Before I accepted this job, I could count the number of times I had been west of the Mississippi River on one hand. I was born and raised in Atlanta, Ga., and attended my dream school nearby at The University of Georgia.
My freshman year feels so long ago now because I was nowhere near the career path I’m on today. I was a business student and had no intention of becoming a writer. The year was 2017, and all my focus was on the Georgia Bulldogs football team.
Every game I lugged around a 40-lb. sousaphone and played for the Redcoat Marching Band. The band gave me the opportunity to make friends before classes started and it gave me some of the best seats possible.
I was a member of the band for three years, but my freshman year was outstanding. I can still remember the tiniest of details, like how long the bus ride to South Bend, Ind., was, and how close we were to scoring over 50 points on Florida that year.
The Notre Dame game was unique but not the furthest I traveled. I had just started to wonder how long a bus trip to Pasadena, Calif., would take when they told us we would fly instead.
Georgia defeated Heisman-winning Baker Mayfield and the Oklahoma Sooners 54-48 in that Rose Bowl playoff game. It is still the highest scoring Rose Bowl game ever, and the only one to go to overtime.
Those games and all the sideline access I enjoyed left me wanting for more. I started looking into a sports media certificate and considering a major change.
In order to get into the program, I had to show prior experience in media. The problem was that I had none, so I went to the student newspaper and asked for training. I wrote my first published articles about Georgia women’s golf and basketball.
Fast forward a little bit and I began the sports media program. My teachers threw us in the deep end immediately by showing the end of Georgia’s 2017 National Championship loss to the University of Alabama and asking us to summarize the game less than five minutes after starting class.
It was tough for me since my older brother graduated from Alabama. He and I can argue about football all day long if given the opportunity. It’s just a Southern thing.
Last year I worked for a weekly paper in Watkinsville, Ga., during my senior year of college, and I covered five high schools with my sports editor. Many of the high school players had trainers or other connections with the University just 10 minutes away, so the talent was unbelievable.
Two of the football teams competed for a state championship and one team came away victorious. Several athletes are now at powerhouse schools like Notre Dame, LSU and of course Georgia, to name a few.
I’ve been led to believe that football doesn’t mean the same thing out here as it does down South. Whether that’s true or not, I’m still excited to be the new schools and sports reporter for this newspaper.
I love sports of all kinds and know how much of a community influence they can be. I may have been a band kid, but I also played tennis, basketball, swimming and wrestling. Somehow, I had enough free time to earn my Eagle with Boy Scouts, too.
If you haven’t already, you’ll start to see me at school and community events. I’m new in town and may ask for directions for a while, but I couldn’t be happier with this opportunity and can’t wait to get to know Fountain Hills.
