By BRENDAN McGAIR

Sports writer

Journalism is a profession geared to unearthing happenings and enlightening the masses. In this corner’s opinion, the true appreciation of the job lies in the suspense of not knowing where the next story will come from, or what direction you get pulled in.
There are some pretty basic rules to adhere to for media types of all classifications. The obvious is that you follow where the action is. Sometimes the chase conveniently unfolds right in one’s backyard, other times a bit of travel is required, something Pawtucket native Chris Lehourites can speak to.
Lehourites, a St. Raphael graduate, has allowed his job to whisk him away to some noteworthy sporting events, something his official title — the Deputy European Sports Editor for the Associated Press — readily suggests. Currently situated in London, Lehourites enjoyed a slice of home cooking Sunday when the Patriots brought American football to the historic Wembley Stadium soil, a venue renowned for being the birthplace of soccer.
It’s not every day a pro team hailing from the States invades the United Kingdom, let alone one specifically from the region you grew up in.
You’ll, however, have to excuse Lehourites if he doesn’t wax poetically about the Patriots being his latest assignment, not when his “been there, done that” list includes penning events on a global scale.
“Being paid to cover the Olympics in Turin, Athens and Beijing, being paid to go to South Africa for the Federations Cup and Germany for the World Cup … if that’s not living out your dream then I’m not sure what is,” said Lehourites in a transatlantic exchange held last week. “It’s been incredible and amazing.”
Lehourites’ journey in sports writing rivals that of a minor league ballplayer: There exist several rungs one must climb before reaching the pinnacle. In Lehourites’ case, his first nibble fresh out of Southern California consisted covering high school sports for a weekly paper in Manhattan Beach. A history major, he returned to Rhode Island in ’94 and continued to pay his dues as a freelancer for the Attleboro Sun Chronicle and Fall River Herald.           
His first fulltime gig arrived a year later with the now defunct Claremont (N.H.) Eagle Times. The next big break arrived in ’97, when Lehourites packed his bags for Greece.
“I covered the World Track & Field Championships for the Providence Journal, writing all sorts of features about athletes with Rhode Island connections,” explained Lehourites. “Right after that I started stringing for the AP in Athens.”
The AP undoubtedly kept close tabs on Lehourites as he spent the next few years writing for various publications and Internet sites while residing in the Greek Islands. “Helping out the AP by covering world basketball championships, weight lifting championships and Greco Roman wrestling championships, those were the things that got me in. It was something the AP needed and it was me doing that stuff.”
Lehourites moved back to Rhode Island shortly before Christmas in ’99 and immediately approached the AP’s Providence bureau about stringing. To surmise the reply he received, the SRA alumnus was bluntly informed he should permanently abandon the world of freelancing.
“I was told, with my experience, that I should try and get a staff job,” recalled Lehourites. “I ended up taking the AP test and got a job in Little Rock, Arkansas. I was doing news, so I interviewed George W. Bush and Ralph Nader. That was a big change.”
Lehourites thought he was squared for life when an AP job became available in Providence, but with his comprehensive background and vagabond lifestyle, he should have known better.   
“An international sports job opened in New York, which I applied for and got and held for close to five years,” said Lehourites about the penultimate step he took before placing roots down in London early in 2005. “I wanted to get into international sports and all along my goal was to get posted overseas and serve as a foreign correspondent.”
It should be noted that Lehourites represents a rare breed amongst AP scribes. “There’s technically only one foreign sports correspondent. A change occurred in the AP late in 2004 when a second position was created.”
The vibe Lehourites picks up from the NFL’s latest pilgrimage across the pond is that the actual hoopla doesn’t resonate with the soccer-crazed locals until a few days before the game kicks off.
“It’s not an overwhelming, ‘We can’t wait for the NFL to get here,’” expressed Lehourites. “Once the teams are here, everyone comes out of the woodwork. Wembley Stadium has been jam-packed the last few years with people wearing jerseys.”
There’s a part of Lehourites that undoubtedly realized he had a job to perform yesterday, since his prose stand to get picked up by newspapers scattered throughout the world. Maybe for just one nanosecond this native who epitomizes “going where the story unfolds” peered up from his laptop to enjoy a rarified chance to watch a team he roots for up-close. 
“To get to see your home team while you’re living thousands of miles away, it’s pretty rare,” reflected Lehourites.