In my very first column this year, I said I was going to use this space not to write opinion about sports plays and coaching decisions, but to tell stories about people.
So when I look back and reflect upon the year now, as I’m writing my last column for this newspaper, it seems fitting that the moments that come to mind also revolve around people.
Don’t get me wrong, covering games and getting paid to write about them was awesome. But in the end, I think I had the most fun on this job while getting to know the people I watched on the field or the court and sharing their stories with everyone else.
Rehashing the year in my head brings up images of the two-hour-long cup of coffee at Starbucks with Jeremy McLaughlin, conversation over breakfast at Taylor’s with Nicole Garbin, listening to Dominika Dieskova dissect a match into minutely detailed play-by-play sections, stealing little rubber ducks from the lawn outside the library with Monica Hoz de Vila en route to a lunch interview at the Marche Cafe, and marveling at Marcus Dillon’s Hurricane Katrina experiences while nibbling on fruit roll-ups.
As reporters, we are professionally obligated to not cultivate anything other than a purely professional relationship with any of the people whom we write about.
Sometimes that’s hard, because as you go about your daily routine of interviewing, asking probing questions, and following the ups and downs of these athletes as they go through a season, you learn about them as people. You learn what upsets them and what motivates them, you learn how they deal with defeat or what obstacles they’ve had to overcome to get to where they are today.
And more often than not, you walk away from the playing field with a deep respect for a lot of these people, individuals who have all chosen to sacrifice the typical carefree, irresponsible-college-kid-lifestyle and devote these four years of their lives to the pursuit of a passion.
The world consists of all kinds of people, so I’m not implying that every jock I’ve ever talked to has been a saint. There are ones that you want to throttle sometimes, either because they’re being evasive or generic in their interviews, or because their overinflated egos have outgrown the cubic area of their bodies.
But the majority of the people whom I’ve met through being a sports reporter this year have been a pleasure to work with, and in their own ways, they’ve all contributed in making this job seem a lot more like fun than work, and in making this year a memorable one for me.
As graduation looms near, the magnitude of what donning that mortar board means is slowly dawning on me. And I’m sad to leave the college bubble behind and go out into the real world where agents, hoity-toity public relations people and an increase in the number of pro athletes whose egos outweigh their million-dollar salaries will probably make the kind of access that I’ve had with the sports teams here on campus a rare opportunity.
But on the upside, I’m also looking forward to following the Oregon sports teams without the need for journalistic impartiality. I relish the chance to embrace my inner Duck fan and openly cheer on the soccer team when it says ‘screw you’ to the NCAA and plants itself firmly in the playoffs next year.
So since I’m (almost) no longer the reporter, here’s a thank you to everyone who helped me do my job this year. Good luck, good hunting (down with the Beavers, Cougars, Trojans or Huskies) and goodbye.
Contact the sports reporter at [email protected]
From start to end, individuals inspire
Daily Emerald
June 5, 2007
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