On December 12, 2022, Grant Magazine published an investigation into the inappropriate conduct of Eric Watkins, the man who formerly ran Elite Oregon Girls (EOG), the largest female-only high school sports reporting platform in Oregon. In the following weeks, several other female athletes and community members have come forward to share similar experiences with Watkins.
The new messages, shared with Grant Magazine, introduce a potential physical aspect to Watkins’ conduct. Two female student-athletes who requested anonymity shared messages in which Watkins offered them a hug. In both instances, Watkins offers the athletes something they want: social status and coverage of the student-athlete’s team, respectively.
One of the exchanges demonstrates Watkins’ awareness of the power dynamics at play. He writes, “You don’t need me to follow you to be special, you already are special! I understand the whole social status aspect, me following you would ‘up it’ per say. How desperate are you for me to follow you back?”
A few messages later, he says, “I’ll follow you back and make you feel like a big kid, all you need now is a hug from me to feel golden.”
In another instance, a separate female student-athlete jokingly expresses frustration at Watkins only covering their school’s varsity team. He replies, “You need a hug later?”
The athlete responded, saying, “Only if you get photos of jv (junior varsity) sometime,” to which Watkins responds, “Calling for a special favor?”
For smaller schools outside of Oregon’s largest metropolitan areas, the news about Watkins’ actions has been a double-edged sword. While Watkins provided them the athletic coverage they were lacking, they were also the most vulnerable: Because what he offered had more value, there was more he could demand from them. As seen on his now-deleted social media accounts, Watkins disproportionately interacted with and covered athletes from smaller schools, which was an important part of what made his work so valuable.
Another anonymous student-athlete shared that concerns about Watkins’ conduct weren’t isolated to circles of those he covered. She says, “My coaches refused to do interviews with him because they felt uncomfortable having him around players.”
A coach at Grant High School had similar opinions about Watkins, telling their players to stay away from him if he came to the school to cover athletic events, according to an athlete on the team.
Journalists and sports reporters across the state and country reacted to Grant Magazine’s investigation, mostly on Twitter. Some expressed that the revelations about Watkins’ conduct were a long time coming.
Andrew Haubner, a reporter with CBS Sacramento, tweeted, “For those that covered (and cover) Oregon prep sports and had to deal with Watkins and his very creepy God complex about covering girls sports, none of this is surprising. OSAA needs to keep him as far away from these kids as possible.”
Another reporter, who requested anonymity, says, “I’ve personally had 15–20 separate girls reach out sharing how uncomfortable they felt when he was at their games.”
The reporter also expressed concern at some of Watkins’ Instagram story posts. “He’s made several Instagram stories where he would caption it, ‘Girls playing sports is so beautiful’ or ‘Girls are the best’ which is extremely inappropriate as he’s covering 13–18-year-old girls,” they say.
As reported by OregonLive, the OSAA revised its media credentialing policy, including procedures for how and why one’s credentials could be taken away. On the same day the new policy was adopted, Watkins’ credential was revoked, even though he had stopped reporting about a week prior.
In communications with Grant Magazine, OSAA executive director Peter Weber said the organization was “consulting with our legal counsel and working to gather information from other state associations regarding media credentialing policies,” to be discussed at their 2022 December board meeting.
In a statement to Oregon Public Broadcasting, Watkins wrote, “I have no regrets and that story (by Grant Magazine) was nothing short of a backstabbing hit.” He continues, “In the end EOG shines bright in a sexist Oregon high school sports landscape and I am grateful for the last three years.”
The EOG website has gone private, and its Twitter and Instagram pages have disappeared.
Watkins alluded to taking legal action on the basis of defamation against Grant Magazine for the claims in the article in posts on both Twitter and Instagram. At the time of publishing, no such action has been taken.
In a Twitter post on December 19, a week after Grant Magazine’s report, Watkins writes, “A new group awaits and a new adventure comes in 2023. Peace out Oregon.”
In a message to a female student-athlete in 2021, obtained from the Salem-Keizer school district, Watkins toyed with the idea of starting fresh somewhere else. He says, “I can start anew eight hours away in a state that is completely open.”
