The life of a sports fan band reporter geek guy

This past weekend, I visited Asheville, N.C. to witness the Samford Bulldogs women's basketball team win their second straight Southern Conference championship.  While there, I served a dual role for the team.  In one role, I supported the men's and women's teams both as a member of the Bulldog Pep Band.  In the other, I reported the stories for the school newspaper.  At the victory celebration on Tuesday morning, I was talking to our athletic director, Martin Newton.  He suggested that I write a story about having both of these responsibilities.  Therefore, I come to the source I know will get published no matter what (that's the great thing about a personal blog) so that this idea can become a reality.

The preparation:  Possibly around the end of Jan Term, Dr. Smisek sent out the yearly "join the basketball tournament pep band" email.  My response: an immediate "yes."  I went last year and enjoyed it immensely.  This year, though our women's basketball team was slightly worse than last year's and our men's was slightly better though still not exceptional, I expected the same sort of atmosphere as last year's tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn.

In the week leading up to the SoCon tournament, I became more anticipatory and even less excited about it.  I wasn't expecting as much fun as last year's (a six-plus hour drive to Asheville is not quite the same as three hours to Chattanooga), and I really didn't want to be away from home too long.  After all, I had classes to attend and, more importantly, a girlfriend I didn't really want to be so far away from.  Knowing I had committed to go, and after a talk with one of my friends who was also going, I put aside my negativity and prepared for the journey.

Day 1: Friday, March 2 - Our men's game began at 6 p.m. Eastern time that night; as a result, we - the band and cheerleaders - were scheduled to depart at 8:00 in the morning, Central time.  8 o'clock rolled around and the bus did not.  I, as well as many of my friends, just wanted to get on the bus and go back to sleep.  Finally, the bus arrived and we pulled out at around 8:35.  With the late departure, and having to stop for lunch, we made it to the Asheville Civic Center with about an hour until tip-off.  The game was Furman-Samford.

From the start, our team's fans had four times more spirit than Furman's, even though they outnumbered us at least 2.5:1.  Part of that was because their band was playing across town at their women's game and didn't arrive until halftime.  However, the story was different on the basketball court.  Furman advanced to the quarterfinals with a 75-66 win, and the men's season was over for Samford.  Having hoped the improved Bulldogs would at least win one game in the tournament, I was disappointed.  There was still the women's team, though.

During the game, I texted my editor: "Hey JT, I'm at the tournament this weekend.  Want me to cover it for the Crimson?"  After the affirmative response, I emailed Zac Schreiber from sports information: "Zac, I need to speak to Coach Tillette about the game for the Crimson sometime before the end of Monday.  I'm in Asheville as long as the women's team is, and my computer power cord is on the fritz.  Let me know by phone and email so I'm sure I'm aware."

Yeah, that's an interesting story, too.  For the past week, my laptop charger had been working off and on.  I ordered a new one a day or two before I left, so it had not arrived before the tournament.  Thus, I was writing and reporting two stories, potentially completely away from home, with a computer that had a limited charge. This became quite the problem the longer we were in Asheville.  I also emailed Drew Windler, Tyler Hood and Jeff Merritt before my battery dwindled to a dangerously low point, and got in touch with Joey Mullins for my women's story.

Day Two: Saturday, March 3- This was the team to be excited about.  Our women's basketball team, the defending conference champions.  Their regular season was not as spectacular as last year's; still, a fourth-place seeding in an eleven-team league is nothing to scoff at.  The competition was against the Elon Phoenix at UNC-Asheville's Kimmel Arena, where just moments before leaving the hotel, I saw Asheville claim the Big South title on television.  The expectations in the band and cheerleaders was a win, but we sure wouldn't have minded going home early.  The Bulldogs dominated.  For dinner, the fare was a fantastic Italian panini and the disappointment of having to inform Amy I'd be another day getting home, at least.  Without the use of my computer, I didn't do any reporting.  That role took a night off.

Day Three: Sunday, March 4- Today, we faced the top seed in the conference in Davidson.  The general consensus at the Quality Inn was that we would be going home after the game ended at around 2 p.m.  We didn't let the team know that, and as a result, boy, were we wrong.  With our support, the Dogs bolted to a huge halftime lead, and didn't relent enough to let the Wildcats take the game from them.  I think of all the wins in the tournament, this was the biggest disappointment for the band and cheerleaders.  I had to let Amy know that once again, she'd have to wait another day for my return.

Text from Zac Schrieber: "Clayton, how about 2:00, Eastern time, tomorrow?"  I responded with a yes, knowing that I'd most likely be in a public area with band people.  Of course, I much rather would've been in a hotel room with everything conveniently nearby for me to take notes on the conversation, but I had to do what I had to do.  I stayed up late for no reason, and got rested for the hopefully excited day ahead.

Day Four: Monday, March 5- I had a very quiet and late breakfast at the hotel, joining about four others in the group that were the only ones awake at 10 in the morning.  The anticipation began as the word was passed on that Appalachian State's coach wanted to face the Bulldogs in the final, because she said my school's team didn't deserve it last time. That's motivation if ever there was need to be motivated at all.  I was able to find an outlet to work with my laptop charger, and found a public computer in the hotel.  I was able to write up my men's story, sans Tillette quotes, and talked to Joey Mullins about talking to Mike Morris.

We went to the Asheville mall for lunch and time-killing before the 5 p.m. tip time.  I called and talked to Jimmy Tillette in the middle of the mall and roamed around with my band friends until it was time to go.  We had several signs and t-shirts made up for the game, plus red and yellow cards to display when Mountaineers fouled our Bulldogs.  It was with immense spirit the band and cheerleaders walked into the Civic Center arena  that afternoon, and we passed that spirit on to the team while they were warming up.  We wanted this win.

