Dave Betancourt | Sports Section Manager

4/19/02

Wow, so this is it. The last issue of Whim for the semester, but even crazier for me, the last issue period. Seems kind of crazy almost. I still remember when the sports section started in the life section. It wasn't even a section. It was just sports thrown in the life section. At the time no one thought that a sports section could survive with only one staff writer. As time went on though people really were wondering why there were a bunch of sports articles in the life section. So after convincing the people at Whim that I could handle the load of having a section all to myself, the sports section was created.

The Sports section was a controversy almost immediately. First off, you ever notice how every section in Whim, even the newly created toon section, all have four letters to their name. Life, Ritz, Tech, Vent, Toon. Well that's no accident. It's pretty much a tradition. Well if your phonics are hooked up properly you know that sports has six letters. This didn't exactly rub the old school whimmers the right way. I was suggested all kinds of names like "game" and my personal favorite, "ball", but I didn't like any of them. I wanted the section to be called what it was going to be about, sports.

Well, I won my argument and got to call the section sports. So after that personal victory, I had my first real crisis as a section manager. The crisis was that I was my only writer. That's right, sections were expected to have good content, at the very least three articles per week. And I was the only guy on Whim that wanted to write about sports. This would lead me down a short road to insanity.

At first there were no problems. After all, you don't take a job like this unless you're a sports fanatic. I was and still am mad about sports. I love them. Pretty much all of them Winter Olympics aside. I'm sorry people, it's boring. The most exciting event is figure skating and that's just one big controversy within itself. But back to the matter at hand. I love sports, and that's why I thought it would be no problem handeling everything by myself.

Like I said, at first it was no sweat. I was so happy that I could write freely about whatever I wanted in the world of sports that I knoced out a good two to three articles a week. But after a while, being your only staff writer can catch up to you, and boy did it ever catch up to me. I had put myself in a crazy position. Aside from trying to crank out sports articles for Whim every week, I was also writing a sports column for The Tartan, as well as working at the radio station, hosting a sports talk radio show and being the assistant director of radio operations during basketball season. Things only got worse when I was promoted to head sports editor at The Tartan.

It was a crazy situation getting involved in all of the things I did. I loved all of them but they were all very demanding. Oh did I mention I still had to go to class too? For a while, Whim took the back seat. The main reason I guess was that despite all my hard work, a lot of times I didn't get responses so I figured, hey who would miss the sports section every blue moon. Well, because my business in other things led to the sports section not being up every week, people all of a sudden started to respond. But this time it was stuff like "why is sports so weak" and "get rid of sports" and all that stuff. It got to the point where the people at Whim asked me if I just wanted to go back to putting sports in the life section. And for a minute I considered it. But in the end I couldn't.

The sports section is my baby, my creation. I can't tell you how much self pride I have for myself just for making this thing survive. You think writing sports for Whim is easy? Yeah I'm a good sports writer, but try writing for a fan base where the average reader could give two craps less about guys making more money than they ever will. That was my biggest challenge. But I got over the hump. Did the average hard core Whim reader dig my section? Maybe not. But I reached a few people. I honestly thought sports would be dead once I graduated. But one thing that I've gotten that I thought I'd never have for the Whim sports section, is an apprentice.

That's right the "Fresh Prince" himself, Doug McKinney. More than likely Doug will be the man running things next year. He's got my vote. The fact that I have any one to vote for period is crazy. Doug has been my biggest supporter for Whim and my biggest help. He was always there to write his "Fresh Prince of Sports" column. I gotta tell you, I didn't like that name at first, but you know what, it grew on me. Doug is the savior of Whim sports because I see in him that same craziness for sports that I have. The kind of craziness that can make you sit in front of a computer for hours on end typing just because you love something. Whim sports probably wouldn't have survived this year without the Prince, but it did. And it will go on next year because Doug is that dedicated. Doug is also my air apparent at The Tartan as well, so if he goes crazy, you know why.

Whim has given me a chance to express myself through writing for one of the few things I'm very passionate about, sports. I hope that my writing has mad you laugh, made you think and made you interested in a world that I love.

So that's it. I'm out like a light, but the sports section will go on. I'd like to thank everyone that has always stood by my side throughout my reign as the sports section manager. And to those of you who hated sports, guess what, it's gonna be back next year. I know right? Who thought it would survive? So keep coming back next year to read Whim sports, keep hating those Cowboys, and go see the Spider-Man movie. It's gonna be huge. Sorry had to get that in there. Thanks for reading my stuff over the past two years. I bid you all farewell.