoom and we did our standup from the concourse area. That was probably my favorite memory.”

Kurp tells these pandemic stories from his home in Cleveland, where he’s now pursuing a career as a news producer for the morning show on . Though the conversation brought back memories of a strange time, he still feels proud of what he accomplished that year.

“Even though that there were those restrictions, we were able to do some really cool stuff,” he says.

Despite pandemic-related challenges, Kurp managed to cover some very big Bobcat events during the 2020-21 academic year, including the men's basketball team's MAC Championship.

Paying it forward

Kurp credits faculty and staff at WOUB and in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism who served as his mentors and gave him the confidence and training he needed to adapt during the pandemic.

“Professors are always there to help,” he says. “They're going to make sure they get the most out of you. They're going to make sure you succeed.”

When campus opened to more students, he paid that debt forward by training and mentoring the new class of WOUB students.

“That was pretty cool,” Kurp recalls. “Getting to pass forward what I learned to them, even though it was only that short semester.”

Kurp’s connection to the J-School goes back as far as high school, when he attended the High School Journalism Workshop, where he also worked in college as a member of the camp’s “J Crew,” OHIO students who serve as counselors and leaders during the week-long program.

The camp, too, was interrupted by the pandemic, but managed to pull off a remote program with help from Kurp and Claire Geary (BSJ ’22), another journalism student. His connection to the long-running camp recently came full circle.

“This past summer, I was able to go back as a presenter for the broadcast track,” Kurp says. “To go back, [after] kind of working my way up the ranks there, was really neat for me.”

Kurp’s OHIO experience may have come during a strange and challenging time, but in true Bobcat fashion, he adapted and maximized his experience.

“We took advantage of the opportunities that were given to us,” he says.