Max Dupras, the Leader’s intern reporter, is passionate about at least two things: writing and sports. He’s honing his skills at both this summer, as well as taking photographs and covering local news and events.

“I didn’t know I wanted to be a journalist until I got to college,” says the Missoula native. “It’s something that was never really in my scope as a kid.”

He was involved in Sentinel High School’s student newspaper, which gave him a taste for reporting, and his love of sports propelled him to enroll in the University of Montana’s School of Journalism.

“I always loved sports – that was why I kind of got into it,” he says.

Dupras enters his senior year this fall as sports editor for the Montana Kaimin, the school’s student newspaper. Covering the Grizzlies will be his central mission – a task that begins in earnest when football practice starts in early August.

“One of the really valuable things I’ve learned is sports are such a really big part of a community – especially small communities where families come out to see their kids play.”

He also understands that there’s more to journalism than football, basketball and volleyball. “I’ve realized that whether I do sports or not, journalism as a whole means a lot for communities that need their stories to be told,” he says.

So far he’s covered a recent Ronan City Council meeting, the Arlee powwow and Fourth of July parade, a new cake shop in Polson, a roundtable on vagrants, the Mission Valley Mariners, and the Buffalo Run in St. Ignatius.

He appreciates the opportunity to “round out and tighten” his writing by covering non-sports events. “I’m already experiencing challenges here trying to figure out ways to make those stories more interesting and figure out what’s missing,” he says. “I think small communities in general throughout Mission Valley deserve to be shown in both a positive and critical light.”

Although Dupras grew up in Missoula, he spent time in Arlee where a high school friend lived, and his family has property near Polson. His visits to the Flathead Reservation offered a window on small-town life.

“It was really cool to see that perspective – to see what different issues affected people in Arlee and see that while we live in the same state there are so many different things in cities only about 30 minutes away from each other.”

Dupras also interned as a general assignment reporter last summer for the Belgrade News, where he covered everything from sports to local government and infrastructure.

He was employed by GrizVision, a production company that films Grizzly games for ESPN, and now works for a local ABC Fox station called Nonstop Local as a production assistant, operating cameras and audio.

In contemporary journalism, experience with film and audio is definitely plus. However, Dupras still aspires to a career in print journalism.

He’s devoted to newspapers, despite the hurdles the business has faced due to declining readership and advertising. “I know print media is in a weird spot, but I love a good newspaper,” he says.

“I got into print because I love writing – of all the aspects of journalism it’s the thing I work the hardest at,” he adds. “It’s the thing that makes me the happiest when I do it well.”