Monthly Archives: October 2018

College Culture Paper

“If you had to pick one thing to describe Morningside College’s culture what we it be?” I asked multiple people this question, and got a similar answer out of the people I asked.

Tony Patton was the one of the first ones to fire a response to this question with such excitement. He exclaimed “Football, of course.” This answer seemed to be similar among a lot of students I asked. “Sports” was even a reoccurring answer throughout campus.

Football, it is an exciting sport that has lots of big hits and big plays which leads to some exciting games and moments through the year. But diving into the question even more, what draws most students into the football games. And the answer isn’t the game as much as you they lead on with their responses.

It’s the culture outside of the game. Before, after, and even during. The social aspect of hanging outside in the cold or heat to grill food and drink alcoholic beverages is an attraction within itself, and you get to follow that up with a football game of screaming and for most college students, more alcoholic beverages. Which could almost be a culture of college within itself as well, but that is a discussion for another time.

So what is the attraction to waking up early to be inebriated from alcohol. The music and people always help. Tailgating and getting ready for a football game is something special most describe. Planning out everything the night before, between a grill, the food, the drinks, the music, and the game is something that is thought out very deeply. Nothing can be forgotten.

So I decided to see what the big deal was about tailgating. As a sports broadcaster, I look forward to the actual game, this week I was setting my alarm early to early enough to experience tailgating first hand at the Morningside for the football game against Dordt College on Saturday, November 3rd.

While walking around the parking lot of Elwood-Olsen Stadium, I realized two things about the tailgaters, these people are die hard fans and they are extremely nice. They kept offering food after food as I made my rounds throughout.

I made my way throughout many tents and asked people questions. Most did not want their names revealed in the papers and some even refused to tell them, even though they were wearing customized Morningside jersey’s with their son’s names on the back.

Another quick realization I made while walking group to group was that they are mostly families. Most groups consisted of families and maybe families friends in some cases, but not as many students and alumni as you would expect. Looking at people that go tailgate at division one colleges, it seems to be all drunk students and alumni.

At Morningside, it is not drunk students and alumni, it is purely adults have alcoholic beverages at a respectable pace to not get drunk, but to have fun with the people they are with. Most offered me beers as well, so you could tell none of their jobs were police officers, because they never asked for my I.D.

“We go everywhere,” said one mother. “If it’s an away game and we don’t think we can make it in time to get there over three hours in advance, we will go down the night before and book some hotels with other parents.” She later described that this sometimes turns into a two-day event due to that.

“Football season is flies by in a blink of an eye,” said one fairly intoxicated father. “We don’t miss any games because before you know it, their four years are done. This is our second kid to go through the program so the second time around we learned to live it up a little more.” The father of two also made a joke about his son red-shirting one season so they get another year to come.

Making my way towards the stadium near game time I decided to look back at the tents and groups. Most had made their way in and some have decided to pull out lawn chairs and watch from a distance in the parking lot. So I went and asked them why they drive here, just to sit in the parking lot.

“I like football and I like beer. If I sit out here I can do two of my favorite things,” said a tipsy father. In theory that makes sense, and technically it doesn’t matter where you sit, you’ll see the same game.

So I made my way into the stadium to watch the game finally after the long, but mostly fun day of tailgating. So no matter where you go to college, football is a big deal, but the tailgating scene is a little different throughout the ranks of colleges and is unique in it’s own way.

One Photo to Describe Morningside College

This picture to me represents Morningside College because of the Beaty of the photo and what is it in. It shows the two modern looking building in Buhler Rohlfs and the library. It also shows the outdoor theater which represents the liberal arts side of the college. 

Honorable mention is the small class sizes because I think that is a huge benefit of attending Morningside College.

Book Review #1

“Can I Keep My Jersey” is a book written in first person about the life of Paul Shirley through the voice both serious and sarcastic by Paul Shirley himself. This book is perfect for the everyday sports fan or somebody interested in sports, or about the life of somebody on the edge of greatness. Shirley was a former walk-on at Iowa State turned in a three year starter shortly after his time began in Ames. Shirley being a white, six foot ten inch basketball player never thought he was good enough to play in the NBA. But something one of his high school teacher said to him, stuck with him for a very long time and motivated him to get into the NBA someday. Yes that is a spoiler for the book, but Shirley spoils that himself early on in the book as well as with the cover picture of the book. Though, he never makes it with his original team out of college, the former world champion Los Angeles Lakers. Players on that team included Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. In this hilarious first person book, Shirley describe the ups and downs of not quite being good enough to make an NBA team permanently. He is often star struck as well as who some of his teammates become for the short times that he is in training camps in the preseason with teams. Even if you don’t like sports, this book is a great read just because of Paul himself. You can tell he is not an author, but the way he writes this book about himself is unique because he is negative about himself and never sees himself making it into the NBA, or just the sarcasm he has throughout the book, between teammates and even girls. Shirley often talks about the struggles on what he thought to do and some of the struggles even of playing overseas. Whether it be the food, the language barrier, or him just straight up getting cut out of a money he deserved and signed a contract for. He talks about the dilemma of being better then the players that get signed by these big NBA franchises in front of him because he was undrafted and the teams used draft stock on the worse players, so they show the loyalty to that player. He talks about the dilemmas in choosing a place to play, whether that be near his hometown in Kansas for a lot less money, or whether that be in a more meaningful league overseas again where he will make more money. The life of Paul Shirley is definitely an interesting one between the ups and the downs and him describing it himself, adds a whole new element to this great book. Overall I would definitely recommend it to all sports fans and anybody interested or thinking about going to play a sport professionally after high school or college. Overall I give this book 4.5 stars out of five. I think this is one of the my favorite books I have ever read, and definitely my favorite I have read since high school. While Google-ing Shirley I have looked into his other book and into his blogs as well for future reading. Definitely worth it, you won’t be able to put the book down once you start it. Very good and funny from start to finish.

