By Matt Cohen
I don’t write a lot about myself on this site, but one semester into college, I figured I’d change it up a bit
Back in March I sat at my desk, staring at my computer screen. I went through every last detail, trying to make the best decision about where I would attend school in the fall.
I ended up choosing to try something new, leave the friendly confines of Maryland, and head out to the midwest. To IU.
Looking back, it was really a no brainer.
After just one semester at IU, I have traveled from sea to shining sea. I have worked for both the student television network and the student newspaper.
Oh, and I’ve helped start a podcast with my two closest friends I’ve met this semester.
I’ve taken on the new adventure of going on camera, and reporting not for print, but for a weekly TV show. For someone who has had speech disfluency for their whole life, this was an even more difficult challenge than it would appear on the surface.
I applied for a beat at the Indiana Daily Student almost as soon as I knew I was coming to IU. I ended up with the women’s swim and dive beat, and already, I’ve gotten to interview Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Lilly King. Not just once, but four times. I’ve found a an enjoyment and a much deeper understanding for a sport I had basically only watched once every four years previously.
I took on the volleyball beat with IUSTV a little more than a week after I got to campus. I had never worked for a broadcast show, I had no idea what was in store.
So I did my first stand-up in a t-shirt and shorts. Yeah, I’m not proud of that one.
As I learned about swimming, I learned about volleyball. I had covered one swim meet and one dive meet in high school. That was it. I had never covered volleyball, ever.
Just as the volleyball team was improving, I saw my camera skills improve as well. By the end of the semester, while far from being great on camera, I felt much more comfortable, and was having a whole lot more fun doing it than months before.
Though it was a team that wasn’t even my beat that made this semester.
I asked to shadow the two IDS men’s soccer reporters for the game against Northwestern. I sat alongside in the press box and the press room. I didn’t have any story to report that night, simply just to learn. Hey, that’s what college is about right?
Though not long after, I began getting requests from IUSTV to fill-in, and help cover men’s soccer games for them. I took the trip to down to Kentucky with other members of the IU sports media corps, and helped cover in some capacity the remaining home games, and I got to put together highlight packages for IDS at the Big Ten tournament in Westfield, Indiana.
I was just happy to help. Because of how amazing this team was, I was just enjoying getting the chance to be at these games, even if it wasn’t my real job.
Though, at least to some extent, it kind of became my real job. I was given the opportunity to work for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, a daily newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They asked me to cover the NCAA quarterfinals for them, as two seed IU faced seven seed Notre Dame in Bloomington, a trip to the College Cup on the line. IU won on a second half goal, punching their ticket to go to California.
As I sat in the press room following that game, little did I know I was going too.
I was never supposed to be going to California to cover the College Cup, but when the opportunity presented itself, I wasn’t turning it down. I packed my shorts, and hopped of the plane at LAX.
IU ultimately ended up losing in the semifinals game to the eventual national champion Maryland Terrapins. Though no matter the result, I knew being there was going to be an amazing experience, and I wasn’t let down. I covered B-CC winning the Maryland boys soccer state championship just about a year before. I would have called you crazy if you said one year later I would be on the other end of the country, at the biggest event of the college soccer season.
Though when I didn’t have a press pass flapping against my chest, I wanted to go to a different part of the country, to take on a new challenge, and it was everything I ever wanted. I got to take advantage of everything else IU had to offer. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to live in the Media School Living and Learning Community. I don’t regret that for second, it’s where I’ve met the vast majority of my friends.
I’ve gotten to be a part of the raucous atmosphere I’ve seen on TV at Assembly Hall all my life. When we hosted Marquette back in November, I had an upgraded ticket behind the basket, and I lost my voice in the first ten minutes of the game alongside Cookie Monster (I’m sorry, I meant Griffin Gonzalez).
I guess school itself hasn’t been half bad as well. I survived one semester. Seven more to go.
I definitely made the right choice.
MDC Sports 