Rippee Turns Love of Sports into A Career

By Tristin Lieberman
IMC Student

Brian Scott Rippee grew up watching every SportsCenter highlight on ESPN and any game he could get his hands on. Later, the Jackson, Mississippi, native went on to interview world-class athletes in Major League Baseball during the summer of 2018.

“I loved sports growing up as a kid. I really never had many other interests or hobbies. Sports was the only thing I watched or followed,” Rippee said. “I watched SportsCenter every night and every morning. I have two brothers who like sports too, so something sports-related was always on television at the house.”

From an Ole Miss family, Rippee was a University of Mississippi undergraduate student from 2013 to 2017 and got his degree in Business Marketing. After that, he finished up a Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications in 2019.

During his time as a student at Ole Miss, Rippee was an intern freelancer for the Jackson, Mississippi, newspaper, The Clarion-Ledger. His senior year he was the Campus Rush Correspondent for Sports Illustrated, covering college football and other Ole Miss sports. These experiences helped to lay the groundwork for his future in journalism.

He would go on to intern at the well-known and highly popular college baseball website D1baseball.com.

“It was cool,” Rippee said. “I had covered college baseball for several years, and that is the sport that gave me my first real opportunity. So covering it for a national site like D1 was awesome. Kendall Rogers and Aaron Fitt (of D1 Baseball) are great reporters and couldn’t have been better to me. I learned a lot and had fun.”

Even while still taking classes and interning, Rippee found the time to work for Scout.com’s affiliate site, The Ole Miss Spirit, and cover Rebel baseball. During this time, he also was a digital media reporter for Ole Miss Athletics.

Rippee’s next opportunity came at a much higher level in sports. In May 2018, he became an associate reporter for MLB Advanced Media, L.P, covering the Cincinnati Reds.

“Covering the Reds was the coolest thing I have ever done professionally,” he said “It was a dream come true. Interacting with so many talented players and seeing the ins and outs of a professional locker room was an incredible experience. Baseball has always been my favorite sport, and covering it at the highest level was something I will cherish forever.

Rippee is now back in Mississippi and covering the Ole Miss Rebels. He’s currently freelancing some and also writing for The Ole Miss Spirit again. Until recently, when he fell victim to what a lot of people are going through, a 2020 layoff, he was on the statewide daily radio show Sports Talk Mississippi as one of the regular hosts. With that job he was also doing his own podcast.

“It wasn’t much of a choice. (The SuperTalk Mississippi staff) wanted me to start one,” Rippee said. “I literally had no clue how or what made for compelling podcast content, but my bosses were helpful and supportive and I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Until I took the job at SuperTalk, all of my experience had been writing-based. This radio and podcasting world is still new to me, but I am enjoying the challenge and learning.”

Rippee addressed anyone else trying to get into the podcasting world, saying “the key to a good podcast isn’t necessarily what you talk about, it’s the how. Be entertaining. Talk to interesting people.”

As for his own future, he had a couple of places reach out to him since the layoff, including the Spirit.

“I’m happy doing more writing than I was,” Rippee said. “I don’t regret radio at all, but I didn’t always feel like I was being challenged. Writing is always a challenge. I’m looking forward to having some time to sit back and make a decision on what I want to do long term.”