Football writer Joshua Hendricks finished fourth nationally in the digital reporting category at last year’s AVBOB Forum of Community Journalists Excellence Awards in Johannesburg. Hendricks earned his spot for two pieces he penned for Cape At 6 Sport, one on Tapelo Xoki and the other on Malcolm Jacobs. We caught up with him on what these nominations mean.
Who is Joshua Hendricks?
Well, I’m a Football Writer/journalist that enjoys telling football stories. Because it’s information that keeps a record of who and what has gone before us, this information is critical, especially for future generations. I was born in Hanover Park and attended Kenwyn Primary School and Rhodes High School. It all started at Juventus in Mitchells Plain, played for Rygersdal, Wynberg St Johns, and Ambassadors, and joined the Third Division team Zeesha United. Then ended up coaching and playing at Cape Town Rangers and lastly at Santos and Garlandale FC.
What inspired you to follow a career in journalism?
I dropped out of UWC because I didn’t feel I was in the right place as a person. Varsity life did not suit me. The content I was studying kept me from getting fired up. But I always loved football but gave it up to learn to earn a living, as playing football was not sustainable. Dealing with the disappointment of not making it as a professional footballer was hard for me. So I was accepted for Environmental Water Science and Medical Biosciences. I chose EWS but hated everything about it, even though I did well with similar subjects at school.
Journalism came naturally. Writing about football gave me a purpose, and getting published in the Soccer Laduma Newspaper validated that I made the right decision to leave Varsity to pursue something that gave me meaning.
What would you like to achieve in your career?
I want to be a reliable and credible journalist like the Rob Delports of this world, whose work speaks for itself without even trying. Someone who puts his head down and works and is rewarded for the impact and effort they give to the game selflessly.
How did the nomination for the AVBOB awards come about?
I just sent through two articles about the stories of Malcolm Jacobs and Tapelo Xoki that I’d written when I saw applications on Facebook, not knowing that I’d be nominated.
You did not win the award, but being in the top four country-wide should be a big deal.
I see it as a big deal, yes. A national nomination for a boy from Hanover Park, but this should be a norm. I dropped out, wondering where I would end up. But getting nominated did not add any value to my life as I believe in my abilities due to the mentors I have surrounded myself with, like Gracia Michaels, Rob Delport, David Kappel and now Peter du Toit, who have helped me so much, because they are in the game and taught me everything I know. Without them, I’d be lost.
What does the nomination mean to your career?
It means that I was the number four journalist in South Africa and that in the next phase, I have to start all over and find a new direction so that I can be remembered for something different that continues to add to the extensive knowledge that I have gained through working and polishing my craft.
What is that one thing that makes you jump off your bed to do your work?
Knowing that I’m adding credible stories to my industry. Knowing that I could change the lives of a young person reading my story or the life of the young player I’m writing about. Knowing that if I lay down five more minutes, I’d potentially waste five more minutes that I could have used to discover the next big star.
What has been the highest moment of your career to date?
For me, seeing the appreciation of the people that acknowledge my work, especially the community football stories. The nomination is good, but without the people, it means nothing. They are the ones that read and add value to what I do. When someone comes up to you and says that they love what I’m doing and that they admire my work, there is no better high than that.
And the weird or funny moment that you can think of?
This question is a hard one but recently, in the Hanover Park vs Clarewood JPM ABC game, while the game was on, the referee was kicked against the side of his face, and he went down. Now you can imagine a tall guy going slowly down. Everyone burst out laughing, but then he was knocked out entirely. And laughter turned into concern as he was not moving, but medics rushed on, and he was okay eventually. And guess what? He continued the game as a true professional.
