I’m so excited to be here.
As I’m writing this, I can see the Wasatch Mountains outside my apartment window. What used to be my life on the humid Oklahoma plains is now filled with snow-capped peaks, green ridges and the thin air of Salt Lake City.
About a month ago, I officially accepted an offer to become The Salt Lake Tribune’s Utah beat reporter, the kind of position I’ve dreamed of since attending the University of Oklahoma and becoming a sports reporter at the OU Daily. From covering OU football, men’s basketball, softball and a range of other Oklahoma sports, I learned what it took to be a skilled reporter.
In that time, I took away a few key and valuable lessons: I love what’s happening on the field, and I love telling the stories happening off of it.
As you come to read my work, I hope you see that vision. I try to go above and beyond in my reporting, shape those stories for you, and be the best storyteller on the beat. That means I’m going to make every phone call I can. I will build connections. If there’s something relevant happening in the Utes’ athletic program, I want to dive into it as deep as I can.
I want to tell stories about people, the same way I’ve already profiled OU running backs coach DeMarco Murray, or the ever-growing space of sports and business, NIL, entertainment districts, city council meetings and more. I truly believe that the best sports reporters are looking for those kinds of stories and maximizing the right voices to tell them.
In my time covering the Sooners, I reported on the national trend of entertainment districts both in professional and college athletics. When former OU and now-Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw a game-winning touchdown vs. Texas in the Red River Rivalry, I took the next step to find and talk with his mom, Dori, to get her reaction to the historic moment.
I’ve profiled former Oklahoma softball star Jordy Bahl and told the story of Drake Stoops, detailing how he broke out of the shadow of Bob Stoops, his father and a legendary Sooners’ head coach, in five seasons.
I’ve also written about the grand opening of Love’s Field, and the significance it had on the future of women’s sports and softball.
It’s this kind of journalism that I’m both proud of but also want to share here in my time in Salt Lake City.
Funny enough, I also come straight from Big 12 country, which will be Utah’s new conference come August. I’ve covered games from Lawrence, Kansas, to Dallas, Texas, prime locations in the Big 12. Many refer to it as a “truck stop conference,” which can be true in some areas, but I’m extremely complimentary of the passionate fanbases and tasty barbecue.
So, as I continue to soak in what this city and the U. have to offer, I hope you follow my coverage moving forward. It’s an interesting time in college athletics, with seemingly daily changes to NIL and conference realignment.
Utah has been in the middle of and, in some ways, been at the forefront of that space for years, and I can’t wait to see how it shapes up in the coming years. It’s for these reasons and more that make me so eager to write about this program for an organization like The Tribune.
I hope you can understand, now, that I thought I’d never be here. A few months ago I was stressed about my future after college. What job offers would I land? If I didn’t have a job, what internship could I get? Those thoughts have passed, but I remain so grateful to soak in this position and moment.
I’m so excited to work with BYU beat reporter Kevin Reynolds, Jazz writer Andy Larsen, columnist Gordon Monson and sports editor Aaron Falk. They’ve been working in this field for years and have so much to offer in terms of helping develop my craft.
Let’s do this thing.
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