In her senior year at West Virginia University, Emily Giangreco headed to the WVU Coliseum to cover a new member of Mountaineers Basketball. Nicholas Wince, the 5-year-old recruit, had been diagnosed with a heart defect and finally fulfilled his Make-A-Wish dream to join the WVU basketball team.
Wince showed up to campus in a limousine that afternoon where he was cheered on by students and fans. He toured campus facilities, participated in team warmups, received his own No. 5 basketball jersey and signed a National Letter of Intent alongside head coach Bob Huggins prior to their matchup against the Texas Longhorns.
Moments like these remind Giangreco, now a sports anchor at KVUE in Austin, why her work as a storyteller is so vital. Her reward, she said, is the relationships she forms along the way.
Giangreco was honored to spend this day with Wince. She is passionate about telling stories of people going through difficult times. She played a role in their lives and they did the same for her.
“When you tell a story like that … it hits you hard,” Giangreco said. “These people become your family because they trust you to tell their story to the entire world.”
She took on her first job as a reporter in March 2016 at KLFY-TV in Lafayette, Louisiana, where she immediately bonded with the close-knit community.
“You don't meet a stranger in Lafayette,” Giangreco said. “When you go to those small towns, all they want to do is talk to you. They want to get to know you. It's what makes moving around so sad because you're not just leaving the station, but you're leaving behind a whole other family that you've built.”
Over 126,000 people make up this southwest Louisiana town that embraces Cajun culture. George Faust, the sports director at KLFY-TV, has lived there for 18 years.
“There’s a kinship and Emily was really receptive to it,” Faust said. “In life, it's all about relationships, and she had an ability to cultivate relationships at a fast pace.”
In a little over three years at KLFY-TV, Giangreco wrote more than 300 articles. As a sports anchor, she started a weekly series called “Beyond the Jersey,” highlighting athletes’ stories off the playing field. The CBS affiliate still uses this series today.
“She was a go-getter and she wanted to tell the best stories,” Faust said. “She would find human interest stories and bring sports to not just sports fans, but people of all walks of life.”
In June 2019, Giangreco made the 380-mile move from Lafayette to Austin.
For the first month, Giangreco juggled the workload of a three-person department by herself. She was taking over for longtime KVUE sportscaster Mike Barnes as well as sports reporters Shawn Clynch and Stacy Slayden.
Giangreco said there was backlash from the community at first because she was taking over for a male who was dominant in the Austin sports scene.
Two months later, sports reporter Jake Garcia and sports director Jeff Jones completed their sports department trio. Giangreco said they instantly developed chemistry, which helped her find a new family in Austin.
Garcia said they’ve forged strong relationships where they support one another personally and professionally.
“I'm grateful to be in a situation where I like the people that I work with, and obviously Emily’s a big part of that,” Garcia said. “Whenever you have a working relationship with someone and it can turn into having each other's backs outside of the office, that's super healthy.”
Jones said Giangreco has a unique ability to tell stories through the voices of players and coaches.
Giangreco is responsible for creating a segment for KVUE’s Friday night high school football show. Jones said she wears many hats during their game of the week. She shoots and edits video, writes stories and gets soundbites from players and coaches, while also balancing the three days of anchoring during the week.
“She will go above and beyond to be sure the on-air product is good,” Jones said. “It’s just who she is.”
Giangreco said her job is time-consuming but getting to the heart of each story is the payoff.
“You give up family time and work long hours, holidays and weekends,” Giangreco said. “But if you truly love what you do, it makes it all worth it.”
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