Cam Inman became a professional sports journalist at 16 years old — at least, that’s what he likes to tell people when they ask how his career in sports journalism took off. Since athletes turn professional when they start getting paid, he thought along similar lines for himself, because in his senior year, Inman took a part-time job writing for the Cupertino Courier, where he was the sports section editor.
This major responsibility was nothing new for Inman, as he had spent his junior year as a sports editor on El Estoque and was the editor-in-chief during his senior year. At these publications, he found his love for sports journalism and realized that he wanted to pursue this field after high school. Once Inman graduated from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo with a journalism degree, he landed a job in Pleasanton covering youth and high school sports, but his big break came when he seized an opportunity to cover professional soccer.
“[I] was getting my foot in the door covering youth sports and high school sports,” Inman said. “After my first couple months on the job, Major League Soccer started and nobody really wanted to cover the San Jose pro team. I had covered soccer in the past, and I said, ‘I want to do that.’ That way, I can show that I’m a pro beat writer.”
Inman gradually built up his reputation as a reporter after writing about professional sports, till 2000 when he was offered a job with the San Francisco 49ers as a beat reporter. However, Inman says that his career really took off after he started his own personal sports blog and built up a large social media following by promoting his work.
“You [have] to build yourself up and go up the ladder to a career in journalism nowadays,” Inman said. “You are in control of that door and the doorknob. You can open it and do whatever you want: start your own podcast, have your own YouTube channel, start your own blogs, and the more you do it, the better you get at it.”
Inman attributes his success in the field to his enthusiasm towards sports, desire to “write what needs to be written in a fair, responsible and respectful way” and — most importantly — his love for journalism. Inman chose to pursue journalism at the start of high school, a non-traditional career path that most of his peers from MVHS did not choose, specifically highlighting his love for its fast-paced and ever-changing nature.
Inman’s lifelong friend, and fellow El Estoque staff member in 1989, Mike Maffeo, highlights how Inman’s incredible work ethic led him to become a success in his field. He recalls him as a curious, fearless, and determined journalist.
“I’ve never seen anybody more committed to his desire to be good in this field,” Maffeo said. “He was very organized and very professional in how he wanted us to think about journalism and reporting. He worked so hard in putting everything together and teaching us and, you know, being in that role, it was truly inspiring, even as a senior in high school.”
Though Inman’s journalism experience dates back almost 40 years, he believes that he has a lot more to learn and skills to perfect. His experience in many different publications, from high school journals to city-wide journals, conducting interviews and writing reports, has helped him learn from his mistakes and grow as a writer.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Inman said. “I haven’t written the perfect story. I haven’t done the perfect report yet. I’m still just learning along the way.”
