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.