When you are about to enter a new phase in your life, it’s funny how past moments and memories come flooding back as if they had happened yesterday.
Your whole life flashes before your eyes: junior high, high school and finally, college. There are things celebrated as benchmarks that have helped advance a dream or career.
For me, the dream was becoming one of the two Ohio football and basketball beat writers for The Post, which still doesn’t feel real to me, even after a year on the job. In fewer than two weeks, my fleeting three years at The Post will be forever ingrained in the archives, and that will be all. After countless game stories, blog posts and features, hugs will be shared and well wishes aplenty will float and drift into the night sky.
If someone had told me that someday I would be the beat writer for Ohio football or men’s basketball, I probably would have chuckled and thanked them for the kind words.
I was a special case, a rare breed some might say. I was born 10 weeks premature, a scrawny 1 pound, 9 ounces to be exact. To add to the complications, I suffered a stroke that knocked out half my cerebellum. As a kid my motor skills were severely inhibited and although there was light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes it was hard to see. That is precisely why I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be writing this column.
Though this job was hard work, it has also been quite gratifying. Because of the circumstances of my backstory, I have always been compelled to tell others’ through prose. There is a story in everything, whether it is a game recap or a longer enterprise piece just waiting to be unearthed.
My four years as a Bobcat were most likely the golden age of Ohio Athletics, and I had the pleasure of covering a broad spectrum. Just two examples are women’s soccer goalie Mattie Liston becoming Ohio’s all-time saves leader and covering four divers who qualified for NCAA Zones.
As a journalist, especially in sports, you are exposed to many emotions that few are able to witness. You can view the thrill of victory and the excruciating pain of a loss.
One of my most vivid memories occurred while watching the Bobcats trudge to the locker room after their defeat in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl game in December 2013. Those occurrences place sports in a new light and show that the athletes are not immortal bodies; they are, in fact, human.
Of course, I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to my partner, the esteemed Christian Hoppens. From traveling together to Cleveland, Ypsilanti or St. Petersburg, the memories gained are each small details that fit into the bigger picture of life. When you get the opportunity to see Nick Kellogg holding back tears after losing in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament or watching football wide receiver Chase Cochran burn defenses with his legs, it makes me reminisce about my tenure at The Post.
For my sake and yours, I hope I was able to enlighten your view on Bobcat Athletics.
Thank you.
Brandon Kors is a senior studying journalism and a staff writer for The Post. Wish him farewell from Ohio University at mk277809@ohiou.edu.
