I love my school. Let me start with that. When it came time to decide what college to attend, it really wasn't even a decision. Indiana Wesleyan University is my home; it's where I want to spend the next four years of my life. There's just one teeny-tiny thing. Sports writing is my passion, and when it comes to sports, IWU is no USC.
Now I'm not complaining. The plan was to go to a major D-I college and make a name for myself by writing for the school paper, covering bowl games and sweet 16s. But plans change. So instead, I'm entering Indiana Wesleyan as the only freshman working for the school newspaper, covering teams who compete in a league called the NAIA.
My experience as a sports journalist for a small town newspaper may already be coming in handy. The gig I had at The Brown County Press included no coverage of football. There was only one football team in the county, and covering it was the job of my boss' boss. Not to worry, because IWU doesn't have a football team either.
Am I concerned about what kind of effect all this will have on my dream of becoming a writer for Sports Illustrated? A little. But do I think I can still do it? Absolutely. Over the next four years, I want to prove what I've begun to say through the last three: I am a great writer. Not trying to brag, I'm simply confident in my abilities, and I feel I can back up my claims.
It's a little disheartening when I talk to my brother, who attended IWU as a freshman last year, and he knows nothing of our school's sports and little about the newspaper. It makes me wonder, is what I'm going to be doing that unimportant? But then I decided to take it as a challenge. There are movies about sports teams and schools being completely revitalized by a single player or coach. It is now my goal to turn around Indiana Wesleyan University's sports program, not from a field or a sideline, but from the bleachers.
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