How An Undersized Football Player Continued His Sports Journey As A Journalist

I was too young to remember but I’ve been told the story so many times it feels like I recall every detail.

In May of 2006, I was an infant. But as the Florida Christian School softball team beat Westminster Academy in the 13th inning of a regional finals game, the victory thrust them into states.

My father, Scott Stemmer, who was the head coach of the team, hoisted me above his head and screamed: “We did it!”

The euphoric moment was my introduction to sports. I guess it was inevitable. 

My dad was the head softball coach at Florida Christian for more than 25 years. He won more than 300 games during his tenure with the Patriots, and was named the Miami Herald softball Coach of the Year, twice.

My first sport was baseball, but when I was eleven I quit to tackle my true love: football.

Naturally, with a mom who is 5’ 1” and a dad who is 5’ 7”, I gravitated toward the offensive line, where the behemoths clash. 

I stumbled through middle school football and eventually into varsity ball, clearly undersized. But the sport showed me grit. Despite my diminutive stature, I’m 5’4—maybe 5’ 5” on a good day—I never quit and managed to start all four years of varsity ball as a center.

When I graduated high school I faced the stark reality that my athletic career was over.

But then, something unexpected happened. I joined the school newspaper at Miami Dade College, The Reporter, as a sports journalist. 

For the last two years, for the most part, I’ve been the lone wolf on the sports beat, churning out stories about the baseball team, volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball and soccer and the softball team.  

I earned my first byline in The Reporter on September 25, 2023. It was a brief on the hiring of two new assistant men’s basketball coaches, Adam Braswell and Blake Peterson. I’m sure The New York Times took notice.

Since then, I’ve written 34 articles counting this column. 

Many of the stories have resonated with me. On the basketball beat, one of my favorite articles was a feature story on a brother and sister duo—Amar and Michaela Lane—playing at MDC. It was an honor to tell their story and show how a passion for the sport strengthened their relationship.

Perhaps the biggest character I’ve covered at MDC has been women’s head basketball coach Susan Summons. This past February, I talked to Summons for nearly three hours to chronicle her storied career after she won her 700th career game. Coach Summons has never met a microphone she didn’t like.

For the past two years, I watched head volleyball coach Origenes “Kiko” Benoit—perhaps the only coach I might be taller than—work his magic on the sidelines. The Lady Sharks played in the National Championship game both years. They have actually lost in the title game the past three years.  

This season, I watched from the sidelines as the College resurrected its men’s soccer program after nearly 35 years of inactivity and suited up its first-ever women’s soccer team. 

“We’re building this brick by brick,” Ramiro Vengoechea, the women’s head soccer coach told me months before his team took the field.

On the diamond, I saw the baseball and softball teams have resurgent years this season. Both teams won 31 games. Overall, it was a stellar season for MDC athletics. All seven teams made the playoffs. 

I was there for all of it. 

Thank you for reading my stories for the past two years. They have been bounded by one common interest, a passion for sports. Just like my dad taught me.

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