My expanding research interests

Since I was 12 years old, I wanted to be a sports writer. Everything I did in high school and college was directed toward that goal. With such intensity aimed at one goal, I achieved it right after I got my undergraduate degree in Journalism in 1996.  For the next 12 years, I covered everything from little league baseball games to the Super Bowl, from community college water polo to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, from JV girls basketball to the U.S. Open tennis championships. And, without exaggeration, I absolutely loved my job.

When the newspaper for which I worked was closed in the spring of 2009, I came to Ohio University looking to burn a year and get a master’s degree. It was during that year that I took Susan Burgess’s Law & Sexuality class and I realized how smart all the people around me were.

I knew immediately I wanted to stay in this environment and that I could never go back to being the sports writer I was before I came to OU.

My stab at being a restaurant critic: GO EAT AT 9 TABLES!

This isn’t my typical post, but I had a dining experience tonight that I want to share. If you are ever in Athens, Ohio and want an all-around fantastic, supper club-like dining experience, go to 9 Tables (in the building where Mistretta’s used to be on Schafer Street.)

My parents and I went tonight and enjoyed every minute for over two hours. This place is a gem. It’s unique — reservations only and prix fixe five or seven-course meals all prepared before you in an open kitchen. The chef/owner Bill Justice tells you about the fresh ingredients, purchased that very day, and his methods.

Bill and his wife Suzanne Mitchell let us try a little bit of everything, all while filling our glasses with a bottomless bottle of wine and moscato.

9 Tables, which literally has nine tables, looked like it was closed as curtains covered the glass doors. However, the doors were unlocked and we entered a small, efficient, comfortable space — dimly lit, warm colors, soft jazz playing. (For my friends in Seattle, this place has the ambience of the old Asteroid Cafe, complete with a restroom on the other side of the kitchen even!)

Latest scandal should wake us up

“The Lead” on ESPN’s crawl Sunday morning during SportsCenter highlighted LSU’s narrow win over Alabama in the rare No. 1-vs.-No.2 showdown. Then it noted that No. 3 Oklahoma State barely held on to beat Kansas State. It mentioned that Oklahoma beat Texas A&M but lost the nation’s top receiver to an ACL tear and it mentioned that the NBA Lockout is in its 129th day.

Much like a fumbled snap, the Worldwide Leader dropped the ball.

The biggest story in college football got swept under the rug because Saturday’s lights need to be shined elsewhere. The most tragic kind of scandal was ignored Saturday because the money-making machine that is young men grinding on grass was running at full steam.

Swept under the rug. Ignored.

Columbus Half Marathon: Complete

On Oct. 16, 2011, my sister Mary and I did the Nationwide Columbus Half Marathon. I completed it in 2:14.25. To say I’m absolutely ecstatic about it would be an understatement, (as you can probably tell from my photo here with Mary!)

Miami scandal exposes the NCAA as much as the ‘Canes

Photo montage from Yahoo! Sports

The time has come for serious reform in big-time college football.

As a matter of fact, the time came and went in 1985 in Dallas, Texas. The time came again in 1989 in Norman, Okla. And again in 2004 in Boulder, Colo., again in Los Angeles a year later, again in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Columbus, Ohio over the last year. (And this doesn’t even consider the Dexter Manleys, the Tony Mandariches, the recruiting hostesses, etc.)

My identity crisis as a former sports writer

The blog has suffered my neglect since the NFL Draft, but there is a legitimate reason for that: I’m having an identity crisis.

My entire life, I was a sports writer. My Saturdays and Sundays were eaten up with nothing but football. I voted in polls. I recorded games I had seen live to watch them again. I watched every highlight, scoured the internet for stats, for insight, for anything I might have missed. I went to high school state tournaments, looked at Scout.com every day, read message boards.

When I wasn’t being a sports writer, I was being a sports fan. I studied up on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ draft picks. Hell, I even studied up on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ draft picks. I went to games I didn’t have to cover for fun. I made everyone at the Super Bowl party be quiet so I could listen. I paid bartenders at sports bars to turn specific games on specific TVs – with the sound, thank you very much.

Plain & simply: Good luck, Jake

Locker in 2005 (Bruce Kellman/The News Tribune file)

The first time I ever came in contact with Jake Locker was on the rippled carpet on the floor of the Tacoma Dome after Bellevue High defeated Ferndale in the 3A Washington State Championship game.

I don’t think anyone ever doubted the greatness that would come to the gracious young man, even as he walked away in defeat that evening.

Tonight, Locker and his family and friends will wait to hear when his name, uttered by NFL commissioner Roger Gooddell. Once his name comes off Gooddell’s lips, visions of riches, fame and glory will dance through the minds of his fans.

Happiness is grad school

Typically this space is reserved for my unsolicited rants on the malady that is Midwest football, the defense of an indefensible quarterback who wears black & gold, or other such frivoloties.

Ohio University's campus gate on a beautiful February morning.

Being a displaced sports writer who loved her job beyond words, I have tried to carve out a new niche — one in academia.

Friends and family ask me all the time if I’m happy. The honest answer is yes. But I have never been anywhere or done anything where I haven’t been, at least, mostly happy.

Take for example my first non-internship job out of college. It was in El Centro, Calif. working for the Imperial Valley Press. It was miserable. But looking back at it, I hardly remember the nights I’d lie in bed crying because I was so lonely and frustrated.

What stands out? 

Ethics and the Coverage of Recruiting

The title of my as-of-now successfully defended thesis is “Identifying Ethical and Legal Challenges and Solutions in the Online Coverage of Recruiting High School Athletes.”

And I am FIRED UP!

I didn’t sleep much last night and was pretty much wide awake from 4:45 a.m. on. But I got out of bed a little before 6 and went upstairs to make breakfast. I was told that feeding the committee members is always encouraged, so I made breakfast for them: A Denver eggbake (with tofu instead of ham since Dr. Mike Sweeney is a newly-minted vegetarian), an Italian eggbake with sausage and tomato sauce, and blueberry muffins — out of the bag, of course!  

Post-Super Bowl blues? Not me

Was I bummed the Pittsburgh Steelers lost in Super Bowl XLV Sunday evening? Of course I was. But I wasn’t deflated as many of my dear friends thought I would be. (Thanks for the calls of condolences, m’friends!)

Here is why: