Deuces

Journalism 320 has been an interesting experience.  I have learned new people, and learned new things.   One thing I have learned is that journalism is a lot harder that people have ever expected.  It is a lot of work and can cause some irritation.

Looking for the right lead, finding the right theme and people to talk to, writing the right story and writing the proper view of each story.  Before this class I wanted to be a sports journalist covering teams and other things like that.  After this class I still would like for a pro or college team but I don't want to cover anything but that.  I know what I'm good at and that's all I want to do.  I would like to write game summaries, and other breaking news for the teams.

I have come to respect the profession even more than I have in the past, some aspects of it just aren't for me.

Life after Football

I wake up every morning and there isn't one inch on my body that doesn't hurt.  But that is the price I payed when I decided to play football.
I have broke my wrist, tore my MCL, had concussions, and most recently tore my labrum in my right shoulder.  These things bother me every day and don't get me wrong I love football but I am afraid for my future.  I want to be able to walk or exercise when I'm older or even be able to move.  I want to be able to be active with my kids and not have my brain turn to mush and forget past events.  When I think about it, it is crazy what I sacrifice for the game of football, and it's only Division 3.  The time I have put into it, what I've put my body through, and the sacrifice I've made being away from my family.  But with all these sacrifices come great payments.  I have won two conference championships, which many people won't ever have or even know the feeling.  But most importantly I have adopted hundreds of family members with the Tiger football family.  Alumni, and my present team mates that I have now.  And I am grateful for them and the opportunities that they have presented to me or will in the future.  I just hope my health doesn't get in the way of it.

Nut Cutting Time

I'm sure everyone is aware that Wittenberg is trying to cut various departments in order for the school to save money and avoid even worse economic issues.  To put it bluntly Wittenberg has to cut something and it is not gonna be athletics.
And here is why, every sport no matter if it is football or if it is cross country it brings in students which in turn gives the school money.  So take for example the football team, they have at least 60 recruits a year, and that may be a low number.  That equated to how many thousands of dollars for the school, and even if those students transfer they are still getting some money from those kids still.  Then you take a look at the Dance major, and no offense to the dance majors but there may be 4 dance majors.  Now look at events how many home games to athletic teams have and how many dance recitals to we have? Huge revenue difference there.  Also with sports, with our teams being as good as they are they host additional playoff tournaments too, so there is even more money there.  So don't blame Wittenberg athletics for Witt losing money, that is just not fair.  It is just that those departments are making enough money and when push comes to shove, someone has gotta go.

Election Hangover

So now that all of the annoying commercials on TV and on your YouTube videos will now disappear, what will happen next?

President Obama's reelection Tuesday night happened rather quickly ending around 11:30 PM and soon after that we learned of other changes around the nation.  Marijuana was legalized in two states and gay marriage was legalized in four more.  But that may be all the significant change we see.  Republicans retained the House and the democrats won the Senate.  So they key question now will be can the President create poilicies that both sides agree or will he become more moderate in order to get anything done.  More political stalemates can really hurt our country.  But after this election and after seeing things on Twitter and talking to others, I don't ever remember seeing people opinions so divided.  We need to come together as a nation and figure some things out before we get ourself too deep into some shit.

The Loss of Royalty

Early Wednesday morning reports flooded in of the passing of legendary football coach Darrel K. Royal at the age of 88.

Royals most significant years were spent in Austin coaching the University of Texas Longhorns.  He paved the road for what the Longhorn program is today.  In 20 season he won three National Championships (1963, 1969-1970) and 11 Southwest Conference titles, now the Big 12.  He compiled a record of 167-47-5 making him the the winningest coach in Longhorn football history.  He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and in 1996 University of Texas renamed their stadium to Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium.  

Royal also patented the wishbone offense.  The wishbone offense put less stress on the offensive line by inserting a fullback into the backfield.  The wishbone eventually led to the invention of the option offense.  Which the Longhorns used to win 2 of the 3 national championships in Royals tenure.  

The Longhorns will honor Coach Royal by wear decals on their helmets with the initials DKR on it and will line up in the patented wishbone offense in their first offensive play.  The Longhorns will take on Iowa State at noon on Saturday.

My Type of Party

Now that I'm a junior I have seen my fair share of things around campus and especially on campus.  One observation is Wittenberg students really really really like to party.  And I've noticed different occasions and trends.  

No matter if its the senior celebrating the end of their thesis celebration with their friends at the bar or if it is that sheltered freshman finally letting loose and getting so drunk they throw up all over themselves in public.  

It starts off pre-gaming in dorms for the underclassmen and pre-gaming in houses for the junior and seniors, which for some may actually be the game, if you know what I mean...  but then you go to house parties with either a team, club, or frat/sorority you're affiliated with or if you're feeling frisky you go to a house out of your comfort zone to meet some new people.  After that the night ends for the ones under 19 but for others the ball keeps rolling.

