The walls are still bare inside Shawn Jansen’s new office digs just a stone’s throw away from the runway at Castle Commerce Center.
Yet a tall stack of Merced Sun-Star sports special sections dating back decades sit atop his desk – a testament to his coverage of more than 2,000 high school sports games over the years.
The irony is when Jansen was hired by the Sun-Star in 1999, he hadn’t planned on sticking around Merced for long.
“I was like, ‘I’ll last a year in Merced, and then kind of start moving up.’ My goal was to be like a 49ers beat writer, Oakland A’s, something like that,” Jansen recalled. “But then I just enjoyed what I did covering high school sports, and that’s what kept me there.”
Jansen, 50, established a reputation as the primary pen behind the written word of high school sports in Merced County.
As such, he covered a lion’s share of the biggest moments in local sports – like chronicling the rise of stars like former Major League pitcher Doug Fister and softball player Madilyn “Bubba” Nickles-Camarena, who won the silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He watched Buhach Colony alumni Dylan Floro win a World Series Championship with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. He also witnessed a young Colin Kaepernick as a baseball and football star at Pitman High, years before he would quarterback the San Francisco 49ers.
After many years of working as a Sun-Star sports reporter, Jansen decided to switch career gears. Although he may be stepping away from the press box in a media capacity, he will still be reporting on the action in another context.
Jansen was recently hired by Merced Union High School District as program manager of digital media. Despite the professional ambiguity of that title, the big takeaway is Jansen’s primary mission will be elevating the stories of athletics and other programs at Atwater, Buhach Colony, Livingston, El Capitan, Merced and Golden Valley high schools.
While that will include writing stories, it will also be an opportunity for Jansen to upscale the profile of MUHSD with mediums like podcasting and increasing outreach on social media.
Jansen is no stranger to podcasting. He co-helmed the Sun-Star’s “Shawn and Sean Show” sports program with journalist Sean Lynch from 2009 to 2017.
Back when the show started, podcasting was becoming mainstream, though it was far from the juggernaut it is today.
Given the numerous contributions Jansen made to the Sun-Star over a span of 25 years, leaving the paper was a tough decision.
But he says this new opportunity, which would allow him to continue following his dream for years to come, was too good to pass up.
“Sports is a passion of mine, and I’m gonna get to do a lot of sports coverage here at the district,” Jansen told The Merced Focus. “There’s going to be some settling in and getting to know the ins and outs of the school district. But I’m excited. It’s kind of exciting to do something different at this stage.”
Lynch, who worked on the Sun-Star’s sports desk for 11 years until 2017 and today works for a private IT company, says the new school district job is a perfect transition for his friend and former podcast co-host.
Lynch has no doubt Jansen will be effective in his new role. Even today, Lynch said when he and Jansen are hanging out, sometimes people will recognize them from the old Shawn & Sean Show podcast.
“I think he does an excellent job of keeping it simple and to the point. He gets great quotes from people, and he has the ability to incorporate a lot of his humor, which you know is excellent, into his stories,” Lynch said.
“That’s not something a lot of people can do. Sometimes you’ll see people write columns or whatever, and it will feel forced. With him it always felt pretty natural.”
Building a career in Merced
A native of Suisun City in the North Bay, Jansen began his career at the Sun-Star on Sept. 17, 1999.
At the time the paper was owned by Pacific-Sierra Publishing, just a few years before it would be purchased by newspaper giant The McClatchy Company, which still owns it today.
Jansen had just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from San Diego State, and had written about sports for the college paper. He also had some experience reporting part time for the North Bay’s Daily Republic.
“I got a call from (then Sun-Star) managing editor Vern Williams, and he said, ‘hey, you know, we’re looking to beef up our sports staff.’ You know, we really liked you during the interview. We want to offer you a job,’” Jansen recalled.
“(Back then) basically the Sun-Star was going to war against The Modesto Bee because the Bee had just opened up a bureau in Merced. So they wanted to beef up (their sports desk) with a fourth sports reporter. So that’s how I got hired.”
During his first week Jansen actually commuted to work from Fairfield. His first beat was Merced College sports before ultimately moving over to high school sports.
It didn’t take long for Jansen to catch the newspaper bug. Back in those days, the Sun-Star’s sports desk left no stone unturned, covering every corner of Merced County sports from Gustine to Le Grand.
There were also frequent trips outside of Merced, covering games, tournaments and championships in northern and southern California, like some of the football battles Merced High waged against Crenshaw High.
