I had the opportunity to cover the men’s basketball team and turned it down.
Yes, I just said that, and I’d gladly do it again.
Many might find this decision foolish or downright crazy considering the men’s team is in the midst of a breakthrough season. That is, provided they don’t slip up this weekend and miss the NCAA Tournament.
I chose to cover the women’s basketball team instead. That’s right, the same team that missed the NCAA Tournament last year and, entering this season, looked like a team that could win fewer than 10 games after the defections by Gabrielle Richards and Kristen Forristall.
With one final conference road trip left for the women, I couldn’t be happier. Oregon has exceeded expectations with a 15-11 overall record, 7-9 in the Pacific-10 Conference, and that has the team in position for a berth in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
The women’s basketball team has been through so much already, losing players to injuries, that it’s heartwarming to see them succeed through adversity.
At the beginning of this school year, a senior staff writer left for a position with The Register-Guard, leaving me next in line to inherit the football and men’s basketball beats.
I stuck with football halfway through the season, enamored by the traveling and luxurious press box, but felt a lack of satisfaction from what I was doing.
The volleyball and women’s basketball programs – the same beats I had last year – offered the thrills and exciting personalities that hooked me on sports writing in the first place.
So I switched and covered volleyball for half the season as they made their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1989. I was there to write about Nicole Garbin joining the women’s basketball team and Forristall leaving for the volleyball program.
I wrote features capturing the personalities of guard Cicely Oaks and forward Eleanor Haring. Last spring, I interviewed Jamie Hawkins’ uncle Dan Hawkins, who is the head football coach at Colorado.
I’ve been drawn to this women’s basketball team’s five seniors and squad in general, who play for a pure, unadulterated love of the game. There are no million-dollar contracts awaiting them after college is over. Superstars like Candice Wiggins and Seimone Augustus stay the entire four years in college instead of leaving early for the WNBA.
And why would they? WNBA contracts are average and television and media coverage is sparse.
“I’m going to be really glad to be able to say I played at Oregon and play in Mac Court with the fans that we had, because they’re unbelievable,” Haring said in a recent interview.
Too often, I think writers, in their zest for covering more high profile sports, see women’s sports as only a steppingstone to a more coveted beat.
I disagree.
There’s something enjoyable about providing coverage to teams who may not get as much attention otherwise. In my two years in Eugene, I’ve come to realize how much more publicity women’s sports teams receive here than in newspapers in my native California, but there’s still plenty of stories left unwritten, and I’ve discovered many in my time here.
I have one more year left at the University after this year and after the enjoyment I’ve had the last two years, don’t be surprised to see me writing about the same teams next year.
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Finding journalistic joy away from the bright sports lights
Daily Emerald
February 18, 2007
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