McMurrays, an upperclassman's Wednesday, Friday and maybe Saturday night.  Mc's summed up in a few words would be dancing, singing, drinking, and sweating.  And of course before you leave you order a Chicken Bacon Ranch in the midst of your drunkenness to take home.  And as you scarf down the piping hot pizza you barely feel the temperature let alone taste it.

Many people party up to 4 nights a week at least.  Some peoples motivation to finish school work is so they can go out and drink.  Wittenberg never has a bad night of partying, it just comes down to which nights are better than others.

Administration

Wittenberg's administrations recent handling of the sexual assaults have been, well questionable.  Erin couldn't have said it any better in class the other day.  We would get the same email about a sexual assault or if there was a cat loose in an academic building.  It seems like Wittenberg is trying to either protect us from the truth or they are just keeping the truth from us.  It seems that they are trying to preserve the non-existant Wittenberg bubble, even though all this chaos is happening inside of our bubble.

The administration keeping us in the dark about the french professor situation is not fair to us as adults and students.  We deserve to know what is going wrong in our community so we can protect ourselves in order to avoid situations like these so they don't happen again.  The emails we receive seem to be very vague and uninformative.  This doesn't help us grow as a community, it doesn't help us, it doesn't protect us, it does just the opposite of these.

I would like to think that the administration thinks a bit more highly of us and our maturity and intellect.    It is a bit of a slap to the face with the way they have treated us with presenting us with the campus alerts.

Rock Out with Your NHL Lockout

So the NHL is on the brink of having its 2nd lockout in eight years.  This is an absolute disgrace, there are supposed to be more talks today about CBA but the owners are declining to meet.  This comes at an awful time.  The NHL seemed to be making a comeback in terms of being relevant again.  The cinderella story of the LA Kings drew tons of fans to start paying attention to hockey even in non NHL markets.  But instead players and owners being greedy and can't make a decision on how to get the season started.

TWO times in eight years, why would they not make the last CBA at least double digit years? The big dispute this year is the distribution of money.  Players say they are getting screwed over salary and owners say the teams are losing money.  The last proposal was a 50-50 split but the NHLPA and Donald Fehr, declined.  And today (October 25th) is the deadline each party set for having a full 82 game season, and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

As a huge hockey fan, this is unfair to so many people.  First the fans, we love hockey and we are gonna miss another year of the NHL.  All of out favorite players are going to farms teams that are rarely televised and over seas to the only threat to the NHL the Russian KHL.  It is not fair to us that we don't get to enjoy the sport.  Secondly the players, this is their career!  And with the lockout there are a lot of players that aren't superstars that have no other means of living.  That 4th line center that had steady paycheck no longer has that and is looking elsewhere for income.  Lastly no one ever thinks about the workers at the arenas.  The custodians, concession workers, broadcasters and cameramen, everyone involved in organizations.  What do they do? Once again that is their job, and with our economy and high unemployment rate it is difficult to find income for some of them.

So on behalf of all of NHL fans, PLEASE come to an agreement and lets drop the puck.

Story Ideas

1.) WittFest is obviously the most anticipated party/campus holiday on campus and who performs is very important.  So I was curious who the students want to see, and within reason.  And I think it would be nice to start early, because earlier the better.

2.) Campus Parking; Everyone knows how small the campus is and that walking is always an option but when you have a car you obviously tend to drive more and when one decides to drive to class whether they just don't feel like walking or because they are late, there isn't adequate enough parking for students.  Dorm parking lots are always full, and teacher parking lot is off limits and if you take the risk you are almost guaranteed a ticket, so the question is, should there be more student parking closer to academic buildings or suck it up and walk?

3.) Phones during class; Are phones becoming a problem for teachers and students.  Technology grows rapidly everyday with new apps for phones, and different ways of communicating with people is it harder for students to teach and is it effecting students grades?

BEEEEEER!!!

So there is no secret that drinking is the single thing students absolutely love to do no matter what day of the week it is.  I didn't start drinking until the spring semester of my freshman year and now I drink every weekend.  Some people may think that that is a bit extreme but you may need to walk around campus on Wednesdays, Fridays, or Sundays.  There are students drinking everyday no matter the occasion.  "NO CLASS THURSDAY EFF IT LETS RAGEEEE!!!!!!"  Um bro its only Tuesday?  Maybe this stuff happens because of the people I hang around with but I'm sure other people do it too.  Wittenberg parties heavily for only having about 2000 students.  We live for weekends, holidays like St Patties Day, and things WittFest.  And its college so why not, we only have four years in the glorious city of Springfield so lets have some fun while we are here.