Article Number 2 – Redo

Saturday September 29th marked a first for me. I traveled to Hastings, Nebraska with Steve Bates and Daniel Ver Steeg to broadcast a football game between he Morningside Mustangs and the Hastings Broncos. I’ve done ton of games before, but none like this.

 

Earlier in the week I had been asked by my boss, Curtis Anderson, if I wanted to go to the game and be the sideline reporter for the game. I had originally declined and thought to myself, that it won’t hurt me to try something new. So I called Curtis and said I would do it after my original hesitance.

 

I’ve only ever done play-by-play and color commentary for broadcast. Today I was trying something new. I was playing the role of the sideline reporter. It is something I’ve often wanted to try, but didn’t think I would be any good at it.

 

As a sideline reporter you must be nosey and try to figure things out about the game plan and about injuries and other various task. You must also be able to interview the head coaches very well before and after the game. Also something, I’ve never been good at.

 

The whole way down, I prepped in my head about what I was going to say in the pregame interview and it definitely didn’t help. My pregame interview with Mustang’s head football coach Steve Ryan didn’t go well.

 

“Well that was quick,” is what Bates said to me when I got back. It was a very short and brief interview. And I knew that would affect the pregame, since it was so short they wouldn’t be able to get a break before the game starts. Something I had worried about on the drive down.

 

This stuck with me throughout the beginning of the game and made me panic with a lot of what I did throughout the game. I tried to come back in the second half, by finally doing something positive for the broadcast and finding out about the injury status of Mustang star defensive lineman, Dominick Barrett for them.

 

Coming out of the half I was able to give a great recap about the injury status of Barrett. It gave me confidence that made me soar throughout the second half, which even lead to the guys sending it down to me more often in the blowout game that was moving very slowly.

 

This momentum carried me into the post game interview with coach Ryan. The interview went so well for myself, that I texted the board operator back at the studio and asked him to re-record it and save it, so I could use it for future job interviews. I left the stadium with extreme confidence about doing sideline reporter and just for future endeavors as well.

 

“You did great today on the radio,” said head cross country coach at Morningside Dave Nash to me, who was tuning in to hear a halftime interview with himself that was prerecorded.

 

Overall I’m glad I did this experience and I felt like it toughened me up and taught me a lot about what I could possibly be doing a lot of in my future. I love doing play-by-play and color commentary, but it was nice to expand my horizons and do something new and fun for once.

 

“Trying something new or out of ordinary can be scary,” said 7th year Morningside student Drew Schiltz and hesitantly made the decision to pursue a new degree in education after being unhappy with his old one in business.

 

Drew is a great example of stepping outside of his confront zone and doing something that was scary to him and something that very few people supported initially.

 

There are three universal truths to this story. Don’t ever be afraid to try something new. And don’t afraid to be nervous, because it means you care. And if at first you don’t succeed, don’t give up, try again.

