Wolf Pack leads Crescent City Sports

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Photo credit: Vanessa Alvarado

Will Ingram

Sports media is more and more accessible, taking advantage of industry trends such as podcasts, live-streaming and social media coverage.

For one New Orleans media outlet, it’s their mission to provide content within those mediums while keeping their local, Crescent City charm.

Since 2008, Ken Trahan, A’79, has led the charge in the local sports realm, first with NewOrleans.com/Sports, then with SportsNOLA.com in 2011 and now with CrescentCitySports.com, but it’s no one-man job.

Trahan joined forces with two other Loyola graduates to create an outlet for people to stay up to date on sports on high school, college and professional levels.

Together with Lenny Vangilder on the sales and production end, and Jude Young as the site’s webmaster, the trio lead an outlet of more than 25 contributors that help write and live stream events. Those contributors bring in experience from a number of outlets such as Fox Sports and ESPN.

However, it’s The Ken Tran Original Prep Football Report that is the crown jewel of Crescent City Sports. The radio show displays the non-stop, Friday night action of high school football across Louisiana.

“I approached my bosses at WWL(Radio), who wanted an idea for a Friday night show,” Trahan said. “The show now encompasses 10 radio stations, many websites and up to 200 contributors on any Friday night.”

While Trahan has also reported on big-league games and everything in between, high school is what he loves and what he has excelled at for nearly four decades.

“I enjoy presenting the wonderful stories, the positive stories about those who make the games possible and make them work,” said Trahan.

Both of Trahan’s partners also share his passion.

Young wanted to be a coach when he attended Loyola, but realized that wouldn’t be a long-term deal.

“It was sports media where I knew I might be able to find both success and satisfaction,” said Young.

While Young owns and manages the website with Trahan, he has his own sports show on WGSO, a local radio station.

“Having the freedom to run the day-to-day operations of the website from anywhere at any time make it possible for me to take on other work. Being web-based makes my laptop and phone my ‘office’ while I can enjoy my broadcasting jobs as well,” said Young.

Vangilder on the other hand first went to college to major in computer science, but then transferred to Loyola for journalism. He started working with Trahan in 2008.

“He has the ability to multitask at an event like no one else I’ve ever worked with. Watching him in the middle of a game broadcast – he’s calling the game, compiling notes for his game story, keeping statistics, updating social media and probably a few other things,” said Vangilder.

Even with many awards under the trios belts, it’s the love of story telling that keeps their content rolling. Trahan says he has loved sports since he was old enough to know who he was.

“To say I am blessed would be an understatement,” Trahan said. “To say I am fortunate would be accurate. To say I am fulfilled would be sincere. The Lord has truly blessed me and my family and the education at Loyola fully prepared me for whatever level of success I have sustained. Thank God almighty, I’m a Raider. Thank God almighty, I’m a Wolf.”