FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Total Sports Media Network Is Growing …

Total Sports Integrated Media and JG Sports Media have joined forces to add to the Total Sports Media Network.

Total Sports Northumberland joins Total Sports Quinte and Total Sports Durham with both an online SportsHub and digital and print magazine. Northumberland’s website, totalsportsnorthumberland.ca officially launched Monday, April 19, 2021.

Jeff Gard, a longtime journalist in the Cobourg area, created his freelance business JG Sports Media and website www.jgsportsmedia.com in May of 2020 with the goal of reviving local sports coverage in the Northumberland area, which includes the municipalities of Alnwick/Haldimand, Brighton, Cobourg, Cramahe, Hamilton Township, Port Hope and Trent Hills.

“I’m very excited to join the Total Sports team as we share a common vision and goal for local sports coverage,” Gard says. “I look forward to continuing to share the accomplishments of local athletes and teams.”

Gard will continue with podcast interviews for Total Sports Northumberland, featuring both local and other notable guests. The first episode features Western University athlete Kate Current of Cobourg as well as CFL legend Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons. All episodes will be available to stream or download on Podbean (totalsportsnorthumberland.podbean.com) and on Apple Podcasts.

Past interviews from JG Sports Media are also available on the Total Sports Northumberland website and the podcast platforms mentioned.

In addition to local athletes, other notable guests for Gard’s JG Sports Media interviews included broadcasters Ron MacLean, Scott Russell, James Duthie, Craig Button, Chris Johnston, Tara Slone and Jim Hughson, hockey players Steve Smith, John Druce and Doug Jarvis, former MLB pitcher Paul Quantrill and his son and current pitcher Cal Quantrill, Olympians Brent Hayden, Mandy Bujold, Jeremiah Brown, Martha McCabe, Mark Heese, Curt Harnett, Tonya Verbeek, Devin Harris (an original member of the Jamaican bobsled team) and Kurt Browning. Recently, video interviews were recorded with Canadian Olympic sprinter Khamica Bingham, ESPN/Sportsnet play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman, Olympian/Amazing Race Canada host Jon Montgomery, curlers John Epping, Emma Miskew and Brendan Bottcher and figure skater Meagan Duhamel. 

After graduating from Loyalist College’s print journalism program in 2004, Gard worked as a freelance writer for the Kingston Whig-Standard. This led him to working as the sports reporter for the Cobourg Daily Star in 2006. He weathered the changes in daily news, including the name change from the Star to Northumberland Today, a shrinking newsroom, and ended his work with the paper in 2017 in the position of Managing Editor.

Some of the sports and events Gard has had the pleasure of writing about over the years include: Cobourg Cougars of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, the Port Hope Panthers of the Provincial Junior Hockey League, Cobourg Kodiaks of Major Series Lacrosse as well as minor sports such as hockey, baseball, softball, lacrosse, basketball, volleyball, figure skating, rugby and paddling. Gard has spent many hours covering high school sports, and encouraging young athletes.

Since the opening of the Cobourg Community Centre in 2011, Jeff has enjoyed covering some big events, including Hockey Canada’s 2017 RBC Cup national junior A championship, which was won by the hometown Cougars, and the 2015 World Junior A Challenge as well as curling events such as the 2017 Ontario Men’s Tankard and Ontario women’s Scotties. He also covered two American Hockey League (AHL) exhibition games featuring the Toronto Marlies at the CCC.

Local highlights for minor sports include covering Silver Stick hockey tournaments as well as provincial championship games and tournaments for hockey, baseball and softball.

Gard has also covered provincial high school championships, including Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) track and field championships in Toronto and Belleville, cross-country running in Ottawa, volleyball in Kingston and rugby in Cobourg. He was also the media convenor for the 2005 OFSAA cross-country championships in Kingston.

Kelly Martin, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Total Sports Integrated Media Network says, “I have worked with Jeff in the past when I was Director of Marketing for the Cobourg Cougars and Marketing Manager for the Cobourg DBI. With our plans to start adding Total Sports partner zones throughout the country, Northumberland was certainly on our list and bringing Jeff on board for our Northumberland zone just made complete sense. He is a perfect fit in our network with his experience and vision to bring coverage of local sports back again to the Northumberland community. Jeff is a fantastic sports writer and we look forward to having him write articles for our Total Sports Network and grow our Northumberland market.     

Total Sports Integrated Media partner Randy Uens says “Youth  and amateur sports represents the purity of sport and are a critical part of every community. Jeff is one of the best at covering local sports and we are proud to have him join the Total Sports team. Our Total Sports platform has really resonated in the community and this expansion into Northumberland with Jeff at the helm will be fantastic not only for Total Sports, but the entire community.”

Amy Knowles, partner with Total Sports Durham, says she’s “extremely excited to be adding Jeff and Northumberland into the Total Sports Family. The Northumberland region has great roots in sports and with Jeff’s background and expertise, I expect this region to be one of our best!”