I'm not great with the terminology... the courts, the fields, the points, the runs. The longer I sit here writing this I actually feel the embarrassment setting in. Actually, I'm a warrior on a golf course (I thank genetics for that one.)
So believe me when I say no one was more surprised than I was that in my last semester at the University of Miami, I covered a story that actually required me going to the football stadium and conducting an interview with someone who had an office in the athletic center. To be fair, it was a story about transportation to and from the sporting event, but it was the most I'd ever ventured into the Wide World of Sports. ( <-- that right there was funny because there was an ABC show by the same name.)
While it's a great service, administration had been dealing with the issue of students who rode the free buses up to Sun Life Stadium, but just for a parking lot tailgate instead of the intended purpose of actually attending the game.
I knew I wanted to do the story since my spring semester junior year, but I had to wait for football season to do so. I was attending my minimum one game a year anyway, (I KNOW, ONE GAME. I KNOW.) so for my senior year, I was glad to kill two birds with one stone. Ok, that sounds like I'd really hate going but the main reason I didn't go so frequently is because with the buses, attending the games was an all-day event, and I usually had an RA desk shift to work, or other academic-related commitments. Also because I didn't understand anything that happened there. Go 'Canes!
The timing of the story worked, because the administration had rolled out new guidelines for the buses and game day rules, and my story would be a way to introduce them to the students. Before game day, I interviewed our Vice President for Student Affairs, a student, as well as a member of the Ticket Operations team.
Seriously, with foreign and domestic affairs, you tend to believe people in this country can't agree and don't talk to each other, and then you put a sporting event on the television, and trust me, people are talking.
There was an undeniable energy at the stadium, and though I didn't know if I understood it, I recognized it and felt it should be documented. If I'm being entirely honest, I don't think I would have enjoyed myself as much at the game had I not been there working.
To clarify, I'm not saying what I did that day was sports reporting. But I will say it aired on our news show AND our sports show. And for that, I'd consider it a hole-in-one.