Sports Journalist

Meet the Addi-Sport

Zuri Berry is the online community manager and a sports writer for The Union in western Nevada County, California. He's been a sports writer at various newspapers for the past five years, migrating from one patch of grass to the next.

To catch up with his latest work, visit TheUnion.com's sports section.

Born in San Francisco, Zur Berry had aspirations of being a writer early on. He blames Nickelodeon's hit cartoon "Doug" for making him want to keep a journal but he feels a large portion of the blame falls on Harry Potter too.

As he grew up, he played all kinds of sports. He was an MVP for his little league baseball team in 1995 (a trophy he still covets) and won the city championship playing football for the Galileo Lions in 2001. Till this day, he still wears his championship ring which he affectionately calls his "mini Superbowl ring."

Berry went to City College of San Francisco where he immediately picked up journalism as his major. He joined the Guardsman staff as a sports writer in 2003 covering the college's football team while it marched on to a national championship. He became the sports editor the following semester, diversifying the section with balanced stories on men's and women's sports.

At this time he gave birth to his Addi-Sports column, titled for his addiction to sports and his penchant to pass on his love of the genre.

Before long, Berry started freelancing for the Vallejo Times-Herald. He covered the local prep sports scene, getting his first daily exposure. After spending three years at CCSF, he ended up leaving Vallejo and San Francisco altogether to pursue his bachelor's degree in journalism at California State University, Chico. Although Berry still has fond memories of Vallejo, he was doubly rewarded with memories and adventures in Chico.

As a staff writer and editor for The Orion, Chico State's award-winning campus newspaper, Berry has traveled to Arkansas to cover an NCAA tournament, St. Louis in the middle of the World Series and was given the opportunity to attend a convention for the National Association of Black Journalists in Indianapolis. Through it all, he has grown exponentially as a writer and person. He blames his upbringing on the great learning environment that he has come to love.

In 2006, Berry was accepted into the Chips Quinn Scholars program, which gave him the opportunity to be an intern at the Oakland Tribune covering public safety and fires. He has since been an intern at the Marin Independent Journal (Novato, Calif.) through the Sports Journalism Institute before taking his job as a sports writer for The Union.

Within six months, Berry added the title of online community manager, helping foster user-generated content and manage the The Union's blogs. The job has added to Berry's love of new media.

The best way to reach out to him is by e-mail. But to find out what he's thinking, read his blog.

ZuriBerry.com | E-mail me | Facebook me! | The Union