“It’s an art form”: Have Steno Machine, Will Travel

Zheng Qinwen walks up to the China Open podium, cameras flash and all reporters’ eyes are on the 2024 Olympic Gold medalist and Chinese phenomenon, waiting to hear what she will say. But sitting on the side of the large and full room is Jaime Morcocco, fingertips at the ready to type every word.  

“You see the notes, and your brain transforms them to your fingers,” said Morocco about the transcriptionist craft. “It’s an art form. It’s like an instrument.”

Morocco transcribes spoken words into text in live time using a specialized stenographer machine. These transcripts are then used by reporters around the world to write stories. 

Morocco grew up in Grand’s Pass, Oregon, and before he was a stenographer for a stage as big as the China Open, he was a business major at Portland Community College. 

“One of the things we did in business law class was that we went to the courtroom.… I saw the court reporter,” Morocco said. “I remember just that it was very, very fascinating to me. There was something about the machine.” 

Morocco then forgot about the machine and finishes college, but, when working in medical records at Oregon Health & Science University, he befriended a nurse who changed professions to a court reporter. Morocco followed suit. 

“The light went off in my head,” he said. “Next day, I went down to vocational school and I signed up,” Morocco said. “There was something about it that I just knew it was for me.” 

After a nearly two-decade span as an independently contracted transcriptionist working on medical malpractice cases, Morocco made the move to sports. 

A key date, one he remembers precisely 32 years later, was Dec. 5, 1995, when he invited to work the Grand Slam Cup in Munich, Germany. 

The travel and tennis tandem was almost too good to believe, a true dream.

Morocco has now been working sports press conferences for three decades, creating countless memories. One that sticks out was meeting a then young Rafael Nadal. 

“When Rafa was probably 15 or 16, I was in the interview,” Morocco said. “In comes Rafa, and I kind of knew who he was because he was up and coming. And he didn’t speak a word of English.

“He was looking for his stats, so, I got him his stats. And then I took him back to the competitors area. He never forgot that.” 

That moment helped build a relationship with one of the game’s greatest.

“Every single time at an interview he would come in and come and say hello to me,” Morocco said. “Win or lose, injured or whatever, he would come and say goodbye to me. Just the most incredible guy.” 

Those relationships are what have made this job so special for Morocco. 

“This profession has just opened up doors,” he said.

“I wouldn’t get to see my friends in the (United Kingdom). I wouldn’t get to see my friends in Rome. I could but certainty not traveling to tournaments and seeing this group of people.

By Sierra Hanson