Michelle Margaux’s point of view

ELISABETH SMITH | ASST. NEWS EDITOR

Michelle Margaux wasn’t a typical University of San Diego student. She didn’t play sports, join a sorority, or go to parties down at Mission Beach. Instead, she spent her four years dedicating her time to journalism and academics.

“I’ve always wanted to work and always to make money for myself,” Margaux said. “Success motivates me, and I have a fear of being mediocre. I work 24/7, and it can be bad at times, but I love it.”

Margaux, a 2014 USD graduate, was hired in January as the new host of FOX Sports San Diego’s weekly show, “Padres Point of View”. The 23-year-old also serves as a fill-in sideline reporter behind Julie Alexandria for the network’s Padres telecasts.

In a recent visit to her alma mater, Margaux spoke to a Communication Studies class about her career and what brought her back to San Diego after almost two years reporting in Corpus Christi, TX.

“I knew I wanted to do broadcast journalism ever since I was eight and stood in front of a playhouse, reading the news to my mom,” Margaux said.

Growing up, Margaux hated playing sports, and found baseball especially boring. She didn’t know anything about football and as a Sacramento native, grew up a fan of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.

“I ended up loving sports because my parents got divorced,” Margaux said. “When I would get home from school and no one was home, I would turn on the Oakland A’s games since it was the only thing live at that time of the day. Watching those games made me feel like I wasn’t alone.”

Margaux developed a passion for baseball and spent a lot of her time learning everything she could about sports in general.

“I would turn on ESPN every morning instead of watching the news and intently listen to every way these anchors were talking and try to make it my own,” Margaux said.

At USD, Margaux fine-tuned her journalism skills through anchoring on USDtv, and reporting on sporting events for USD’s Media Relations Department. She also interned at KTXL FOX40 News in Sacramento after her freshman year, along with her current employer FOX Sports San Diego, her sophomore year. To top it all off, she worked at KUSI Television for “Prep Pigskin Report” in the greater San Diego area.

“My internships were vital in helping me figure out that I wanted to do sports,” Margaux said. “People say there is not one set path in this industry, and that’s true. It was interesting seeing how people did things because no one works the same way. I learned that you need to be an individual to succeed in this industry.”

As a woman broadcaster in sports, Margaux has faced some challenges that her male colleagues don’t encounter.

“I had to have my guard up while on the job,” Margaux said. “Guys try to test you, and you don’t want to be rude or too flirty when interviewing them.”

Another obstacle she faced was through interacting with viewers through social media, and trying to gain a following in her community.

“Guys will follow you on social media just because you’re a woman, and you want to follow them back to get a good following but you can’t because that means you want to sleep with them,” Margaux said.

While she faces double standards, Margaux continues to evolve as a reporter on-screen and off.

“It’s annoying that people assume that on the field people have teleprompters,” Margaux said. “People always say that ‘Because she’s a woman in sports, that she has to have a teleprompter in front of her telling her what to say.’ Well let me tell you, I’ve never seen any field reporter reading a script. We have to ask the questions ourselves and think on the spot.”

Margaux’s post-grad career took off in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she was hired as a news reporter and weekend sports anchor, after applying to hundreds of markets.

“I created opportunities for myself,” Margaux said. “Corpus Christi was not my first choice and they didn’t have a sports opening, but they created a hybrid position for me to do news and sports.”

Since Margaux was hired to be a reporter, she spent the majority of her time reporting news and shooting pieces that she did not even appear on camera for.

“I didn’t like Texas for the first year because I was doing news,” Margaux said. “The days when I got to do sports were the best days ever. I worked extra hard on those stories.”

Knowing that she wanted to graduate to bigger markets as a full-time sports reporter, Margaux kept in contact with her boss from FOX Sports San Diego, sending him her reel every month and asking for advice.

“Every month I sent him my reel and since he was invested in me from my internship he would give me tips, helping me improve,” Margaux said. “By December I got a call from my agent, and he said, ‘FOX Sports San Diego wants to hire you.’ I needed to get out of my three-year contract, but this is the time in this industry that I could be successful.”

After buying out of her contract, Margaux returned to San Diego and began familiarizing herself with the FOX news team, covering USD basketball games, and preparing for the Padres season.

“I’m excited to be around baseball, to be around people who know what they’re doing. I’m excited to learn, and do what I love,” Margaux said

Margaux plans to stay in San Diego for a few years, but eventually wants to move to a national sports market. The USD community can look forward to seeing Margaux at Padres games, and on their televisions during “Padres POV.”