One Year Later

It seems like every year I get older time seems to go by faster and faster. M’s Opening Day was Monday at Safeco Field. It’s funny to think that at Opening Day last year, I was standing out in the center field with some friends, a beer in hand, cheering on the Mariners and getting incredibly childish-giddy when the announcer introduced Ken Griffey Jr as a returning Mariner.

The next day, I assumed my roll as a Fox Sports Net intern. When I interviewed with FSN, I remember telling them that I was “unsure” which part of the industry I wanted to be a part of – sales – or production. After being an “electronic news gathering” intern for a couple days, I knew I wanted to be on the production side of television.

I spent the first two months of my internship following around a camera man and helping with small tasks, like holding a reflector screen, and logging game tapes. Luckily, I got to stick around to become the Rally Fry Girl when the other intern completed the term for school.

As I watch the Mariners games from out here in Montana I get a weird sense of excitement coupled with a longing to be back there. I can’t believe it was only a year ago that I was first starting to learn about this business and I some how finagled my way to a job. But, as I watch, I also long for the day when I am able to hone my skills and develop as a television reporter so I can get back to Safeco Field.

Robby, the stage director who sits in the booth with Dave Niehaus, Dave Sims, and Mike Blowers (amongst all the other fabulous production guys), told me at the beginning of my internship, “This will be the best summer of your life.” He wasn’t wrong. It was the best summer of my life. I was learning to do what I dreamed about as a young kid. It wasn’t glamorous – I spent about 8 hours a day at an unpaid internship, carrying around camera gear, running papers, delivering messages…getting hot dogs and coffee, and mountain dew for the production truck – followed by getting yelled at by engineers for it…. But, as I said before, it was the best summer of my life. I’m hoping, though, that if I work hard enough, I can have many more “best summers” of my life. It might take a few years to get there, but being a true believe if you work hard enough you can achieve anything, it will happen.

So a year later, it is no longer my job to deliver fries in front of thousands on live television. My job still entails toting around my own gear, and for that matter, being my own photog, editor, etc. (I had it made as an intern who had patient photogs and a great editor)… But one year later, it feels great to say the steps have been taken to making it back to the big city, back to the opportunity, to have the best summer ever.

One Shining Moment was One Shining Disaster

That was easily the most disappointing One Shining Moment I have ever seen. Isn’t it about the ball players? The coaches? The fans? The people that are there day in and day out for the love of the game…the guys that wake up for weights at 6 in the morning and don’t go to bed until they’ve finished watching game film at night? The coaches that live and die game plans? The fans that camp out at night just to ensure they get their usual seat in the front row of the student section?

Well, not according to CBS. It is about….Jennifer Hudson! Nothing against her singing, but really, with the time they showed her. They could have been giving credit to way more teams in the field of 64 than they did. It’s those guys who deserved some face time, some recognition for their years of hard work that stretch far beyond the time they’ve been playing in college. They could have showed a few more screaming fans, who could – and most definitely would, grow up one day to share with their kids that they were on One Shining Moment back in their college days.

Since when has sports become about promoting a singer? Some traditions should just NOT be changed. This is one of them. I’m hoping that message gets out loud and clear. More Luther Vandross, more basketball. Less change. It isn’t about the singer. It’s about the players. Someone should have sat in that meeting between CBS and Jennifer and reminded both parties, “It isn’t about you.”

So for the first time ever, I am not going to say how much I love One Shining Moment. Because this year, I think it was ruined. It wasn’t about the game. It was about the artist singing. I did not get chills. I just got more angry as I realized the song was coming to an end and only a handful of teams had been shown. Not to even mention, the Huskies, were only on, for maybe .2 seconds. Did anyone see the Griz? I know they lost in the first round, but in previous years, I’m pretty confident that all 64 teams in the field got at least a clip in the roll out. Hopefully the producer of that monstrosity gets the point and next year, we hear Luther Vandross and see basketball.

After Delivering Fries…I report on a high profile murder case? Really?!

My main job out here in Montana, is to cover sports. However, once in a while, I have to cover the news. This past week, it has sure been an overwhelming experience.

Last weekend, 5 teenagers were killed in a single car wreck at 1 am in Helena. Four 18 year olds and one 15 year old. I spent the week getting updates from the Sheriff about the investigation into the wreck, and then, had to cover the day of their funerals. It was quite an eye opener to see first hand the results of drinking and driving. An article came out in the local newspaper saying that area teens are not interested in a youth center or anything of that nature in town, yet they all complain of nothing to do, which is why they spend their time drinking. The reality of it is, high school kids drink pretty much anywhere in the United States. But for some reason, kids out here see drinking and driving as nearly their only choice. As a reporter, it’s my job to listen and ask questions, not impose my opinion on them. But really, what I wanted to do to each of the teens who told me this, was to shake them and tell them there is always another choice! Sleep wherever you’ve been drinking, have one friend be the DD – okay – no one likes to be the DD – but it sure beats the alternative. Lastly, I asked the kids if seeing that this did happen to their friends would change their behavior, sadly, the answer – was no.

