Antonietta Collins Biography
Antonietta Collins (born: Antonietta González-Collins) is a Mexican-American sportscaster born on November 22, 1985 in California,USA.
Collins first secured a job as a production assistant at Univision in Miami. This gave her the chance to collaborate with producers of national programs such as Nuestra Belleza Latina, Premios Lo Nuestro, Premios Juventud and Primer Impacto. She was hired as a sports reporter at the CBS affiliate in St. Petersburg.
Antonietta joined the Spanish channel KNVO TV 48 Univision and Fox2 News in 2009 as a news reporter. She was a reporter for the 5 p.m news covering stories on immigration and drug-trafficking on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. She was also a fill in as a sports and weather anchor.
Antonietta Collins Age
Antonietta was born on November 22, 1985 in California,USA. She is 33 years old as of 2018.
Maria Antonietta Collins | Antonietta Collins Family
Antonietta was born to María Antonieta Collins, an award-winning TV reporter and author. Maria is best seller author of seven books (one as co-author), winner of four Emmy Awards and also the Edward Murrow Award.
Antonietta Collins Photo
Antonietta has a stepfather Fabio Fajard whom her mother married when she was young. Fajard died of kidney cancer in 2006. She is believed to have an older sister who lives in Canton, Ohio.
Her family moved to Mexico City when her mother’s job assigned her there and she grew up there until she was 9. Spanish was her first language. Her mother’s job transferred her to San Antonio and they moved there. She learnt English there. After an year, they moved to Miami.
Antonietta Collins Married | Antonietta Collins Husband
Collins keeps her personal life very private, there are no any reports regarding her sexuality or relationships. She seems to be more focused on her career than anything else.
Antonietta Collins ESPN
Collins joined ESPN in September 2013 as a member of the digital media team anchoring news and analysing video segments in every sports category. Her job description eventually increased to involve enterprise reporting and interviews for features. She guest hosted ‘Baseball Tonight,’ and also hosted the Spanish show ‘One Nación’ on ESPN Deportes.
She later joined the revamped morning line-up of Sportscenter in February 2016.
Antonietta Collins Twitter
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Antonietta Collins Instagram
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Antonietta Collins Interview
Published: February 8, 2017
Interviewer: You have a really unique background, having grown up in Mexico and then later the United States. Also, your mom (Maria Antonieta Collins) is a longtime, well-respected journalist. How did you get into this field?
Antonietta Collins: I was born in California. My mom was working there. We moved when I was a baby to Mexico City when her job assigned her there, and I grew up there until I was 9. Spanish was my first language. Then, my mom’s job transferred her to San Antonio and we went there. That’s where I learned English. We stayed in San Antonio for a year, and then moved to Miami and my family has been there ever since.
My mom is a television news reporter, so I grew up in that environment. People tell you ‘Oh, I wanted to be a doctor or a veterinarian, or something,’ I knew nothing but to be a reporter. I would tag along with my mom and her stories. I grew up in it and wanted to do it. I have an older sister who has nothing to do with it, but I was more of an athlete and she was more of a ballet and piano girl. I had sports in me.
Antonietta Collins: I played soccer and softball, and I was lucky enough when I was in high school to be recruited to the Under-19 Mexican national team. I played for them for two summers, between my junior and senior year of high school and the summer after I graduated. It didn’t go further than that.
It was amazing. Given the fact that my mom was a national reporter, every time there was a soccer story she would talk about me. I remember, my senior year of high school, I didn’t go to prom, because my mom had to do a story on Mia Hamm. She was still playing for WUSA in Washington. I got to go with my mom instead of prom, and she made me the reporter for it. It was told through my eyes. I think word got back to the Mexican Football Federation. I also had a close friend who played for the national team, so they gave me a tryout.
I stuck there for two and a half months the first time and it was intense. It was the first time I did something that scared me but also gave me adrenaline. We trained in Mexico City at their training facility. It was crazy, like three-a-days…It was just so much fun. We were training for the Pan-American Games. I never got to play with the team, because I was in school, but they still called me back the following year. For the girls on the team, that was their livelihood. It was a lifestyle. For me, I had the honor of wearing my parents’ country’s colors but my life didn’t depend on it.
Antonietta Collins: After college (Mount Union, in Ohio), I moved back to Miami. No one wanted to hire me (laughs). I became an intern at Univision. I was a gopher. I don’t know if that is still a term. But I would legit just get cups of coffee. I’ll never forget, I was the umbrella holder for singer Luis Fonsi and was the handler for DJ Flex. I applied for a job at a local radio sports station in Tampa.
