My time as a sports reporter/anchor for WVU News has finally come to an end. This semester was truly something I will never forget. This last time around was our special edition show on the heroin epidemic throughout the country and how it’s affected our state of West Virginia. As you can expect, sports had to take a different route but still tie it into the topic.                                                                                                           

For our show, I decided to learn about the effects drugs have on an athlete’s body and how the university helps prevent their athletes from falling under the influence. Taking this route allowed me to think outside the box and really get a different angle on sports that reporters tend to not focus on. WVU’s Sports Medicine Staff was more than helpful with providing procedure processes, more information than found through research and were accommodating – which allowed for an excellent special edition piece.

I knew the second time would be much smoother than the first. First time, I was stressing all week, no sleep and endless practicing beforehand. Of course the nerves were still there, but it was nothing near like before. I ended strong the first show I anchored, so now I wanted to start strong this time. Consistency is a huge thing for me.                                                                                                               

After I submitted my package featuring Daikiel Shorts Jr., it was out of my hands whether or not I would make show. When I got the news I didn’t make show, I wasn’t even that disappointed because I was so excited to anchor for this show. In my opinion, anchoring has been the most fun part of this entire class. This is coming from a guy who overly stressed about the first time, but it was one of the best moments of my life. So, after the news arrived, I focused solely on anchoring.

Round 2. That’s what happened this week, I had my second chance at being on set. I felt more prepared, less nervous, and just ready to go.

It was Monday, when we had to come in, do the final edits on our packages, that I found out one of the JRL 386 classes were going to attend the show this week. So to say that didn’t heighten the nerves, would be a lie. I didn’t want to mess up drastically and show these up-and-coming “broadcast brats” what NOT to do. First run through wasn’t bad all together, but went in to do our second take and?. THE FIRE ALARM GOES OFF.

I had a great time shooting this story with Kyle. I interviewed one of the most generous donors to WVU who

The second time is always easier. That was true for this week. When it was my turn to anchor the first show I was super nervous. Even though I had done something like it before I was still nervous. I hadn’t done it in a while and I didn’t want to let anyone down. I was still a little nervous for show five when it was my second time to anchor. I didn’t make show this week but I was still able to be on the show.

The moment was finally happening that I’ve waited for my whole life: I anchor for sports in a newscast.       

The week of my first anchor show, there were so many emotions. Honestly, it was one of the most stressful weeks of my life. I had a tailgating story about a four-generation family that attended West Virginia University that treats tailgating much more than just celebrating an American pastime. I was in the edit lab making edits of b-roll and VO, then I had interviews to edit. Somehow, no audio came out in any of my interviews and panicking was an understatement of how I was feeling. Luckily, I was able to cover another story about WVU’s Mini Day of Play. (Major shout-out to Nikki Kaye for allowing me to do her next story.) This all happened just on Monday.    

Being a sports anchor for WVU News is something I’ve dreamt of since my senior year of high school, and the time finally came.    

The upcoming week was stressful, yet exciting – really a whirlwind of emotions. I just was looking forward to Wednesday morning at 9 o’clock. But like everything in life, hard work pays off. I had made it through one show, saw how our other sports reporter handled the “spotlight” and I knew I had to prove myself and show that I could do this, too. I worked on my voice, I worked on my facial expressions and everything it takes to make “sportsing” as good as possible.

This is my first semester in Morgantown and I was so excited to earn my master’s degree in journalism. Moving to a huge school was a huge transition but this WVU News class has helped me through it all. For my first story I decided to do a profile piece on the WVU football teams punter, Billy Kinney. Kinney’s story was very interesting to me because he grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia and his father played on the football team here as well. Some of my package focuses on the fact that Scott Kinney wore number 15 while playing at WVU and Billy walked out of the tunnel for the first time wearing number 15 just like his father.                                                                                  

The first thing I did was my background research on Kinney, I wanted to know all the information about him before I went to interview him on the football teams’ media day. I did not want to ask him any stupid question. Going into player interviews you have to be somewhat aggressive as a reporter and especially as a woman in sports reporting. That being said, I did my research and prepared my questions ahead of time and when I had the opportunity I was able to ask Kinney all the questions I needed answered.

I’ve been counting down the days until WVU News since I took Mountaineer Playbook last fall.

The week finally came for my first package. My first story had to be on Ginny Thrasher. She was the talk of the town and made not just national but international headlines after winning the first gold medal at the Olympics!