We recently connected with Isaac Edelman and have shared our conversation below.
Isaac, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is famous for its Cinderella stories. In 2023, Florida Atlantic University’s Owls wore the coveted glass slippers, going from complete unknowns to breaking the brackets and winning the hearts of many viewers.
But there was another Cinderella story during the tournament you might not know about–mine. Over the course of the men’s Final Four basketball tournament, I found myself suddenly thrust into the position of covering the tournament as a reporter, despite mainly having experience at a local level.
When I got the call to be able to attend the NCAA Final Four, attend press conferences, and even go into the teams’ locker rooms, I could hardly believe that it was real. FAU is only 20 minutes from my house, and they wanted a local voice to cover the school’s breakout success. I had to navigate the long trip and coverage solo. I had no support crew, so armed with only my cellphone and laptop, I had to offer professional coverage.
One thing about Cinderella stories is that while it might seem as if someone is instantly transformed from rags to riches, the reality is that it takes hard work to be prepared when opportunity knocks. Sports broadcasting has been my passion since a young age after I attended a sports broadcasting camp at age 9 (ironically, at FAU). My diligent management of my school and my own media channels gave me the necessary skills to be ready for my unexpected break into the big leagues.
Today, a typical day for me might be anchoring a live broadcast for my school, brainstorming article ideas in my newspaper class, and reporting on my school’s sports teams. When I get home, I focus on my own website FL Teams (the world’s only website that covers every single sports team in Florida) creating content for my TikTok account, YouTube, and writing content, as well as managing a team of more than 30 writers and podcasters. For years, I sampled everything in the world of sports media. I wrote, developed my social media presence, and crafted videos on the topic of major sports. But I could never have predicted that FAU would have its breakout season at just the right moment for me.
I am proud of what I accomplished, but also am aware that hard work and luck is always necessary. Adults in the industry often struggled to secure this type of opportunity. I knew I had to rise to the occasion. From watching press conferences on a screen, I found myself in one, asking questions. I even had locker room access and was able to interview the tournament-winning UConn Huskies as they came off the court.
Succeeding in sports journalism has also taken a certain degree of humility about my own strengths. I have loved sports ever since I was a child, but not everyone is gifted enough to play at an elite level. I am on my high school’s tennis team and enjoy casually playing basketball. But my real gift has always been talking about sports and broadcasting. I am a true fan–but I work very hard to earn my audience.
I am now broadcasting FAU Football games in the press box, working as an ESPN 106.3 radio correspondent and an NHL Power Player, part of a marketing team aspiring to increase interest in hockey in the under-18 demographic. Just like every player on every Cinderella team at the tournament worked very hard to earn their right to play, winners never stop practicing and striving to improve. Similarly, the ability to cover the Final Four tournament is my greatest personal achievement, and yet, the next day, I went right back to writing, broadcasting, and creating content, gratified but never satisfied by what I have achieved.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As a freshman in high school, I founded FL Teams (flteams.com), the world’s only sports website that covers every Florida sports team both collegiately and professionally. I am responsible for managing a team of over thirty freelance writers and content managers. These contributors are adults, and they depend upon my input. Managing people who are older than me is difficult, but it has taught me major leadership skills. This has influenced my sense of discipline and my follow-through with everything I do. Every day when I arrive home from school, I consistently devote time to my work. Because of the changing trends of social media, the work is constant. I must be focused because I am reporting on activities that are happening “in the moment”. This teaches me to produce quality work in a time sensitive environment while quickly assigning contributors with tasks to complete.
At FL Teams, my focus is content creation, assessing algorithms, and creating authentic pieces of work. This ensures my contributors are generating success, whether it be writing on WordPress, scheduling podcasts and article ideas, or initiating contact for media credentials at major sporting events. Overall, my role at FL Teams has taught me invaluable skills such as time management, perseverance, and resilience, which I will apply to my future goal of becoming a sports broadcaster.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I run tons of social media profiles from TikTok to Twitter to Facebook to Instagram to Youtube. I have mastered social media algorithms in an effort to post content that is both engaging and effective for me and my platforms. First of all, I am the editor-in-chief of my school newspaper. In addition to writing and editing articles, I run our school’s social media platforms (@wbhsbullseye). I have over 4,400 Instagram followers and over 8,00 TikTok followers. I found a way to post engaging content that relates to my high school, but draws an interest from an audience that doesn’t attend West Boca High School. To be more specific, I have more followers than students at the school (2,000). I had to brainstorm ideas that would result in viral content (videos with a lot of engagement – not just views, but comments and shares). I found success by posting sports videos that aligned with trendy sounds or videos that were controversial so people would argue in the comment section. On my school’s Instagram, I have a video with over 1.1 million views. And on TikTok I have four videos with over 700k views (and 1 video with over 1.9 million views). I also run social media for my website, FL Teams (@flteams). On TikTok I have over 11.9k followers with three videos with over 1 million views.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My future goals are to become a sports broadcaster and sports media star. For over eight years, I attended sports broadcasting camp where I developed a passion for sports media. I have connected with leaders in the sports media industry such as Ian Eagle and Kenny Albert, who have not just inspired me, but have become ongoing contacts. My interest in reporting led me to become involved in TV production at West Boca Raton High School for two years and the school newspaper for three years. Additionally, as the football team’s reporter, I have enjoyed reporting through interviews, photos, videos, live tweets, and composing articles under the Friday night lights. Due to my diligent reporting work ethic at West Boca Raton, I was hired as a South Florida sports reporter for New Era Prep. In 2023, New Era Prep sent me to Houston, Texas where I covered FAU in the Final Four, and was the youngest media member in attendance. It was a surreal experience to feel what it’s like to report at such a meaningful game alongside other top reporters that I aspire to be. My experiences have given me the potential to become a leader in the sports media industry. My dream of working for ESPN is to become either a play-by-play announcer, news anchor, or sideline reporter. My dedication in managing multiple social media accounts and studying algorithms has given me the “real world” experience necessary to run sports teams’ social media pages in the future.
Contact Info:
- Website: flteams.com
- Instagram: edelmanisaac
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-edelman-6437641b0/
- Twitter: isaacedelman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@isaacedelman/videos
Image Credits
Isaac Edelman