On Election Day 2004, my 14 year life in the great state of Connecticut came to an end when I packed up and moved all the way down to Texas. At that moment in my life, I had two ideas of what I wanted to do when I grew up: Architecture or Golf. My top, and only, college choice was the Ohio State University. I wanted to be a Buckeye, no questions asked, and in my eyes the Ohio State University was the ONLY choice for me.

     Fast forward to the glorious year of 2009. I will be attending school for Broadcast Journalism next year at Pennsylvania State University. It still amazes how much my aspirations have changed since moving to this state. When I arrived the first thing that stood out to me was the intense following for high school sports.  The school I would have gone to in Connecticut, Farmington High School, had a football field that held around 1,000 people tops in the stands. So needless to say, when I first saw the Timberwolves take the field against the Harker Heights Knights at the 13,000 seat Bible Stadium, I was shocked. From that point on, high school sports became a very large part of my life. I attended every game I could, and bragged to all my friends back up north how much better high school sports were in Texas. People who have never left Texas don’t quite understand how strange it is to other parts of the country to have high school sports covered so greatly and followed by such large masses.

     The big moment of my life came in 2007 when I signed up, and was accepted to be on the Wolfcast staff. Ever since hearing about the class in 2006, I had wanted to report on the various high school sporting events and shape CPHS sports into ways no one could have ever imagined. The day I put my first video on The Wolfcast (a preview video for the 2007 football season), my life started to gradually change. Brad Foster took me in and allowed me to grow within the program and learn how to be the best I could be in the field of sports journalism. In my eyes, he did a pretty good job. By the end of my “rookie” year in broadcast, I felt comfortable and confident with my presence on The Wolfcast.

     Slowly but surely, the amount of “epic” videos and sports casts I made started to pile up, and by the time I reached the beginning of this year I felt like I had started to build my own legacy. This year was an absolute thrill for me, from my intense filming projects to speaking at the Leander pep rally; many of the goals I had when I entered the broadcast class had been achieved. I reached a new level on the sports report too; I made brand new slick graphics to give the show a consistent feel and sharp look. My speaking at the news desk also grew to a new level. I took up a more lively and likeable demeanor, and despite a few stutters and mispronunciations of Carder LaBrake and Demarcus Rosenthal’s names, my script reading became very fluent. As the year comes to a very bittersweet end, I leave the program satisfied with the work I have done and with no regrets.

    My goal was to change the journalism sports programs and, thanks to the breathtaking happenings of high school sports, I was able to do that. I feel this way because of my various projects, football season had a much larger meaning, the SROZone became a factor, playing basketball at CPHS was not something opponents looked forward too and the Evil Empire rocked the state of Texas during the 2008 baseball season and became the most notorious yet famous student section in the state and put the careers of the athletes at our school into a whole new thrilling perspective. 

     Even if I am leaving for Happy Valley, Pennsylvania next year, Cedar Park sports will always have a lasting effect on my life. For the rest of my life, the success I have in journalism can be directly linked to “the Pride of Cedar Park High.” The sporting events that happened at this school, from the Jamie Knight Catch, to the 2008 baseball team’s run in the playoffs, to the wild 2007-2008 basketball and to the over the top spirit throughout football season, will always have a place close to my heart. I will be a Timberwolf for the rest of my life.