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LETU ALUMNUS
Shares Sports Lessons for Life
Not everyone who is interested in sports gets
to produce sports television programs watched
by viewers all over the country, but LETU alumnus
Aaron Bearden does.
The 2008 LeTourneau University graduate has
worked for the past five years at ESPN in Bristol,
Conn., as an associate producer for “Baseball
Tonight.” After five brutal winters, he just recently
accepted a new job as producer at the Golf
Channel in sunny Orlando, Fla. In his new role, he
will produce “Morning Drive,” that airs 6 to 8 a.m.
Central Time on the Golf Channel. Bearden admitted
switching sports will be a challenge, but said "I’m
excited about the new challenge and opportunity.”
“With ESPN, I had the opportunity to learn
every aspect of the television industry, from cutting
Bearden played
baseball for the
YellowJackets.
Aaron Bearden
Written by Janet Ragland
Photographs used by permission
highlights for SportsCenter to interviewing Bryce
Harper on the field after the Nationals clinched the
NL East last year, to producing hour-long Baseball
Tonight shows,” said Bearden, who earned his
degree at LETU in digital writing and had interned
at the Longview News-Journal. “Even when the
job was demanding or frustrating, I would remind
myself that, hey, I get paid to watch baseball! And,
besides, I knew getting there was definitely a God
thing.”
Bearden played for the LETU YellowJacket
baseball team. On a bus ride home from one of
the LETU baseball games his senior year, he and a
teammate began talking about their career plans.
“I told him I wanted to work for ESPN; that was
my dream job,” Bearden said. “He said he knew
someone who worked with
ESPN. I talked to them and
that led to an interview, and
ultimately, a job.
“God worked it out,”
Bearden said. “He had His
hand over the whole process
and just worked it out.”
“The first couple of years
at ESPN, I cut highlights of
all sports, but focused in on
Baseball Tonight as soon as I
could,” he said. The first time
I produced an hour-long show,
I was nervous. The prep time
I had put into it beforehand
talking to the anchors all
came together.
It was like muscle memory.
I was ready because I had put
in the work. Bearden says it
was a lot like playing baseball.
10 | NOW Magazine | Spring 2013