Jordan Cunningham

Jordan Cunningham is a sports and community reporter at CHEK News whose work turns everyday local games and neighbourhood stories into main-event coverage. His reporting centres on stories from Vancouver Island, where he has been telling the stories of people, places and things for 20 years. He shoots, writes and edits his pieces, using that full creative control to connect closely with the communities he covers. Across sports segments and general assignment features, he consistently foregrounds the people behind the events rather than only the scores or headlines. His portfolio ranges from grassroots athletes and niche sports to recreation facilities, elections, environmental concerns and distinctive local characters.

'Big League Treatment' and beer-league heroes

A defining strand of Cunningham’s sports work is his Big League Treatment feature, which gives a broadcast-style spotlight to recreational athletes who rarely see themselves on television.

The segment is built around Vancouver Island’s beer-league players, mini-league standouts and backyard competitors, treating their games with the production values and narrative focus usually reserved for professional sport. Big League Treatment airs every second Sunday on CHEK News at 5, reinforcing its role as a recurring destination for local sports storytelling rather than an occasional feature.

Within this format he has covered subjects such as Fernwood Bike Polo, bringing cameras to unconventional playing surfaces and alternative sports cultures. In a related vein, his coverage of a Langford Special Olympian winning four gold medals at the Canada Summer Games is paired with an inside look at the athlete’s gym on an edition of Big League Treatment, tying human‑interest profiles directly to his signature segment.

Island soccer fans and Victoria's 'Summer of Soccer'

Cunningham’s sports reporting also tracks how global tournaments and national teams filter down to local supporters and fields.

In a piece on Island soccer fans as the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off, he explores how supporters weigh the financial cost of engaging with the event against their excitement for the tournament, keeping the focus on local perspectives rather than tournament logistics. His coverage of Victoria’s “Summer of Soccer” follows Canada’s progress toward a Round of 16 showdown, capturing the way a deep run amplifies community interest and activity. Together, these stories show him using major soccer events as a lens on everyday supporters, bars, pitches and civic spaces, treating fan experience and local atmosphere as core subjects of the sports beat.

Crystal Pool, skating programs and recreation spaces

Another recurring theme in Cunningham’s work is the fate of physical spaces that sustain everyday sport and recreation.

In his story on Victoria’s Crystal Pool closing after 55 years, he marks the end of a long‑serving public swimming facility and the impact of its closure on the people who used it. His reporting on Victoria skating programs facing an uncertain future as the Ian Stewart Complex closure looms follows a similar line, making the headline uncertainty about programs and participants rather than only the bricks and mortar. He extends this concern for place to environmental stories, such as a piece on the Cowichan River being at risk as a Nation calls for answers over an expanding dump site on reserve land, linking ecological questions to a waterway that underpins local life and recreation.

Across these assignments, he treats facilities and natural settings as central characters in the narrative of community sport.

Election season signs, rivers at risk and local curiosities

Beyond sports, Cunningham’s body of work includes a steady run of community and civic stories that share the same people‑first framing.

In coverage of election season, he has written about the visual signs of campaigning across British Columbia and challenged the idea of a “boring” civic election by highlighting hundreds of candidates who animate the process, suggesting that local democracy is anything but quiet when viewed from street level. His feature on a “20 year layover,” where an Island man’s billboard remains up at Edmonton International Airport after two decades, leans into the oddity of enduring signage and the personal story behind it.

He has profiled a future physician launching Canada’s first Canadian Doctors Orchestra, blending arts, professional identity and community building. In another piece, he follows a Sooke boy vying to become Stan Lee’s next “Super Kid,” connecting local youth ambition to global popular culture.

His reporting on UVic’s MARMOTSat launch, which marks a milestone for a student space program, fits this pattern of foregrounding young people and long‑term projects, even when the subject sits outside the traditional sports beat. Together, these stories underline a through‑line: whether the topic is elections, rivers, niche sports or space hardware, Cunningham frames coverage around the community members whose lives and passions drive the news.