It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

More than halfway through my glorious college experience her at Wittenberg there have been some things that I have absolutely loved about it and some things I could have lived without.  I enjoy football,  my friends, and opportunities Witt has given me so far.  There are not many things I haven't enjoyed but one of them for sure was Public Speaking freshman year.  I bet everyone is thinking, "Oh I would have hated it too, I can't stand talking in front of people".  Nope that was not the reason why I absolutely dreading going to that class.  Reason one, the professor.  She was not a Wittenberg professor, she was an adjunct from Clark State and she may be top 5 worst joke makers of ALL TIME!  It was so awkward when she made a joke and you were forced to laugh.  Another was that she graded a 100 level course as if it was like a senior thesis determining the rest of your life.  It was ridiculous, and this all may be because I always made a point in my speeches to poke fun of when she said we could Skype her if we needed to contact her, but hey who knows.  She was also one of those teachers that read directly from the book, also known as death to students.  Forget paying attention, I had a hard time not falling asleep.  God bless her, she tried and so did I, she kept her job after evaluations, and I got a D, so I guess she won the war.

World Domination

There was a recent study done by an ESPN writer saying that soccer is the number growing sport in America between ages 17-22.  This is not very surprising to me, I mean with the growing popularity of FIFA video games and the frequent airing of English Premier League games, there will be a lot of attraction to something new.  But I don't believe this will be just a fad.  The EPL may have the best athletes from around the world competing in it.  They have players from literally every corner of the world, unlike many American pro sports.  This may be one reason why it is so popular in the US because of our "melting pot" mentality.  So this makes me think how the globalizing of American sports is going.  I know that the NFL has had some games in England but they haven't had any great games, that would make fans want to consistently watch the NFL.  Baseball in general is very popular in Asia and South America and the MLB doesn't seem to attack any other areas of the world.  The NBA has discussed playing games overseas vs international teams and count them as regular season games.  They have also talked about adding a European division to the league.  And finally the NHL, hockey is much like baseball, they already have strong popularity in many European countries, such as Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Finland.  It seems to be that globalization of sport is becoming more of the popular thing to do and why not.  It makes the leagues and owners more money to improve their product for the fans.

Blogerooski

For many of us, this is the first time we have had to write in a blog format.  Personally I like writing blogs, the problem is that I want to write about sports all the time and that is not a possibility right now. But me and one of my friends from Ohio State are working on something and I would like to get started writing for some other sports blogs in the internet atmosphere.  Blogs I think are a great way to gets things rolling for young writers.  If you read some of the top blogs online, they are just as good as newspapers or as articles on other reliable news websites.  They get interviews from important people which make them look even better.  But I think blogs help our class out tremendously even if some students don't like them.  The more we write the better we get.  We learn more about our grammar, and learn how to use our creative voice properly.  I love the idea of blogs, I hope I can write more so I can get something started somewhere after college.

Show Your Colors: Red or Blue?

With the election coming up the presedential race seems to become more important everyday.  But here at Witt it doesn't seem that way.  To me Witt doesn't seem like a very politically active campus.  I know that the college republicans and yound democrats are on campus but I dont see them advertising or trying to make any changes to campus.  But it does seem that the student body and the faculty seem to be more liberal than conservative.  Look at cars in the parking lots and see their bumper stickers, look at water bottles to see the decorative stickers on them.  Even look at your timeline on Twitter or your Facebook news feed, and more often than not you will see more pro-Obama posts than pro-Romney ones.  It may be that people in society are more proud to be a democrat rather than being a republican.  To me it seems that republicans are portrayed as the bad guys, stealing from the poor and giving to the rich, and that the democrats are the good guys helping those in need and making everything right, but I know that's not right, each party has its flaws.  Witt does seem to lean more towards the democratic party, but that just may be because of social stereotypes.

HELPPPP!!!!!

So I still need an article for the semester story, and I literally have no idea what I can write about.  It obviously poses an interesting scenario because it can't be a semester long story if I do start it rather soon.  

I'm in Trouble

So about this story idea about the recruiting for sports and how kids are quitting and costing Wittenberg money, I may have to change my story.  Its going to be difficult because I have found that kids don't know their exact financial aid or how it was split up.  Secondly I dont think coaches would be too happy that an athlete would write a story basically telling how coaches lie to recruits and I really don't feel comfortable doing that either.  So if any idea come up let me know please!

Eleven Years Later

It is obvious what happened today, September 11th, eleven years ago today.  The tragedy that rocked this country will bring images to our heads for the rest of our days and will be an image that our future cannot shake.  Your Facebook timelines and your Twitter news feeds will be full of pictures, videos, and statuses.  You will not only be forced to be remember what happened but you just can't help to think about what happened.  Immediate things that come up are, where you were, what were you doing, who you know that was effected.  Eleven years later we are still deeply impacted and involved as people and as a country.  The most important thing that we can do is to thank everyone serving and comfort the ones who lost someone.

