13 Day Work Marathon - Day 4

(Author's Note: This is the 4th in a 2-week long series of what I am doing during my 13 straight days of work)

After a fun Friday night and finishing the blog later than usual, waking up this morning was tougher than usual. Mainly because I had to get up to buy Cleveland Browns tickets. If you know me, then you know they weren't for me in any way. Instead, they were for a friend. So I got up and went on Ticketmaster and got some tickets. Then went back to sleep.

An hour later, I woke up, still mad and tired. I was thinking about it all morning about what time to head to work. Today was officially the first day without y sports director by my side. With his vacation pretty much starting today, it's my show. Scary, I know. So after debating about when to go in, I settle on 1pm, 90 minutes earlier than my scheduled time in. That's because of two things. First, I don't wanna be rushed all day since I  am truly going solo. An second, today starts a huge event in the area and I wanted to get a feel for it.

What is this event you say? Well, it's the Nike Peach Jam Invitational. It's one of 3 tournaments Nike sponsors for high school basketball players. With college basketball recruiting just underway, it's one of the many tournaments that allow players to showcase themselves and NCAA coaches to check them out. The coaches are only window-shopping though. They can't talk to the players so for now, it's just note-taking time.

So I pull up around 1:30pm and before I can even walk in the door, I see Tubby Smith, head coach of Minnesota. Immediately, I know this is gonna be a fun day. I have no clue what story angle to take so I just walk in first to a gym. Lo and behold, I am starstruck again. Sitting on the other side of the court, I see Bruce Pearl (Tennessee). Thankfully, he's wearing a shirt. The game I walk in on is a 2 point game in the last 15 seconds so it's absolutely packed. Before I even get a chance to turn the camera on, I watch the end of the game and see a man I have to say Hi too. No, not Coach K or Roy Williams or Thad Matta. Nope, instead it is John Groce, new head coach of OU. I go up to the guy, introduce myself and say congrats. As any good coach (and recruiter), he says he hopes to make me proud as a coach and assures me he'll do his best. Right then, I couldn't have been a happier guy.

The rest of the first time I'm there, I start to just see a Who's Who of coaches. Paul Hewitt (GT), John Beilein (Michigan), Mike Montgomery (California), Steve Wojo (Duke), Roy Williams (UNC), John Calipari (Memphis), Tom Izzo (MSU), Jeff Capel (Oklahoma), Thad Matta (OSU), Mark Gottfried (Alabama), Andy Kennedy (Ole Miss), Mike Anderson (Mizzou), Billy Donovan (Florida), Seth Greenberg (VT) and Bob Huggins (WV). Quite a list, I know. I talk to none of them for fear of stuttering the entire time but I do get some video for my show. Before I go, I decide my story will be on the team that is comprised of a lot of local players. They're not good and were added only after a team backed out at the last second but for these kids, the chance to play in this tourney is amazing. They've been watching it their entire lives and to actually play in it is just great.

The team loses by 45 points but the interviews and attitudes of the players are great. I go back to the station and decide not to do an actual package until the 11pm so for the 6pm, I just get a couple good soundbites. The 6pm goes fine and then it's dinner time. This time, I actually brought dinner. My old Tuna Helper and veggies from 5 days ago. It tastes great but it doesn't fill me up. I'll have to work on that. After an hour of relaxation and chatting with the other weekend warriors, I start and finish my package in about 75 minutes. In the meantime though, I neglect to remember the rest of my cast needs to get done. It's around 9:30pm and I have nothing else done. So I rush and get what I can done, knowing that the NASCAR race won't end until after 11pm and that the Braves don't even start until 10:15pm. Of course, this just puts me in more of a time crunch than I would like. It all gets done (barely) but at the end of the cast, I get summoned by the director. Apparently, she didn't get any of my scripts. After a small tongue-lashing, I vow to work quicker. After wiping my makeup off, I put off archiving and posting to the web till Sunday cause I am beat.

WHAT I LEARNED TODAY: As usual, I learned a lot. First off, I gotta get a better alarm cause my cell phone alarm just isn't cutting it. It's too easy to cut off. My old one needed two different buttons to turn it off. By time I found them, I was frustrated enough to be awake. Secondly, I learned a lot about myself today. I found out that I can find a story quickly and turn into a package in good enough time. It just gave me confidence as I begin this stretch of anchoring all the time. I also learned that I picked the right profession because as the stress level went up in me, I felt like my drive grew as well. I mean, when I could have just stopped caring around 10:45pm and just put on two Greg Maddux striekouts for Braves highlights and a crash with 43 laps to go in the NASCAR race, I push the limit so my viewers see real action. That meant I use a third inning score from the Braves around 11:02 and the final 2 laps of the race around 11:15. That's insane...and cutting it very close. But again, I want my viewers to enjoy my casts and who enjoys seeing things that are 30 minutes old. Instead, how about something that happened just 5 minutes ago? They obviously missed it, since they were watching my station the entire time. In the future, it may not be that way but for now, I love it. I also learned a few notable things. One is that Billy Donovan seems like a real chill guy while Roy Williams loves being noticed. Tom Izzo and Bruce Pearl are prolly really funny and Bob Huggins hates random people who talk to him. Thad Matta chews gum all the time and John Groce is gonna not only be good for OU Basketball but for the OU student media as well. I learned Wojo is really short and that Saul Smith (Tubby's son and former player) is even uglier in person. And finally, the last thing I learned is that this stretch is gonna wear me out more than I originally thought. Those days off can't come fast enough.

4 down, 9 to go