Saluki Sports
Part of the Daily Egyptian
The DE Sports Desk needs you!
Michael Brenner
napoleonbiv@yahoo.comAs you read this, I am probably on Interstate 55, crunched up in my Saturn, listening to music and trying to do my philosophy homework.
Myself and the basketball team's favorite photographer are headed to Arkansas, the land of the Razorbacks, Bill Clinton and where I hope to find people resembling the Hatfields and McCoys.
We are headed to SIU's game at Arkansas-Little Rock, and if you see no pictures tomorrow, we never made it.
This will be another 800 miles or so on my car, which in my tenure at the Daily Egyptian has gone from 75,000 to nearly 104,000 miles. Of course, being at a low-budget college paper, I am not reimbursed for those miles.
I don't say this to elicit sympathy or get back pay from the Daily Egyptian, but before I leave, I would like to give you some idea of what it takes to bring you decent sports coverage.
The sports desk is also looking for an irrationally passionate person to take my place, so if you want to do what I do, pay attention.
Addiction is defined as a state of physiological or psychological dependence on a drug, liable to have a damaging effect - for us, this is addiction, and it is somewhat damaging.
To bring you the Salukis, I, along with a few others, have sacrificed my grade point average in hopes of producing the best sports section in Southern Illinois. Before I worked here, my GPA was 3.6. It is now 2.7, and I'm surprised it's that high.
This is fine because, in our profession, grades are irrelevant and experience is everything.
But even Daily Egyptian sportswriters dream of graduating someday, and I'm endangering my diploma as we speak. I am way behind on my ILP courses, I need to graduate and being in Arkansas is not helping me catch up.
I ditched German class Monday, yet another class I need to graduate, to go to Stetson Hairston's plea bargain hearing.
Sportswriting is killing me, but I keep coming back for more.
I care about how good this paper is, and as you may or may not have noticed, this sports section is 20 times what it was five years ago. It was because of the sweat and hustle of sports editors like Jay Schwab, myself, Zack Creglow and our writers.
Next semester, when I am hopefully gone, there will an opening on the sports desk. We're looking for someone who is young, ideally, because the holdovers will all be seniors.
The Daily Egyptian is looking for a franchise player, someone to be the hustler of the future and make the sports section I run now look pathetic by the time they graduate.
This person must be willing to do all the crazy things myself and other sports writers have done in my tenure here, such as:
* Knocking on Bruce Weber's door at 11:30 p.m. and asking him about the Illinois job, even with his dog barking and his wife cursing your name in the background.
* Missing class to cover assignments because you don't trust anyone else to do it. To you, a legitimate reason for failing a class will be "it was basketball season."
* Spending half your natural life in the newsroom.
* Driving nine hours to cover a football game you know will be a blowout.
* Spending all night and all morning in sub-zero temperatures to report on a story, then come back to the newsroom without any sleep and write the story for the next day.
* Hanging outside the SIU Arena for any hint of movement from Paul Kowalczyk or Matt Painter and taking notes on a paper plate.
* Caring about any SIU sport, no matter how "small."
* Working 80 hours a week, but being paid for less than 30.
If you can do all that and can write at least five stories a week, drop me a line. Our job is easier on the muscles, but being a Daily Egyptian sportswriter is just as demanding a job as those of the student-athletes you cover.
If you can't do that, just be a reader.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a reader - we appreciate you guys because you keep us employed.
Just for you, we'll continue to ruin our cars, destroy our GPAs and give up anything resembling a normal life.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go ask a one-toothed man with straw in his mouth for directions.
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