One year ago today my life was very different. And it wasn’t just because I was living in a shoebox in Manhattan, working in non-profit fundraising, or feeling disillusioned with my last 4 years directing plays in New York City. It was different because I didn’t have sports in my life.
This was new. Throughout my entire childhood, high school, and college I was a sports junkie, not to mention the hardest of hardcore New York sports fans. I watched every Yankees, Knicks, Giants, and Rangers game, I looped Sportscenter 10 hours a day, and I spent countless hours outdoors working on my jumpshot, fielding ground balls, and taking batting practice.
In college (at Hobart and William Smith), for the first time, I put that love of sports to work. I became the Sports Director of WEOS radio and broadcast hundreds of games both play-by-play and color in everything from women’s lacrosse to hockey to football. It was my passion, my calling, and I loved every second.
After college, though, the sports disappeared. Somewhere along the way in undergrad I developed an aptitude and passion for the arts and I became determined to move to New York City to try to make it as a theatre director. And that’s what I did.
As you might imagine, the arts world and the sports world don’t go to the same parties, drink at the same bars, or hang out together on lazy Sundays. So the next few years of my life were spent in that other world, somewhat removed from the life I knew and living in a relative vacuum. In short — things got weird.
One year ago it all changed. I realized that I wasn’t happy and was in the wrong place. My work in broadcast (which extended beyond sports to working in NPR news after college for a stint) was where I belonged and it was time for a renaissance. With that renaissance, the sports returned, and those innocent passions from years past surged back. The Sportscenter was looping again, I dusted off the jumpshot, and no Knicks game went unwatched.
The point of this (admittedly overdramatized) bio is really just to highlight that those of us who write, report, and broadcast sports come from different walks of life and varied perspectives that inform the way we add to the discourse.
What you can expect from me beyond news and information is, hopefully, an always humble analytical take on the action from an objective point of view. And trying to add some needed perspective to the news of the day.
The most interesting thing to me about football is the coordinator/QB chess match, I love a good plate battle, and there’s nothing more exciting than a hardcore defensive stop on the basketball court.
These are the things that make the sports world go round and I welcome the opportunity to lend my humble keyboard to them as often as possible.
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