ORLANDO, Fla. – Jamie Seh, News 6 sports director, has come a long way since she first found interest in the sportscasting industry as a teen.
“When I got started working in the business, I’d get comments like, ‘Oh, do you really know this? Do you really like sports?’ Well, yeah,” Seh said.
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Seh doesn’t just like sports, she lives for them. Her career in the sportscasting industry spans more than two decades, breaking barriers while she was in college.
“I joined the student radio station as a freshman and I was the only girl on staff and it was motivating. I said, ‘I needed to know more than the guys to prove myself,’” Seh said. “I knew I had to be right and not make mistakes or they’d say, ‘Look, she doesn’t know what she’s doing because she’s a girl.’ That was always on my mind, or, ‘She can’t do this camera work because she can’t carry that big heavy camera.’”
Seh proved them wrong, working as a sports director at her first station in Watertown, New York, at a time when women rarely held the role. Then she moved on to become a sports reporter and anchor at News 6 before her promotion in 2017 to sports director.
She continues to shoot her own interviews and videos, covering the games while uncovering the stories behind the athletes.
“I like finding out what makes them tick. How motivated they are to do things for their team motivates me. Just to see an athlete’s mindset and work ethic to accomplish a goal,” Seh said. “I enjoy going to practices and talking to athletes and I’ve interviewed big stars like Lebron James, Serena Williams, Magic Johnson, who is my favorite all-time athlete. So many pinch-me moments.”
Seh, an upstate New York native, is a huge fan of the the New York Yankees and Buffalo Bills. Even her rescue pup, Ellie, is on board, wearing a Bills bandana.
However, Seh’s favorite sporting event is the Cure Bowl held in Orlando. She was there from the very beginning.
“I remember the press conference outside the then Citrus Bowl when they announced a third bowl game was coming to Central Florida and it was the Cure Bowl,” Seh said.
The bowl game launched in 2015, with the iconic pink football. The Cure Bowl has raised more than $3.8 million for breast cancer research.
“The money that’s being raised goes into research at UCF and stays local. I just think it’s incredible that the smart minds at UCF are researching and could be finding a cure locally,” Seh said. “It’s such a good reminder to be careful and check ourselves. And it’s a tribute to the survivors of this horrible disease, it’s a way to support those who are fighting it and remember those we’ve lost. It’s my favorite game of the year.”
Seh has attended every game and will be making the play-by-play calls for the upcoming matchup. And she takes that job seriously.
She has a closet full of “spot charts,” poster boards with information on teams and players for each game.
“It’s a week’s worth of prep work. I usually take a week off to prepare for the game. Maybe I overprepare for the game, but I think it’s better than underpreparing,” Seh said. “I usually include career statistics but if there’s any other interesting nugget about these guys, something they do on the side, who are these guys, I add that in to keep the conversation going during the game.”
When asked why Seh keeps all of her spot charts, she said they are like souvenirs from the games she covers.
“I like to keep these so one day I can look back and look at all the work that I did for a 4-hour broadcast. It’s fun to reflect back and say, ‘Yeah, I remember this player and game,’” Seh said.
Seh has been nominated to be crowned the 2022 Florida Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.
Seh and her team stand alone in the quality, intuition and conviction of their sports coverage, looking high and low for engaging narratives and highlights to broadcast from amateur and professional functions alike.
She also stands alone in the running as the only nominee working in Central Florida.
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