During my days being a part of the North Central College community, there had been no shortage of people involved in North Central athletics that I spoken to. One of my favorite moments had to be in October 2014 when I had the chance to walk on the field after the homecoming football game. I was surrounded by fans and members of the media covering the game and had the chance to speak to a couple of the players and coaches. Furthermore, I was able to do what a journalist does and that is of course to ask the athletes questions pertaining to the game. It was a surreal experience and having the chance to see how big a football field is while standing on it was surreal as well.
During my time working for WONC, I had the experience to cover games from a slightly different view. While, I would’ve done this a few more times, I had the chance to sit in the radio booth during a few North Central baseball games and having that view from atop was something special as well. I’ve watched baseball for many years and when you are watching the game on TV, you have to trust the announcers to tell you what is going on when the cameras are not catching everything. I also had a chance to sit in on the radio broadcast for softball games, and the sport is very similar to baseball. Considering the knowledge I have in baseball, the minor differences that occur in a softball game were not too much for me to adjust to.
In the past, I have attended Men’s and Women’s Basketball and I have covered the team in a couple different ways. As with the football homecoming game, I had the opportunity on a few occasions to step on the court at the end of games to speak to coaches and members of the teams and to ask questions. I always used an audio recording device to hear the athletes in their own words because there are times in which to get your point across, you have to do that by using the individual’s words. On a couple of occasions, I took some pictures of game action on my phone and eventually sent it to the social media person for the Chronicle to eventually post.
Even as my days at North Central are over, I still visit campus to speak to people involved with athletic teams. In the days before the men’s and women’s basketball teams began their seasons, I interviewed both team’s head coaches. Having the chance to ask questions about how their teams prepare for games against CCIW opponents and hear their answers gave me an insight into what it is like to be a head coach.
Recently, I had the chance to interview Vince Kmiec and I got everything I expected in material from which to work with. One of the more revealing moments was when I asked him what makes Division 3 basketball unique? He told me that some of the best college basketball head coaches come from Division 3 including former Wisconsin Badgers coach Bo Ryan.
I have also covered teams that may not garner as much attention as others. This month in fact a new sport is set to begin playing and that is men’s volleyball. I have noticed that not many colleges have men’s volleyball as a varsity sport. I have done a number of projects covering the new team and having the opportunity to hear some of the athletes speak about the sport is something that can give this sport some traction.
While I covered the main sports for the newspaper, I also did profile interviews for teams such as the women’s golf and men’s and women’s swimming and diving team. In general, being able to cover individual athletes was a chance to see what it was like being in the shoes of a student athlete and to hear them speaking in their own words, which often puts an individual story in perspective better than anyone could possibly do.
One of the things I tend to notice when I cover individual sports is that when I speak to people, they tend to mention me by name during discussions and interviews. Being known by quite a few people involved with North Central athletics gives me a feeling that I am welcome to cover athletic events on a regular basis.
What does 2016 have in store for me? At this point, I don’t know how many events I will be covering but I am looking forward to getting a little out of my comfort zone and do something I haven’t done as much in the past. In the near future, I will likely be doing more audio podcasts doing athletics related profiles. In the meantime, I will always be looking at what more I can do to improve myself when it comes to covering North Central sports now and as a freelancer but hopefully in the near future, something even bigger.
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