After this story all week, on Friday, I spent the longest 8 hours inside a courtroom covering one of the worst teen murder cases in Montana state history. Last June, a 17 year old boy lured 3 other teenage boys to the top of a remote hill. He got them to got there by pretending to be the mediator of a fight between the three boys and another boy – the one they were supposedly going to fight. When they reached the desolate area, Sebastian (the mediator) said to them, “I don’t fight fair.” He told the three boys that the other boy was not coming to the fight, and then, proceeded to shoot them. He successfully killed one of the boys, the other two got shot, started to run, and continued to get gun down. Once they were down, they were pistole whipped until pretending to be dead – when Sebastian, the gunman, finally fled.

He plead guilty to deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide.

When I went to the sentencing, I never thought it would take eight hours. The weird part about it was, after 8 hours, I could’ve listened to 20 more. It was one of the most gripping experiences I’ve ever been a part of – especially as a reporter. You’re supposed to stay neutral, see both sides. But this – this was the hardest thing to do. When a mother took the stand and told the story of how she heart about her son’s death, you couldn’t help but to get teary eyed. Then, when the high school librarian took the stand to speak on behalf of Sebastian, you again couldn’t help but get teary eyed. For a teacher to get up and still put herself on the line for a student who always came into the library by himself…checked out challenging books, always was thoughtful – clearly – this boy had two lives. Obviously, though, he murdered and attempted to murder these boys and deserves to get locked up for a long period of time. But for some reason, you couldn’t help but feel pain for him – especially knowing how terribly wrong some things in his life went to lead him down the path he was on. No, that is no excuse to brutally and viciously kill and take the life of another human – but there was just something there that made you feel bad for EVERYONE involved.

After 8 hours of hearing witnesses give their testimony as to how and why Sebastian should be sentenced – the judge read what she was imposing. For the murder, life. For the 2 attempted murders, concurrent and consecutive life sentences…which puts him eligible for parole in 60 years. She gave a handful of reasons for her sentence, but then one that continues to ring is that, after listening to 8 hours of testimony – she still doesn’t know why he did it. Never did Sebastian say to anyone why he did it. The prosecution had their theories. The defense had theirs. But no one ever said why exactly he did it. And because of that, no one can be certain that he won’t do it again.

This was like being a part of a real life story that you would see air on 20/20 or Nightline. Except, I was the reporter trying to tell the story to my viewers. The hard thing was, telling the story in about 2 minutes. It was such an emotional 8 hours in court, I had 3 hours of very compelling sound, but only 2 minutes to get the day across. What a challenge. I didn’t have a chance to tell them that Sebastian is a “superior” human being – his IQ – is 130. That he was molested as a young boy, was uprooted and moved to Europe, or that he has been addicted to marijuana, alcohol, and violent video games for years. I also didn’t get to tell them that he had NO reason to kill these other boys. They were not armed, they made no threats at him…they didn’t even know him. A perfect stranger, who befriended them for an hour, attempted to kill them – and did kill one of their best friends. So many details that made this story an overwhelming one to cover.

http://www.kfbb.com/news/local/89846722.html?video=YHI&t=a

Which leads me my next point about this business. I think it’s crazy what kind of efforts and how much work you can put into a story…how much you must leave out and how  at the end of the day, it has to fit into one minute and 30 seconds…and it airs maybe twice. Then the next day, you start it all over again. Doesn’t that sound crazy? There have been a few times when I think it sounds crazy too. But at the end of the day, at least I have something to show for my hectic day of work

And trying to keep it going!

Sometimes, it seems as though there are not enough hours in the day…which seems especially odd to me since really all I have to do out here is sleep, work, eat, and uhh try to work out (feel free to put those in whatever priority order you see fit)… but as always, there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish everything and do it all to my 110% standards.

So far, life in Montana with my new job is what I expected it to be. It really is hard to move to a new area and start a new career. I received so many “heads up” before getting into it, but nothing can really prepare you until you are thrown in the middle of it.

What a task it has been to get familiar with my new town and understand the news issues and sports issues that really matter to the local people. Especially, when YOU are the news source, so it’s not like you can sit down and watch the news to find out what’s going on…because you are the news!

People in Montana really have been incredibly friendly and helpful. They could and would chat for hours if I didn’t always cut them off because, well, I have a pretty strict deadline that rolls around every evening.

I miss all my friends and family back home. I didn’t think I’d miss the rain..but oddly enough, when it rains here (which only happens on occasion) I get a little giddy. Don’t ask, I don’t know. I guess it’s just the familiarity of home.

Congratulations to my Washington Husky basketball team on their improbable and AWESOME run to the Sweet 16….and I love that the Mariners are getting some airtime on SportsCenter and ESPN the Mag…World Series…I think so.

Getting a blog rolling

Getting a blog started… is a lot of work. I made this blog a few months ago…when I was in between interning and getting a job. I was really excited to get it started and keep myself busy while taking on the overwhelming task of looking for my career start… but as luck would have it, a couple days after I made it, I got a phone call from a news station out in Montana offering me my first job. So, about 3 months after I planned, I’ve  finally settled down to the point where I can get it going!!