Brenna Wilson’s obsession for sports began at age 13. After watching a baseball game, Wilson couldn’t get enough. She started following all the Boston sports and watched ESPN religiously. Before long, a family friend suggested she pursue a career as a broadcaster.

Wilson, now a junior broadcast journalism major, is a founding member of the Syracuse University student chapter of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. The professional group grants connections and awards to its base of more than 1,000 members.

Dave Goren, the association’s executive director, first spoke with Karen McGee, assistant dean for student affairs at the S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications, early last fall. Goren came to the campus and met prospective members at the Feb. 9 basketball game against Georgetown. The first interest meeting for students took place Wednesday.

The Syracuse chapter will elect its student officers in early March. McGee said students will be in full control of the chapter. She hopes the chapter can attract both the big names in sports broadcasting and the success stories of the current generation, she said.

‘You can always have people to aspire to,’ she said, ‘but if you really want to get a job in the industry, you want to know people who just did it.’

The national organization formed in 1959, but the organizing of student chapters began just after Goren took his post last year.

Syracuse is the second school to open up a student-run chapter of NSSA — the first was established at the American Military University, an accredited online university.

It’s no coincidence SU will have one of the first student-run chapters: Goren, the association’s director, is a university alumnus.

Goren, who won the 2009 NSSA Sportscaster of the Year award two months after losing his North Carolina broadcasting job, said he worked his way there through Syracuse’s student broadcasting crews.

‘I started at WAER from the time I walked in the door as a freshman,’ he said. ‘It’s kind of a no-brainer to get Syracuse involved.’

The Syracuse chapter is about bringing professional connections to campus,Wilson said.

‘Wherever you go, there’s a Syracuse alum,’ she said. ‘You’d think that we’d have at least something.’

Wilson spent last summer filming for the New England Patriots’ in-house video team, where she logged film, created children’s animation packages and produced a full video package. She even filmed ‘All Access’ interviews with the team’s biggest names.

All of it comes from Newhouse connections, she said.

Priyanka Vohra, a junior broadcast journalism major, said she came to Newhouse for its relations with alumni and professionals and used them to land a dream internship with the Speed Channel Cable Network in Charlotte, N.C.

‘I know the Newhouse family is everywhere,’ Vohra said. ‘We’re the bridge between those in the industry and those who want to be.’

Goren compiled a list of more than 100 accredited journalism schools during his first year in the position. He said Syracuse tops that list not only for its great interest in the chapter but also for his connections with the university. He said the national group is in a rebuilding phase, but student chapters will be independent and influential.

‘Some of the best ideas I have ever used came from interns of mine, and I certainly don’t put it past Syracuse students to come up with some good ideas for us,’ Goren said.

geclarke@syr.edu

Published on February 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm