Four years of living a lie.
[I hope you can forgive that, in the style guide it says to open with something dramatic so you'll keep reading.]
So where were we?
I doubt you are aware of this--I wasn't because no one warned me--but the first time you walk into a press box, they say, "This is a working press box, there will be no cheering."
So you sit there, dispassionate, acting like you don't care.
People always ask how you can sit in Cameron not reacting. Basketball is easy. Don't believe me: Sit down and watch a game trying to write everything that happens. There isn't time to react.
What's hard is the FSU football game, where it looks for a second like Duke could win. Or when the soccer team beat Virginia to win the ACC, or just about any time the baseball team won.
But we can't cheer, so we don't. You write stories trying to be objective. When what you saw isn't good, people accuse you of disliking the team or trying to advance your career by criticizing. I'm not complaining--it's a small price to pay for the benefits of writing sports--I just thought I should mention it.
Objectivity is relevant because the "senior column" is the one time we get to ignore ye olde sportswriting rules. This may seem a little self-aggrandizing, which it is, but I'm guessing most seniors would take the opportunity.
In the past, I have seen people use this opportunity to bash the men's basketball team. This happens for a specific reason. The men's team has the courtesy to treat us like professionals, when everyone else we cover treats us like friends. This isn't because Jason Williams isn't friendly, it's because he talks to 300 reporters a week.
That said, there are a few people I would like to thank for treating me like a friend. I have written my share of negative football stories, mainly because the truth wasn't very pretty. What I never got to say was how many players stayed after practice so I could do interviews while they were too tired to stand. They may lose, but they work damn hard to represent this university well.
I'd also like to think Bill Hillier, who in his time here has answered the question, "What are your thoughts on the weekend?" more times than I could count. But he always asked how my classes were going. You get to appreciate things like that.
The men's soccer team--for about two years I think I covered every big win and bad loss. There are some of the nicest people at this school. We didn't always give them a fair shake. Editors like the word choke even when it doesn't apply.
I would also like to thank the portion of the student body that shows up at all the sports nobody cares about and screams their lungs out.
I arrived at Duke and was informed that we had the best fans in the world. Since I have been here, I have noticed that being a great fan, in most people's minds, means painting yourself blue and going to basketball games to get on television. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's not a great fan.
A great fan is someone sitting at a football game in the fourth quarter when we're down 30, or yelling for the women's lacrosse team to turn it around with a few minutes to play, or who walks up to ask the person covering field hockey to explain the ruling on the field.
Of course, this is sportswriter bias. I think you get an attachment to the sports people don't care about, because the people who play them seem like they could live down the hall from you.
But no matter what the sport, there is an emotional connection. I've interviewed people so happy they couldn't talk and so sad they had to hold back tears to answer questions. Trust me, sportswriters care, because we never get to forget that those are kids our age out on that field.
The objectivity I spoke of doesn't apply only to reporting on sports. Our personal issues cannot be perceived as a factor in our writing. So unlike everyone else, when The Chronicle or the administration annoys me, I'm not allowed to write a letter to the editor.
That gets to be somewhat frustrating when you are the president of a fraternity and writing a story 15 feet from an editorial board suggesting that fraternities are the reason for every problem this campus has. So what if few of them are in greek organizations? They are editors, you are not. Sorry, its just a bone to pick.
You can't slip general personal issues in either. Think about how useful that could be. A lot of people read this paper, half of them are female. My picture is on the top of this column [not that great of a picture]. It's been more than a little tempting to slip in that, in addition to baseball being Friday at 5 p.m., I would be available Friday after 8 p.m. and my number is.... Sorry, my editor pointed out that senior column be damned, The Chronicle won't help with my love life.
Ah well, still worth the effort.
You also can't use the column to apologize for things, like annoying the hell out of everyone I had Econ 52 [or for that matter most of my other classes] with my freshmen year, or everyone I offend on a given weekend.
But The Chronicle is nice enough to give this one shot during your senior year to get everything you wanted to say out--the academy award acceptance speech for the staff as it were.
For the past four years, it has been an honor and a privilege, though not always a pleasure, to attend this university. I want to thank everyone I have had opportunity to get to know, even the ones who would like to kill me.
This is the 115th and final sports story of my Chronicle career, so I will end by thanking Rolly Miller, who you don't know, but who is the best thing about this paper.
Kevin Lloyd is a Trinity senior and staff writer for The Chronicle.
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