I stepped in The Post’s newsroom before I ever set foot in a classroom, and I spent a lot more time in the newsroom than classrooms during the past four years.
Although I’ll be graduating with a journalism degree next weekend, I feel like I majored in watching sports and working for the newspaper. The Post was a paying job, but never felt like one (probably because my paychecks went straight to beer).
I worked a few 12-hour days in the windowless newsroom. I spent my weekends for two springs covering almost 40 softball games. I drove more than 2,000 miles covering away games.
All of it was worth it.
The football and men’s basketball teams had down seasons this year, but I had as much fun covering these teams this year as I did cheering for them when they were on their way to a national ranking and the Sweet 16 appearance.
Viewing a game from Peden Stadium’s press box is one of my favorite sights on campus, though press row in The Convo is more lackluster when Marching 110 sousaphone players are standing in front of me.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="ce0fa5aa-4f47-11e4-a5f5-0017a43b2370"}}
I traveled to places I’d never been and will never go back to, like Kalamazoo, Michigan, where I slept in a $53 hotel room after the men’s basketball team was ousted from the Mid-American Conference Tournament. I ate at Skyline Chili on Valentine’s Day on my way back from a game in Oxford, Ohio. I filed stories from the highway as we raced back to Athens before the bars closed. I even covered the NHL All-Star Game, which was my first hockey game.
Hours were long, editing wasn’t always fun and the daily meetings were sometimes monotonous, but The Post gave me so many opportunities and so many memories.
I’m going to miss you all.
Chad Lindskog is a senior studying journalism and The Post’s sports editor. He’ll be moving to Wyoming after graduation to work for the Casper Star-Tribune.
He can be reached at cl027410@ohio.edu or on Twitter: @ChadLindskog.
It seems like yesterday, but on a random Saturday in Athens during my sophomore year my college career was changed — all for the best.
I met a Post alum, who had mutual friends with me. Two days later I walked in the newsroom and never looked back.
But it’s been three years — a long time coming — and everything has to come to an end eventually.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="7624c4fa-e485-11e4-9d51-77e8c20e0485"}}
From watching Ohio’s Sweet 16 run in men’s basketball on spring break in Florida as a fan to covering the Bobcats’ NCAA Tournament berth in volleyball in Lexington, Ky., the last four years have been quite the experience for myself and other seniors.
But as a member of the media and someone who’s had the chance to cover volleyball, hockey, football, men’s basketball and much more throughout the past three years, Ohio University and The Post have presented me with opportunities I will never forget. They gave me chances to polish and develop skills that many universities around the nation do not offer.
Four years ago, I would have called you crazy if you told me I would have been able to travel to cover games at all but three Mid-American Conference schools throughout my senior year, in addition to being able to cover the NHL All-Star Game in Columbus.
While working on my several different beats there have obviously been speed bumps to recover from, but I can tell you one thing: the athletes and coaches in this athletic program are some of the best people to work with. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
But when I exchange my Ohio green for Syracuse orange this upcoming year, I will undoubtedly continue to rep the green and white, as a graduate from THE Ohio University.
Alex Busch is a senior studying sport management and journalism and is The Post’s Assistant Sports Editor. He’ll be attending Syracuse University for graduate school in the next year, studying broadcast and digital journalism.
He can be reached at ab109410@ohio.edu or @Alex_Busch91 on Twitter.