Red Box Review – The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabins in the Woods is surprisingly a really great movie. Overall the twist and turns made this movie amazing. The acting by the five in the cabin is a big reason why I say this movie is just really great and not spectacular. It definitely is a movie that you catches you wanting to guess what is going to happen like most horror movies, but I bet there isn’t a person out there that guessed how this movie ended. This movie also featured a young Chris Hemsworth. Spoiler alerts, the rest of the way so just a heads up. You think the athlete, or Chris Hemsworth would be one to prevail, especially after his girlfriend dies and you think he will prevail, and he doesn’t. Well technically nobody prevails in the end. The movie starts with five friends heading to a cabin in the woods in the middle of no where. Seriously what could go wrong? They make it there and the movie seems to take a turn as they are set up for some type of game so they can die for pleasure of all these people in a company because they are betting on how they will die. The five characters are pretty typical scary movie characters. One is the athlete, and is dating the slut. The other is the intelligent guy, who has a crush on the intelligent girl. Then the fifth wheel in all this, is the high guy, or as I like to call him, the stoner of the group. Well it continues the way you think a scary movie would, the slut dies first from a group of zombies that for some reason know how to use weapons, including throwing a bear trap on a chain at people. Followed by what you think is the athlete dying, but he later saves the stoner and runs back to tell the other two what happened. They all get separated and things go downhill quickly. The zombies come into the cabin and they find themselves trapped in separate rooms, you think the stoner dies after getting a spear thrown through his back. The rest bail on the cabin and return to the vehicle that brought them there. They try to leave when the tunnel explodes, leaving them one way out, jumping to the other side by motorcycle and running for help. It looks like the athlete is going to make it, but doesn’t when he hits an invisible wall and falls to his death. Now left with the smart guy and smart girl, they get back in the vehicle and drive off, where all of a sudden, the smart guy get’s stabbed by a zombie and they crash into a lake, where it looks like the girl will die too. But, she escapes, and is grabbed and thrown around by a zombie until stoner saves her live. They run to the grave of the zombies, which is an elevator shaft around the company’s building. They let out hundreds of different killer monsters, they make havoc on the company and kill everybody, even with a funny killing of one of the company’s main guy, by a mermaid monster. The movie sort of ends explaining that they need to do this to keep Earth and everybody alive, by sacrificing four of the five in the group. If she kills the stoner, Earth may be saved from the ancient evil God’s. She kills the girl telling her this information by throwing her off a ledge. They decide to stay to both stay alive and ruin Earth in a comedic ending where the stoner pulls out a joint and they smoke it until their death. Their death is a giant hand coming through the ground and grabbing the cabin and Earth and pulling it’s self down in the underworld. Scene. Overall this movie is 4.5 out 5 stars and I think if you haven’t seen it and my spoilers interested you. You should go see it. Very big twist and an interesting concept as a whole. Especially since the second movie is in production and is expected to come out in 2019. Not that scary for a horror movie, just makes you interested and kind of blows your mind at the end. Very gory. I would recommend it for sure.

Article #2 First Draft

Saturday September 29th was a day to remember in the eyes of Hunter Davis. He was traveling to Hastings, Nebraska for a football game between Hastings College and the number two ranked Morningside Mustangs

 

Davis was traveling with Steve Bates and Daniel Ver Steeg, but not to watch the game. To broadcast. Bates and Ver Steeg were on play-by-play and color commentary. Davis was up to the task of sideline reporter for the first time in his life.

 

Looking at him from a distance you could tell he was nervous for sure, getting antsy before the pregame and waiting for the two in the warm and cozy booth to send it down to him. He was staring at his phone getting prepared and looking over the notes he prepared.

 

The moment came when Ver Steeg sent it down to him to speak and the confidence kicked in and nerves went away. Davis started by thanking the two in the booth and immediately started complaining about the cold and read off the weather forecast for all the listeners on Fox Sports 620 AM KMNS to hear.

 

Davis also went on to talk about the field conditions that he was walking on. He described the slipperiness of the field and continue to discuss how that could impact today’s matchup.

 

Davis sent it back to the booth after weather and then the game started. The guys would send it down to Davis after every score and timeout to check in with various things going on in the game or on the sideline.

 

The Mustangs scored sixty-six total points so Davis would be fed over the hot wireless microphone constantly throughout the brisk day on the sideline.

 

Davis received it multiple times throughout the first half and continued to give analysis. The one analysis that stuck out was one of the first injuries. Morningside lost a defensive lineman after he got rolled up on right in front of Davis.

 

Davis went on to give his insight on what he saw and described the injury and what he thought of it. This became a theme as they would continue to attempt to get insight throughout the game. Barrett was in the spotlight of a blowout game.

 

Barrett later got taped up by head trainer for the Mustangs, and tapped him from his ankle all the way up to the middle of his shin. He would be given his helmet back and as Davis reported, that usually means a player is allowed to return to play, but the halftime buzzer sounded sending everybody to the locker room.

 

Davis would do some investigation work near the locker room and find out that Barrett was done for the day, which he reported. Barrett later came out on leaning crutches, to take the weight off the ankle and shin area when he was cheering on the sideline the rest of the game.

 

The Mustangs continued to blowout Hastings by adding on to their lead throughout the start of the second half. The Mustangs starters started to exit the game, giving the backup some reps for the game.

 

Davis would start to talk to the starters that had exited the field of pay, about the game and they would tell him their honest opinion of the game.

 

They often said they felt loose and could have played better, but many were concerned about giving up the goose egg on the scoreboard. It was clear that the whole sidelines goal was to cheering the reserve players into keeping the shutout. They often would scream and try to do anything to benefit the reserve players.

 

Davis reported on this phenomenon. The starters wanted the reserves to outplay them and keep the momentum going.

 

Davis also said it was “magical” how unselfish the starters were throughout their time on the sideline.

 

 

**Still need a closing and some more quotes**