People always say that “College is the best time of your life,” and in most instances I would say that is a bit cliché. When it comes to The Rocket however, I couldn’t agree more.
Out of all my extracurricular activities while here at SRU (which only amount to maybe three or four), I always enjoyed contributing for The Rocket and its sports section.
Oh, and eventually working here as the Assistant Sports Editor was pretty neat too.
Personally, I had never really saw myself as a writer until I received an email from the Communication department prior to the Fall semester of 2012 looking for contributors. I thought, “I might as well try my hand at sports journalism, I do love sports!”
Yet, in my mind, I imagined I would get all the glory and cover football or baseball or another super cool sport that everyone cares about all the time. That isn’t reality though. You have to work your way up. The first sport I covered as a contributor was women’s cross-country.
“But who the hell cares about women’s cross-country?”
Unbelievably rude, I know, but after re-thinking my situation I knew I needed to work my way up to (maybe) cover the big stuff. And I was happy covering anything; I just love seeing my name attached to something. I was like a dog marking my territory; I just wanted people to know that something was ‘mine’.
That dream of covering football or baseball never did come to fruition; as a matter of fact I only covered women’s sports during all my time at The Rocket. And that was great for me. During my time with The Rocket I covered women’s basketball (x2), softball, cross-country, lacrosse and soccer. I’m just a regular ladies’ man!
Thinking back on it, I would not have changed any sport I covered. Each team posed a different challenge for me. Softball taught me to always interview someone besides the head coach, basketball taught me to find a silver-lining in losing all the time and Soccer taught me that……… our soccer team was really good and Noreen Herlihy is a saint.
Helping design the layout for the paper as the Assistant Sports Editor was a really great experience also. I enjoy working with InDesign, so getting to add my personal flavor to the section was just as exciting as writing.
Out of every experience at The Rocket, there is one over-arching fact that everyone must remember: “Catie Clark is ‘bae’”.
Look around you everyone, reach out and get involved. You never know where taking that first step or writing that first article will take you. I never thought I would be in a position to write this send-off, yet here I am.
Everyone here at The Rocket, past or present, thank you for what you have done. It has been my pleasure being a part of this newsroom and non-traditional family. I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.
