2005 Rowan Anderson

ROWAN ANDERSON
by Don Goodwin

The 2005 Student Award recipient is Rowan Anderson of the University of Western Ontario.

Rowan Anderson

Rowan Anderson

As a student at one of Canada’s premier schools for optometry, an important lesson Rowan Anderson learned is that hindsight is 20-20.

In 2003, top marks earned Anderson, a native of Woodstock, N.B., an exclusive ticket into the University of Waterloo after completing his undergraduate degree in biology at Acadia. In his second year Anderson, 24, took a rare break from his studies to attend the World Junior Hockey Training Camp in Kitchener.

“When I got to the game, I saw Peter Loubardias and John Druce from Rogers Sportsnet were there preparing to do the play-by-play and colour commentary. I thought, wow! what a way to make a living.”

“At that point, I said ‘This is what I should be doing, this is my calling. I know it sounds cheesy, but it just suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. My dad got me involved in public speaking at a young age and I’ve always been involved in a number of sports, so it just seemed to make sense.

At that point, I knew this was going to be a life- changing decision, but I was willing to take that risk. I don’t think I could have lived with myself not having given this a chance.”

Anderson withdrew from optometry school in March 2003 and volunteered with Rogers Television for a year before entering the graduate program in journalism at the University of Western Ontario.

“Some of my friends and classmates said I was throwing a solid career away,” he said. But the transition to journalism has been smooth. He’s worked as a cameraman during CIS football and basketball games for a local cable network in Kitchener and called the play-by-play for a Hometown Hockey series broadcast on Rogers TV during the Christmas holidays. Recently, he’s worked as a baseball reporter for 94.9 FM and as public address announcer for the London Majors.

In January, Anderson will complete a four-week work internship as part of his curriculum at Western. He hopes to catch on with a major sports network in Toronto.