Semester Article

There is no doubt that Wittenberg has multiple successful athletic teams, and that most of our campus is made up of athletes.  Witt has wanted to increase enrollment for a while now from what I hear and they ask the athletic department to up recruiting in order to bring in more students.  But is this the right thing to do?  For example my class, the class of 2014 brought in over 100 recruits to play football.  In my junior year there are about 40 of us left.  This leads to financial problems for the school.  Even though Witt cannot give money because they are a Division 3 school they still give scholarship to athletes that other students don't receive.  This story may be a it difficult because of privacy issues, but I would really like to see what I can draw out from the athletic department and the university.

NFL Week 1 Review

Another Week One in the NFL has come and gone and of course there were surprises, disappointments, and big opening day performances.

Surprises: Robert Griffin III made his NFL debut this past Sunday and RG3 didn't miss a beat.  Griffin brought his Heisman play straight to the big show.  Completing 19 of 26 passes for 320 yards and 2 TDs.  Griffins anticipated big splash has come earlier than many expected.

Peyton Manning made his first start since last January and returned to his old form.  Manning dissected the Steelers defense throwing for 2 TDs including his 400th career TD pass.  

Disappointments: The Cincinnati Bengals came into the season with very high expectations, some predicting that they may win the division for the first time in years.  They walked into a hornets nest and got blown out versus the Baltimore Ravens on the Monday Night opener.  The dazzling duo of AJ Green and Andy couldn't muster any touchdowns in the air which was a key factor in the loss.

The Buffalo Bills defense flipped chips and blew stacks this offseason, spending 100 Million dollars on coveted free agent Mario Williams, and also a hefty amount of defensive end Mark Anderson.  The result? An absolute beatdown vs Gang Green this Sunday.  The Jets contained Williams and the Bills defense as they exploded for 48 points after not scoring a single TD during the preseason.  The Bills offense was stagnant to say the least, until the 4th quarter.  Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick made 3 terrible throws all resulting in interceptions, one being a pick six.

The Replacements

One of the biggest controversies in the early NFL is season is the issue of the contract talks between the  NFL Referees Association and the NFL.  The issue has been described as a "million dollar problem in a billion dollar industry.  No one knows for certain what each party exactly wants from either side, but we are certain that there is no agreement in sight according to reports.  Another thing we are certain of is that these refs made many mistakes in the preseason.  Such as in the Bills vs Redskins Pre-Season game, the Redskins punted the ball and the Bills downed it at the 4 yard line.  The ref called a touchback causing the Bills head coach to use one of his coveted challenges.  Other instances were that they weren't facing the camera when addressing the penalty, or spotting the ball on the incorrect hash mark.  The NFL is a great organization and its a shame that they have to rely on small conference college football refs instead of seasoned NFL vetran referees.

What Election?

In class I expected the journalism students to be more aware of the new or the election.  But it seemed that we knew the candidates and basic information but not much about policies.  Everyone in our group knew who was in the election even if they haven't decided who they would be voting for this November.  But when policies came up, we were kind of generic.  For example we asked what was more important, social or economic issues.  A couple of people in our group answered honestly, but never mentioned which specific social or economic policies were important.  This can only make me wonder about other Witt students who aren't as aware as some of the students in the class.  This election and every election hereafter determines the future of youth, and for most of us this is our first election and we can help decide what our future will consist of.  Elections are more important than our generation thinks.  And its unfortunate that not many of the people in our generation seem to care.

New Training Room

After a long in class debate about which story I was going to write about I finally settled on writing my first article on the brand new training room in the HPER Center.

Benefits of me choosing this topic is that the training room is a place I go everyday before and after practices.  I have a close relationship with the head athletic trainer Ellen Crosbie and the other student workers and other athletic trainers that have experience.  This makes it easy for me to get credible sources to develop my story.  Another positive point is that I am friends with many athletes that use the training room everyday.  With this I can ask them such questions like, biggest differences, what they like better or worse.

With all these benefits there are also going to be some things that will complicate my situation.  The first thing that comes to mind is that it will be very hard to talk to Dr. Kremchek.  Kremchek is a Wittenberg Alumni and donated a large sum of money that allowed all the renovations.

Even though this story wasn't my first selection, I think I can find some good information that will make a great story.

English 321 blog thoughts

I have previously thought about starting my own blog this summer, until a pair of my friends bailed on me this summer due to "prior obligations".  So I'm am very excited to get underway in Advanced News Writing this semester so I can write as much as I can so and improve my writing and typing skills.  I would like to have a blog about sports, college or professional.  Hopefully this gets. me going in the right direction towards the next step of my Journalism career.