It’s crazy to think that this semester is already coming to a close. It was only yesterday that I wrote my first column for the sports section, and here I am possibly writing my last. With only two weeks left in the semester, it’s time to look back on some notable sports stories in the past four months.
Manti Te’o and Lance Armstrong were arguably the two most hated/disliked/confused about athletes at the start of the year. Te’o (possibly) faked a girlfriend or wasn’t smart enough to know that his Twitter girl wasn’t real while Armstrong wasn’t real in his athleticism, admitting his use of steroids. I touched on the steroid issue earlier in the season when the MLB didn’t vote anyone into the baseball Hall of Fame. Armstrong came out soon after that, and it was just a shame to see that type of bad sportsmanship.
February saw the Baltimore Ravens defeat the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl (which I correctly predicted and am very proud of). Colin Kaepernick became the new face of the 49ers football franchise as Alex Smith made his move to Kansas City.
The Lakers struggled, and continue to do so as we approach the end of the basketball season, and the Utah Jazz are trying to make it back to the postseason. March Madness was and is madness still. With Gonzaga being knocked off in the second round, New Mexico getting upset by Harvard, and Kevin Ware showing us what his bones look like, it has been a mad March (with a little bit in April) indeed.
As for UVU athletics, it has been a rollercoaster for both men and women’s collegiate. Both the men and women’s basketball teams fell in the GWC tournament their last season in it but had impressive individual seasons from both Ben Aird and Sammie Jensen, respectively. The wrestling team had three of their wrestlers make it to the NCAA tournament with a return to the big stage by Josh Wilson and a freshman phenomenon in Jade Rauser. Now the softball team is having a great start to their season with half of it done, and the baseball team is streaking in the wrong direction but have the talent to turn that around at any point. UVU Athletics will say goodbye to the Great West Conference at the end of June and say hello to the Western Athletic Conference.
It has been an interesting semester for sports all over the place. With the semester coming to close, it’s time to turn our attention to next semester where there might be a new sports editor writing these columns; a new plethora of stories to be told around campus and on a national level. As for me, I am signing off, for now, as the UVU Sports Editor. See you next semester, hopefully.
