Here we are… The last story… the last show of the semester, and of my time at WVU. I can’t believe how fast four years can go! But we will go into that later. 

The second to last show of the semester is our Special Edition show. The show would cover President Trump’s first 100 days in office. So obviously everyone had to do a story on something Trump related. So there is an issue here for Andrew Caridi (Another WVU News sports reporter) and myself. You can’t exactly walk into a media conference for spring football practice and say, “Hey coach so what are your opinions on Trump?” So I needed to come up with a creative way to pull this off. 

I had recently read an article about how no matter what is happening in West Virginia, the people look to WVU athletics as their ray of hope. West Virginia doesn’t have any professional teams. They have WVU. I think that is what makes the atmosphere here so special. WVU fans put their heart and souls into this school. If you have ever attended a home football game here you can understand. 

I decided to do a story on what WVU athletics meant to the people of West Virginia. No matter who the President is, what the economy is like, or what the state is going through, one thing is always constant…the pure passion the fans have for WVU football, or any other WVU sport for that matter. The story could write itself, I barely had to ask questions. I wanted to produce something that could bring a positive light to a show that would be very serious. I think it did just that. 

                                                                           

Hearing the football coaches and players answer questions about why they think WVU means so much to the fans truly made my last story worthwhile to me. Not because I attend WVU, but because pure passion is what I love so much about covering sports. I saw so much of that while shooting this story. 

 I took to the streets to ask people if they wanted to sing their favorite lines from John Denver’s “Country Roads”. I was not disappointed as diverse wave of fans sang. I even met two women who graduated over 40 years ago! They were still friends to this day, in town together celebrating an award. They talked about how excited they were that I was doing this and they can’t wait to see the final results. 

      

I ended up with a story that was the perfect way to close out my time here. I am proud of this school and its fan base. Doing all of these interviews, meeting these different people reassured me of the reason I love what I do. No matter where I go from here, or what I am covering… I will always be reminded that sports are such a pure way to bring people together. For WVU News… I’m Hannah Goetz…We’ll see you next time.