Photo by Jay Drowns
When I first came to UVU I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I was accepted into BYU-Idaho but I chose to go to UVU instead. I wanted to be a sports writer, but never really pictured how that path would look. My first semester I shared a class with the sports editor for the UVU Review, who talked me into writing for the paper, and it’s easily one of the best decisions I’ve made in my schooling career.
While writing for the paper I’ve had the opportunity to cover sporting events here at the university. This last semester I covered the wrestling team and made it to all the home matches. I still remember one match where All-American Jade Rauser squared off against Brance Simms from South Dakota State. They were evenly matched, neither one able to make a move on the other. They circled each other for about two minutes, each tried to find an opening but one stopped the other from making a move. Suddenly Simms lunged at Rauser’s legs. Rauser jumped back and from my angle it looked like he grabbed Simms in midair and turned him over. Rauser threw him to the mat and held him there long enough for a pin. He pinned his opponent two minutes into the match with the score of 0-0, and my jaw about hit the ground. I was sitting at the media desk, so I was mere feet away from Rauser when he completed the amazing pin. I wouldn’t have been that close if I wasn’t involved with the paper.
The coolest thing I’ve done for the newspaper was covering the WAC basketball tournament in Las Vegas. I went with another sports writer and we stayed at my parents’ house since they live in Las Vegas. We got to wear media passes, sit courtside to all the UVU games and at the end of every game, we attended postgame press conferences. Just like we see the pros do. This happened during the school week, but our absences were excused because we were going for the paper. So while everyone else was sitting in class we were sitting at basketball games. We were able to see the cool sights in Las Vegas, as long as we got all of our work done regarding the basketball teams. I really started to feel like a real journalist; it was what I always dreamed of doing and I was finally doing it.
When I came to UVU I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew I wanted to be a sports writer. Now I know that going to UVU over BYU-I was the best decision I’ve ever made. It’s all because of the experiences I’ve had writing for the UVU Review. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be a sports writer. More than that, I’d recommend it to anyone who just really loves sports.
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