Looking back on four years of Bulldog coverage

Moran is a senior news/Internet and math double major and can be contacted at matthew.moran@drake.edu.

Well, Drake University, it’s time for me to ride off into the sunset after four years of covering Bulldog sports for The Times-Delphic.

I just wanted to use this forum to say how much I enjoyed covering nearly every Drake sport during my time here, and I want to thank all of you who have read my work. I’ve come a long way since being that wide-eyed freshman covering a sold-out Knapp Center in Drake’s first game after its 2008 NCAA tournament appearance, which happened to be against a young Butler team that was rebuilding its identity the same way our Bulldogs were.

That Butler core went on to make two straight national championship games, and their journey began right here in Des Moines. It’s cool to look back on that experience and realize that that night was the first college basketball game for future NBA players Gordon Hayward and Shelvin Mack.

Some of my best times in college came from covering the Drake men’s basketball team at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship in St. Louis. I made the trip every year (I just wish more of you would, too, because we are BY FAR the least represented school each tourney), and I will never forget when Josh Young nailed a fade-away, game-winning shot to beat Southern Illinois in the first round in 2010.

I came to Drake as an actuarial science major, and I saw an ad in The Times-Delphic about needing sports writers. What the hell, I thought, I’ll give a shot. It will be a fun way to make some extra money.

I enjoyed covering sports so much that I switched my major right before my first year even ended. Drake offers plenty of opportunities, especially for all you young journalism students out there.

I’m shocked to see The Times-Delphic struggle to find writers and to see Drake Broadcasting System struggle to find announcers when we have such an acclaimed journalism program. What the hell are all of you doing out there? You will not land a good job in journalism by taking classes and getting A’s. Sorry, it just won’t happen.

When we have over 40 broadcast majors, but DBS still struggles to find announcers for football and basketball games (that happened in 2010-11), it’s just sad. When the TD can’t find writers, which we struggled mightily to do this year, it’s just as worse.

Ask yourself this because you better believe future employers will: What have you done? What have you accomplished? How do you prove your skills?

All you news/Internet, public relations and magazine majors out there, if you are doing nothing, there is NO REASON why you shouldn’t be writing for the TD. It shows future employers that you are actually capable of talking to someone and of effectively communicating their story through writing. If you don’t think that’s important in any type of journalism, then you better wake up. Plus, you get paid –— you have no idea how lucky our writers are because other schools laugh at Drake when we tell them that we pay our writers but still struggle to find some.

Anyway, my work is done here. It’s time to pass the torch to someone else. All I can hope is that the next sports junky loves Bulldog athletics and finding sports stories as much as I do.

To all of my fellow graduates, good luck in your future endeavors.