Most of you probably don’t know much about me beyond what you read in my introduction story when I first joined the Levelland News Press a little over two months ago.
To give you some context about me, from elementary school all the way until right before I started here, I was an athlete.
Over the years, I played or participated in football, basketball, hockey, soccer, baseball, track & field and even jiu-jitsu.
From middle school into my freshman year of high school I was in football, basketball and track & field, which was refined to football and track & field my final three years of high school.
Then I ran track on scholarship for Oklahoma Baptist University all four years of my college experience.
My graduation from OBU last May marked the end of my athletic career and to be transparent, it’s an odd feeling.
Because for the first time in nearly 13 years, I have nothing to work towards athletically – no practice, no competition, no goals and no dreams in sports to chase.
There was always tomorrow for me in sports and then in the blink of an eye, there just wasn’t.
I still don’t think it’s fully hit me yet, but even just four months out I miss it like crazy.
There were some extremely painful moments physically and mentally through my journey as an athlete, but I wouldn’t have traded the grind and the joys of achieving my goals for anything.
But I do understand it’s a thing of the past and at the end of the day, it’s just sports.
You might be wondering — why am I telling you all this? Fair question.
I say all this to explain why I’m here in this role.
I can’t compete in sports anymore, so now I’m covering them daily.
You could say I’m vicariously living through my job and you’re probably right because I love sports.
I’ve always wanted to work in them and when I realized I wasn’t good enough for an athletic career, my plan changed to a career of coverage as a Sports Writer.
Truthfully, nothing will satisfy my desire to compete athletically and it’s something I’ll have to learn to let go, but I want to assure you of one thing, I love this job.
I love not only sports, but also journalism and being a part of the News Press and the Levelland and Hockley County community.
And while it may not be an athletic goal like I’m used to, I have goals as a Sports Writer.
My long-term goal is to make it as a Beat Writer for a professional sports program or a Sports Writer for a major sports network one day.
But I don’t want you all thinking that I think I’m above this job, I’m extremely glad to be here and I plan on being here a while.
I want to approach every day with humility and soak up as much experience and knowledge as I can, and I can assure you I’m going to work as hard as possible.
I want to provide the best coverage for you all that I can, and I’m dedicated to building connections and relationships in this community.
And while I may not be part of an athletic team, I’m still a proud member of a team here at the News Press and I’m surrounded by fantastic “teammates.”
I’m blessed to have this opportunity and I’m so glad to be a part of the West Texas community.
While it’s been a strange shift going from being an athlete to now working full-time as a Sports Writer, one thing hasn’t changed – I’m still showing up every day and giving it my all.
Forewarning, I will mess up, but I promise it will never be due to a lack of effort.
Just like in athletics, I’m dedicated to working to improve and sharpen my craft over time.
Life may be different now, but it’s certainly still good because I get to follow my passion for sports and work hard towards a new goal.