I had no experience in sports. In college, I did work for a minor league hockey team, but I did front office stuff and in-game entertainment. It wasn’t reporting. But this station hired me. They took a chance on me, and I went up to St. Petersburg from Miami and I was a board operator on the midnight graveyard shift. They would send me to USF stuff, Tampa Bay Buccaneers press conferences or the Rays. They gave me opportunities.
I was getting frustrated even though it was only six months in, so I made a fake demo tape and sent it out to a bunch of places. McAllen, Texas bit, but it was in hard news. I needed the experience so I didn’t care. It was in Spanish, a dual-station: Fox Rio and Univision. I did reporting for Spanish at 5, 9 was Fox and 10 was Univision.
I got to cover the local sports beat on the side on the weekends if I wanted to. I was there for two-and-a-half years and it was my first TV experience. I covered border stories –homicides, drug busts, all the border issues you can think of. It was an awesome experience, because I got to do everything there: producing, anchoring, weather, sports.
In 2011, I applied for a job as a Univision sports anchor in Dallas. They gave me a chance. I was very lucky. I was there for a year, and while I was there, the Mavericks won the NBA Finals and the Rangers lost in the World Series. That was awesome. Our network Univision was launching a sports network. Everything has been timing for me. They pulled talent from local TV stations, and I was one of them. We helped launch a Univision Deportes network. I was there for about a year, and then ESPN reached out and asked if I was interested.
I totally said yes. I auditioned and bombed it. I can’t tell you how depressed I was that I bombed it. They told me that I wasn’t ready but that I had potential. I think about close to a year-and-a-half passed again and they told me to audition again and I did. They said I had potential and they could work with me.
Interviewer: You actually started in digital media at ESPN, anchoring news and video segments for ESPN.com. What was that like?
Antonietta Collins: I covered just soccer and whatever Latin player was in a major American sport when I was at Univision. So they told me they could start me in digital and ease me into it. I was going to cover more than just soccer–I barely cover soccer now. I was doing baseball, all American sports, Bracketology. I had never heard of Bracketology! I love Joe Lunardi with my entire life. I was really blessed to be able to start in digital and ease the transition into ESPN.
Interviewer: Earlier, you said how much of an impact your mom had on you choosing your career. How much has she continued to influence and help you now that you are deeper into that career? Also, what does she cover now?
Antonietta Collins: She still is a reporter. She is a senior correspendent at Univision and she hosts her own show, Cronicas de Sabado. She’s still active. When I left Dallas, I got transferred to Miami where I grew up and where she’s at. We worked in the same building. She’s a tough mom. She’s not one to say ‘Aw, sweetie, you did so good.’ She’ll say ‘I had to turn you off because why do you keep using this crutch word?’ She’s very mom, very business in that sense. It is different now, because she doesn’t follow all the sports, so I’m always explaining it to her. But now, she mostly looks at delivery, my use of hands and how I express myself.
When I was in the Dominican Republic [for a recent story], we had to alter a lot of things, so I would call her and ask her for advice and she would lay out the options. She’s very candid but she means well and she’s awesome to have because she’s so good. Not because she’s my mom, but because she is so good at storytelling (in Spanish) and that’s what I’m trying to get better at in English…Also, she’s very supportive, because TV can be really cruel at times, as rewarding as it is. She understands that, and that’s so good to have. She gets it. She’s very supportive in my life.
Interviewer: Among the other people at ESPN, who are you tightest with? Who has had a major impact and influence on your career?
Antonietta Collins: Oh man, without a doubt Jemele Hill. When I got here, they were starting a program of mentors and mentees and I was paired up with Jemele Hill. Jemele is one of the busiest women here at ESPN. One of the smartest, busiest, kindest women. I can text or call her up any time and she’ll make time to talk.
Linda Cohn as well. She is someone I reached out to and she took time out of her day and talked to me. I can still text her. Nicole Briscoe as well. I can’t forget Elle Duncan either. Those women are my role models. The way they handle themselves, the way they are so real, so you and so cool is something I hope I can one day be like. To see them be so accessible and so genuine with me and with anyone, it was unheard of for me, because in Univision it wasn’t like that. I feel as if it’s like, you’re in the minor leagues and they’re in the major leagues, but they want to see you succeed. It is empowering.
Interviewer: You’ve covered the NBA Finals, the World Series, a bunch of other major events. What is one event that you haven’t covered and you wish you could cover or hope to cover in the future?
Antonietta Collins: World Cup. World Cup, without a doubt. Oh my gosh. I can not imagine what it must be like to really see the diversity, soccer, the stars. It gets me really excited. I would love to cover the World Cup.
Adopted from: thespun.com
