Newscast #3 - Tannor Enyart - Spring 2024
This past show, I covered the fiftieth season of West Virginia University Women’s Basketball.
This was a really cool story and one that I had fun covering. Terrell and I did
team coverage where he reported on 50 years of women’s tennis, which made shooting stand-ups
and SOT TZs' really fun. At the end of February, WVU WBB honored their first head coach, Kittie Blakemore, along with hosting a celebration of 50 years of WVU WBB.
I went there to film the game, as well as the celebration so that I could put this
story together.
At the ceremony, I talked with numerous former players and alumni. When you get to do a story like this, there is so much information and so many stories that make great content. Each player has their own stories about Coach Kittie, and they all wanted to talk about her, and how important she was to the sport. In addition, many people wanted to talk about the current team.
While getting to talk to the former players was fun and had great soundbites, I was also able to use an interview from over a decade ago that WVU Athletics did with
Coach Kittie. This was absolutely the coolest part of the
story for me. Outside of WVU News, I am the sports director at U92 the student radio
station. In this role, I call the women’s games on the radio, which I've been doing since I was a freshman.
Over the years, I have mentioned Coach Kittie and the history of West Virginia Women’s
Basketball, but to be able to listen to her speak on her experience with the program, was not only interesting but eye-opening.
After I put the package together, it was time to get ready for the show. This week was different because spring break was in the middle of it all. Over
break, I was in Kansas City calling basketball games on the radio live at the
Big 12 tournament. I was able to pull from what I learned doing this story for
WVU News and add more depth to what this team is, as I broadcasted the games.
Something I try to do is tie things together, whether it’s live broadcasting,
packages for news, anchoring, etc. So to be able to take knowledge
from former players and mention important events throughout the history of WVU
WBB as they continued on in there fiftieth season, was rewarding for me.
On the day of the show, it was different. We had team coverage this week, which means
Terrell and I were both on set. This was something everyone was very excited about. I wanted
to have fun with the team coverage and I think we did that. I hope that our camaraderie came across in the
newscast.
I
also have Drew, our Assistant Director, to keep me sharp. He would come out
from the sound booth between takes to hype everyone up. I made a few mistakes
when we were filming this week, but it is a huge advantage to be surrounded by such a supportive crew at WVU News. This is something I don’t think I
quite anticipated coming into this semester. Professor Dahlia and Professor Mara
are there to lean on for advice during shows and throughout the week, but they
are also there for us to help with issues outside of class. It’s support like
this that makes balancing day-to-day challenges easier and makes all the effort
worth it.
As I plan for show four, there is a lot I want to explore. While we transition from winter to spring, that also means fall is right around the corner.
Which means one thing - football is coming, (European style Futbol or
American football). We’ve got lots of teams and players to talk about, a men’s
soccer team coming off a final four year, a women’s soccer team that’s poised to
compete and potentially win another championship, and a football team that can
do just the same. It’s an exciting time around WVU athletics and I can’t wait to continue to tell the stories.