If sport has taught Scotty Stevenson anything, it’s the power of holding on to your dream.
Scotty Stevenson vividly remembers the moment he first dreamed of becoming a sports commentator.
It was 1987 and Stevenson was 10 years old, watching sports broadcaster Keith Quinn on TV, commentating an All Blacks match in the inaugural Rugby World Cup.
“Listening to that, it just seemed like the most amazing job,” laughs Stevenson. “That’s what I geuninely always wanted to do, to commentate live sport. I can’t really for the life of me understand why, but I don’t really question it.”
Stevenson says that while it took two decades from that pivotal moment to achieve it, that dream never went away. Commentating is an incredibly hard area to get into, but in 2007, he landed his first gig with Sky Sport.
“The jobs don’t come up very often,” he says, namechecking Kiwi commentator Grant Nisbett – who has been in his role nigh on 35 years – to illustrate his point.
“Those jobs, they’re scarce. You have to work hard for them, you have to have a bit of luck with your timing – and about the people who give you those opportunities.”
He lists his standout moments from the last 17 years: the first Winter Olympics held in Russia in 2014, covering the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, as well as the All Blacks at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
Now, with many job titles under his belt – from commentator to broadcaster, reporter, author and television presenter, and currently working dual roles in sports media both on TV and radio – Stevenson considers himself remarkably blessed.
Working two jobs has its challenges, but mostly just requires getting up a bit earlier in the morning, he says with a grin.
His full-time post with TVNZ sees him working on live sport and content production, including a free weekly newsletter that arrives in subscribers’ inboxes on a Monday, wrapping up sports coverage from the weekend.
But after taking up his second gig as breakfast show host for independent sports radio station SENZ at the end of April, his day now starts at 5am, long before he’s due at the TVNZ building.
Stevenson co-hosts the 6am to 9am show with former All Black Israel Dagg and finds radio a great medium – he loves the immediacy and the spontaneity of it.
“It’s been a lot of fun, the last two weeks anyway. Ask me again in another six months,” he laughs.
He adds that the thrill of the unknown is what keeps him coming back to live sport broadcasting – showing up and not knowing what’s going to happen until the final whistle blows.
Reflecting on his career, he believes in a country like New Zealand, you should never be afraid to tell people what you really want to do.
“If they believe in you and they can see you believe in yourself, they’ll find a way to help you open the doors you need to open.”
Stevenson says he’s been lucky to have been supported and employed by “some very smart operators”. A list of names follows, including Andrea McVeigh, Andrew Fyfe and Melodie Robinson.
But working in media, particularly as a commentator, means working in a “taste business” and realising you might not be everyone’s cup of tea, he says.
When you pour your heart and soul into your work, this reality hurts, but that’s life, he adds.
“You could be a great athlete and not everyone thinks you’re great – you just have to get used to it.”
Reminding yourself who you are doing it all for is important. What drives Stevenson is doing a good job for the team around him as well doing justice to the sportspeople out there on the field.
“The athletes you’re commentating, they’re out there living out their dreams as well, and doing their best to succeed.
“There’s a duty of care to get the details right, but to also give your best for the viewer, for the listener, for the athlete and for those around that athlete as well.”
With so much of the media industry in Aotearoa in turmoil, Stevenson empathises with those who have lost their jobs as well as the concern over shuttered current events programmes.
He notes sports journalism continues to diminish, and finds his role with SENZ to be an important way of keeping those narratives alive.
The fractured landscape in New Zealand has resulted in differing opinions about the media’s value, but the fourth estate must be nurtured because what journalism offers democracy is crucial, says Stevenson.
“Everyone wants attention in this world, but we provide scrutiny – and those are two different things. Sport may feel trivial in that mix but it’s part of who we are, what we do and what we’re passionate about.”
Scrutiny also comes in handy when looking at male and female sports teams and the stark differences in resourcing between them, says Stevenson.
“If you looked at two national tems and one’s flying business class and one’s turning right… We have a duty of care to those who are trying to perform at the highest levels, to make sure they too have the resources at their disposal.”
Spending much of his career alongside his current manager, former Black Fern and two-time World Cup winner Melodie Robinson, along with sports commentator and former netabller Andrea McVeigh, has shown him just how many barriers female athletes in this country contend with that men simply don’t have to. And yet, they keep fighting.
This pair, as well as his female commentator colleagues and his late wife, who died two years ago, inspire him to champion female athletes however he can.
“We have incredible women in this country… my late wife was an incredible producer, executive producer, political journalist and so I was blessed to be surrounded by really strong, intelligent women and still the best company you can find.”
Together we recall the electricity we felt at Eden Park for the women’s Rugby World Cup final in 2022. Stevenson was covering the tournament alongside Bernandine Oliver-Kerby, Kristina Sue, Narelle Sindos, Sene Naoupu and Brodie Kane.
It was England versus the Black Ferns, in a game that went right down to the wire. We laugh that we both nearly fainted from the tension (and we’re only half-joking).
“Hands down, that match would be the greatest atmosphere I’ve ever experienced at Eden Park,” says Stevenson.
I ask Stevenson if he still supports his childhood sports team. He stays true to his home province, citing Northland Rugby as his team. But generally speaking, as a commentator, he says you have to remain objective, which is challenging when you start getting to know the players personally too.
“It’s tough enough when you know the players on the losing side and the winning side – that’s an emotional rollercoaster in itself.”
When England beat the All Blacks in the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-final, Stevenson was also ghostwriting a biography for Kieran Read, who was captain at the time but had also become a friend.
“I’ve done some interviews in my time, but finishing that game… he was a broken man and we were in this vast Tokyo hotel lobby, trying to make sense of it all.
“That wasn’t the way either of us wanted that book to end.”
Just another moment that reinforces what a tough business sport is.
That’s why when he was asked to host TVNZ’s new show The Upside earlier this year, he leapt at the chance, despite it being his first foray outside the sports world.
The show featured intimate conversations with six well-known New Zealanders about mental wellbeing, where he found some familiar faces including Dame Valerie Adams and Sir Graham Henry.
Sitting face to face in a darkened room, Stevenson and the guests delve beneath their own public personas to reveal health troubles, the challenges of parenthood and depression.
Each guest on the show had travelled a diffrent path, but there was a beautiful commonality to their stories, which was how they dealt with their own personal pressures.
“The message was to let people know their problems are important and they don’t have to deal with those problems alone.”
And if sport has taught him anything, it’s: “Don’t fear being wrong.
“Don’t fear not succeeding, just do everything you can and throw every ounce of your energy into succeeding. Whether you do or not is another question, but in the process of doing that, you’ll get the most out of yourself and out of your life,” says Stevenson.
“What if you are passionate about doing something? Just keep doing it. Look for another way and if that door closes, open another one. And if there are no doors, break down a wall or smash a window.”
This was first published in the 2024 June-July NZ Marketing Magazine issue. Subscribe here.
