Eastside Catholic English Teacher and MPA Director Caleb Sonneland has a true passion for teaching and sports. The ex-soccer star has crusaded for years to pioneer a student-run sports journalism elective, and this year, Sonneland would finally see the fruits of his labor.
But first, Let’s go to the very beginning.
Avon Old Farms School, Connecticut (2012-2015)
Sonneland has an idea to start a sports journalism project covering the Founders League in New England — a haven for elite athletes with promising futures. Sonneland found that, while there was plenty of recruiting information available online, there was a serious lack of league-wide coverage. So he created Founders League Athletics which eventually became Prep Sport Report, a student-driven sports journalism initiative where students with a shared passion for sports would meet and write articles recapping games, forecast the season, and broadcast games in and around the area.
What began as an after-school hobby with fellow sports fans became a school-sanctioned outlet for students when Avon made it a “sport.”
“Every day after class we sat in a room and covered hockey games and compiled statistics. And since it was a ‘sport,’ I made them go to the gym every day after our PSR meeting,” Sonneland explained. But it wasn’t just Sonneland who was the driving force behind it all.
“[My students and I] built [Prep Sport Report] together. We built a broadcast network, we made partnerships with local businesses and photographers, and we provided student commentary during games.”
So what made it so successful?
“What was so cool about it was everybody that was there was motivated to be there. There was no reward for it. So anybody that was there was there because they were super fired up about sports and writing about sports.”
The website took off, and within months, every sports team in the Founders League had Twitter accounts, providing commentary and statistics. Correspondents from every school in the league were sending articles for publication, and the Prep Sport Report Twitter had amassed thousands of followers — from ESPN correspondents to collegiate football coaches.
Importantly, Sonneland’s correspondents used their experience with PSR on their college applications as they went on to attend major journalism colleges like Syracuse and University of Missouri before eventually landing jobs with the New York Islanders and ESPN.
Given the success and the rapid ascension of Prep Sport Report, it’s fair to wonder why Sonneland left it at all.
“I was 25 or 26, and I was stuck in the middle of Connecticut. And at a boarding school it was hard to meet people, so I moved home to Washington.”
Eastside Catholic School, Washington – 2020
Caleb Sonneland began working at Eastside Catholic School. Immediately, Sonneland couldn’t help but draw an important comparison between EC and Avon.
The schools both had prolific sports teams with little-to-no league coverage.
This gave Sonneland the idea to re-launch Prep Sport Report in Washington, only this time, focusing on the Metro League. But this was in the first full year back from the pandemic — a year when proposing, let alone approving, any extracurricular activities was a slog. And with an extra class to teach, there was little time in the day to casually cover the Metro League’s teams.
With a proposal in hand, Sonneland walked into Eastside Catholic President Gil Picciotto’s office to pitch his new elective. While the elective wasn’t approved, Sonneland was determined not take no for an answer. He continued to pitch his idea every year, refining and building a proposal that EC couldn’t say no to.
Eastside Catholic School, Washington – April, 2023
Sonneland had to be patient. Landing the school’s approval wasn’t as easy as it was in Connecticut.
“[Eastside Catholic] is much more process oriented. A lot of people have to sign off on it, a lot of people have to check it off.”
But after years of “thanks but no thanks,” High School Principal Ryan Aiello came to Sonneland with an idea.
“Originally, Eastside had just offered our traditional Journalism elective, but only three kids had signed up for it. We generally don’t run electives if that few kids sign up. The problem was that it was past class registration, so there was no way to ask kids to re-register for just one class. So we had to be a little creative,” Sonneland admitted.
“The only reason Sports Journalism got approved at all was because Mr. Aiello had the idea to take Journalism, rebrand it as ‘Sports Journalism,’ and let word of mouth spread.”
“That was the final nudge it needed to get the go ahead.”
Eastside Catholic School, Washington – August 30, 2023
The first day of what would soon become Metro Prep Athletics.
As his students filed in and took their seats, Sonneland realized he had a program he could shape however he wanted.
But that meant he had a shapeless program.
A survey was sent out giving options on names for the program, things like “Beyond the Bench,” “Metro King Report” and of course, “Metro Prep Athletics.”
Eastside Catholic School, Washington – September 10, 2023
Senior Emmy Seven posts Metro Prep Athletics’ first official article. “EC Football Goes into Half with a Lead of 43-0 Over Ballard”
Metro Prep Athletics was starting to take shape, and the program started to gain more attention from the school.
With a few articles under our belt, and with more on the way, Sonneland decided to take Metro Prep Athletics into the world of broadcasting.
Eastside Catholic School, Washington – November 3, 2023
Eastside Catholic vs. Hermiston, the 3A Washington State Football Playoffs.
After working with EC’s Athletic Director Stacy Stoutt to broadcast the game, a group of three students (Elliott Wooton, Paige Miller, and Nathan Daymond) got together over the course of a month and set up a broadcast system in preparation for this game.
The pressure was on. This was MPA’s first ever broadcast, and it needed to go well.
The broadcast was a massive success with nearly 1,000 people tuned in to watch the game and listen to the electric commentary by Wootton and Miller.
The next few months were some of the best for Metro Prep Athletics.
January 2024, Sammamish Washington.
The future of Metro Prep Athletics is bright.
Caleb Sonneland’s plan is to expand the program outside EC, having people from other schools in the Metro League submitting articles about their own schools and diversifying MPA content.
Since the launch of MPA, we have published almost 60 full length articles and broadcast 6 games and meets over 4 different sports with many more to come.
So from all of us at Metro Prep Athletics, thank you! Thank you for reading, for watching, and for listening. We can’t wait to show you what’s coming next.
