Metro
Insight
Metrospective
audiofiles
Sports
Photo Gallery
Archives

Other Areas
About Us
Staff
Contact MetOnline
Job Application
(PDF File 665K)
Advertising Information
Place Classifieds

Departments
Office of Student Media
Met Report
Met Radio
Metrosphere
Student Handbook

Home > Sports

I love Metro sports, I love journalism, can’t I love both?

I love sports.

I love to watch sports, write about sports, shoot sports for television and broadcast about sports so that I can inform the public how great sports actually are. It is my livelihood, and there is not a political debate or natural disaster that will remove me from my sports desk to roll over to the news side of the world.

I also love Metro sports. I know that may sound odd and even pathetic to those students who don’t even know we have sports on campus, but I love my job as a sports editor and a sports anchor in covering the Roadrunners.

But I think I may have jumped that line between unbiased reporter and emotional fan.

This inclination came to my attention at a recent women’s basketball game against cross-town rival Regis on their home court. Yeah, I travel to road games to cover the teams, but just give me a chance to explain before you start to point and laugh at me.

So I am standing on one end of the basketball court with my TV photographer watching the last few minutes of a tight game. Metro was trailing by five points with less than two minutes, and Metro guard Ashley Mickens stole the ball on the inbounds pass.

I was so excited about the play that my emotions took over and I screamed “Yeah, way to go Metro.” I was so immersed in the game that I might have forgotten my status as a journalist who needs to show no favoritism toward any one team or one player.

One of my still photographers from the school newspaper noticed my cheerleading on the sideline, and she reminded me that I should probably stay neutral because that is what good journalists do.

At that time, just like any other man who is enthralled with a game when someone tries to get his attention, I shrugged off the opinionated photographer and kept my eyes on the closing actions of the game. But once the final buzzer sounded and I finished my interviews with Metro and voicing my apologies for the loss, I started thinking about my love for the team and my responsibilities as a fair reporter.

As a sports reporter, you follow teams throughout their seasons. You experience their highs and their lows along with them, and you draw out their emotions when you ask them questions about their feelings on the upset win over a higher-ranked team or their thoughts on the disastrous loss to a team they should have beaten.

You become a part of the team without even knowing it. You understand their weaknesses, their strengths, their offensive and defensive gameplans and each player’s personality as you explain in detail their reaction when they were the hero, or when they fell short when it counted.

It is impossible to feel dispassionate toward these teams because in the end, you hope they come out on top knowing that each player, coach and assistant put in so much hard work and so much heart hoping to make the team successful.

Does writing about the home team every single week of the season make me a biased reporter and not giving the other team its proper due? Well, you the reader can be the judge of that, but the reason I entered the sports world as a career choice was not to just write down the final score or to name its top scorers. I got into this business because I love the emotion that players and coaches bring to each game, and you never get a rerun because there is always a new episode at every game.

Every fist pump that I throw for every win or for every head that I drop for every loss represents my love for sports, which easily transcends into my writing. If I had to keep a straight face on the job and I had to hide my enthusiasms behind my pen, then I might as well cover the news where government spending and podium speeches continue to put readers to sleep.