While the “Friday Night Lights”-level energy of covering local sports was certainly addicting, Jansen said he was also seeing how important his role was in the community, as his byline grew a steady fanbase.
“Just seeing the impact that your stories can have on people in the community, giving people their 15 minutes of fame, that’s what was fun about working at the Sun-Star,” Jansen said.
Within a few years, Jansen became the go-to source for all tips related to Merced County sports. He said Fister once even called him directly not to talk about baseball – but for Fister’s wife Ashley, who coached the Merced girls water polo team.
“I get a call, and it’s Doug Fister calling me on my cell phone while I’m in the newsroom, like they’re in the playoffs,” Jansen laughed. “Why is Doug Fister calling me? He called in to report the score for the Merced girls water polo team, because Ashley was flying out to Detroit and couldn’t call in the score.”
Jansen has no shortage of fun sports-related stories, whether it’s the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat (to borrow a quote from Jim McKay).
Case in point, when Merced played Vacaville at University of the Pacific in football for the 2006 section championship. Jansen recalled how the game was so big, it was like the entire city of Merced showed up to support.
Merced lost that game by a single point after failing on a two-point conversion – the last play of the game, no less.
Jansen said anticipation for the game was so intense, Vacaville’s defensive coordinator had kicked him out of their practice. “He was afraid that I was going to go back to Merced and tell them what I saw and give them a scouting report,” he said.
“So they made me go around the corner, and they would send players around the corner to talk to me, so I couldn’t see what was going on on the field. Wow, that was top secret.”
But there were plenty of big wins, too, like when Le Grand defeated Woodland Christian in 2021 at the Sac-Joaquin Division VII Football Championship at Sacramento’s Hughes Stadium.
Jansen also related that he’s seen no shortage of changes since he started as a cub sports reporter in 1999.
For example, back then it was commonplace for the newspaper industry to consider the Internet as an afterthought.
But today, digital literally is the industry. Jansen says he’s had to evolve into a “one-man band” in order to stay relevant. “It’s like the only thing I’m missing is the harmonica around my neck, because you got the photos, the video,” he said.
“I would carry two smartphones – one to do Twitter updates and one to do video highlights. When I started, the emphasis was print, we barely had a website, or there wasn’t much focus on it. And then over time, you saw the emphasis change.”
Rolling with the times
Jansen’s enthusiasm for his new role at Merced Union High School District is shared by district staff, players and coaches alike.
Viviana Fuentes, MUHSD director of communications, said Jansen brings a wealth of storytelling experience that will be a boon to the district.
“I’m highly impressed by just the knowledge he has of different high schools and alumni, (plus) the connections he already has. Because of the Merced Sun-Star, he has built a lot of great connections in our community. And it’s somebody that I feel like people trust,” Fuentes said.
Jansen’s stories will be included on the district’s website, Fuentes said, adding there will also be a digital email newsletter the community can subscribe to. That will also be shared with parents on a weekly basis.
Local coaches, who have been among Jansen’s top readers, say they are thrilled he’s now on the district’s team.
Matt Winton, baseball coach for Livingston High, has known Jansen since his beginnings at the Sun-Star.
“It’s always awesome to get a call from Shawn. You know, he’s got some good questions to ask. Always real, thought out questions, you know, to really promote positivity in high school sports and stuff like that,” Winton said.
“And he’s always great talking about our kids and just a pro, but he’s also just a really easy guy to talk to.”
Seneca Ybarra, Atwater High’s football coach, said Jansen is one of the “Last of the Mohicans,” in terms of local high school sports journalists with institutional knowledge going back decades.
Ybarra, who has also coached basketball plus track and field, said he’s noticed how local high school sports journalism has decreased significantly – reporting he says is vital to the community and its youth.
“It seems like that all kind of went away. And, you know, Shawn never did. So that was pretty cool. He just kind of rolled with the times,” Ybarra said.
Ybarra said he always appreciated Jansen’s professionalism with both students and coaches. “A win, yeah you want to talk all day. A loss, maybe not so much. And I think he kind of respected that time with us, which I thought was pretty cool,” Ybarra said.
“And I had to make sure I was prepared as well, win or lose, because he was going to sometimes ask those tough questions that needed to be asked, but he was going to be respectful about it.”
Even though Jansen said he’s looking forward to his new career, he has no regrets about the past 25 years.
“If I didn’t like what I was doing at Sun-Star, I would have left long ago,” Jansen said.
“I still enjoyed my time there. I had a blast and worked with great people. I mean, we had a lot of fun on the sports staff and in the newsroom. I spent half of my life there.”