The team wanted the win, too.  They got off to an 18-8 lead and never really lost control.  In the second half, App fought back for an eventual one-point lead, but the crowd support propelled the Bulldogs to recover.  In the band we were screaming and yelling and having trouble matching up with the cheerleaders because we had that much spirit.  In the end, Samford pulled off the 54-43 victory to claim its second straight SoCon title. We were victorious.  I say "we," because I credit the spirit squad (band and cheerleaders) and fan support for being the deciding factor in the girls' win.  Is it egotistical?  Sure, a little.  Realistic?  Most probably.  When they were taking the picture with the trophy, the team called the cheerleaders and band over to be in the picture with them, something that did not happen last year.  So it's absolutely certain that they appreciated our presence.

Back to the bus.  We had pizza and soda (Pepsi, of course, being in North Carolina) waiting for us so we could get home as soon as possible.  Before the game I talked with Joey Mullins and arranged to call Coach Morris around an hour after the game.  I waited an hour, but we were in the middle of a movie.  I waited for the end of the movie and a gas station stop to call the coach, but there was no response.  I ended up writing about ten questions I could ask when he called back, but he never did.  As a result, I never really got to sleep on the bus, though I tried.  We arrived back in Birmingham at around 12:40 in the morning.

Day Five: Tuesday, March 6- Now, it's time to celebrate.  The victory flag pep rally was at 10:45 a.m. and I was there as a band member and a Crimson reporter.  After several rounds of the fight song, I put my horn away to talk to Coach Morris.  I spoke with him and Paige Anderson, and plugged the quotes I received into my story by that evening.  While at the pep rally, I witnessed crews from several stations, including ABC 33/40 recording the event (You can see my critical review of 33/40's report here - I promise it's a lot shorter than my personal blog posts).  At the pep rally was when I had the discussion with Joey and Mr. Newton that inspired this post.  Mr. Newton told me I could be the only person in the nation to be doing the double-duty thing as a reporter and band member, I doubt it's true though.  If you know of any other instances in which this happened, and are still reading this post, leave me a comment.  Otherwise, come back next post.

Until then,
-Clayton

The Catsup Post

Catsup, of course, being pronounced "catch-up".

Cruise Chronicles 4 marked the start of a vast downward spiral for my work ethic last March, a spiral that ended in a 1.7 semester GPA and some drastic changes to my studies.

Before you get out of shape - because, obviously, my school career is of utmost importance to you - I'm still here at Samford, and I hit Dean's List last semester.

However, 2011 was a heck of a year for so many reasons.  First and foremost, I will have been dating the girl of my dreams for eleven months come the sixth of this month.  Herein, you may be able to begin speculating what caused my half-semester-long absence from my schooling.

I was enraptured, entranced, absolutely crazy out of my mind trying to put words and meaning to the fact that I was, indeed, in love.  From about the first of March until the end of spring break, I could not put a million words, let alone two or three, to what I was feeling.  I think, deep down, I knew, but it took a lot of coercing - mostly from Amy - for me to come to terms with the fact that I had a huge, major crush on the girl that once sat in front of me in CP class.

Well, it was an interesting April.  We began trying to work out our relationship; on April 6 we became Facebook official.  Just like any young relationship, there was a lot of growing and adjusting early on.  My adjusting included putting school on the back burner.

Exams came and went, and we had to say good-bye for the summer.  Amy was off to Costa Rica for a seven-week research project, while I returned home and began to look for a job.

After three days of hard-core searching near the end of  May, I found myself that job.  I was offered a job at the Exxon Tigermarket convenience store practically the moment I walked in.  What followed was two and a half months of gas, hot dogs, and cigarettes (only consuming the first two, but selling all three) and a steady income.

In midst of all the work, I had little time for fun.  I think I was able to get to a couple of different pool parties in Hendersonville over the summer, and I did take an overnighter to Alabama to visit Amy and watch the premiere of the final Harry Potter movie.  Five hours of driving, three hours of sleep (maybe) and another long drive home ended in a seven-hour work shift in which I did my job probably only half as well as I should have.  I survived, though, and life went on.

Sometime during the summer, I made the decision that in order to get through my schoolwork and do so successfully, the Facebook had to go.  And go it did.  With the exception of Fall Break and Thanksgiving (and maybe once to check it hadn't completely been erased), I was completely Facebook-less last semester.  The results showed; as I mentioned, my 3.54 GPA last semester was good enough for Dean's List and raised my cumulative GPA to 3.0.

And thus the Semester of Hard Work and No Social Life began.  Okay, I over-dramatize, but it seems like I had no social life sometimes.  The countless study dates with Amy kept time rolling and before we knew it we had been dating for five, six, seven months.  I had a great class load.  Even the boring gen-ed classes were entertaining enough.  I wrote one, sometimes two stories a week for the Samford Crimson (see my constantly growing portfolio here).  My primary concerns were for myself and my girlfriend, and it hurts me to say I became distant from a lot of other people that were once important to me.  We'll get to that in a while, but let's get the six-week interim between semesters.

I was not able to retain my Tigermarket job for the winter break, so I generally sat around the house throughout January.  I did have an incredibly epic trip the week after Christmas.  I went with three other members and two adult leaders of my scout troop, as well as two scouts and an adult from South Dakota, to Florida Sea Base in the Keys.  For a week, we lived on island time, with our only clocks being the sun and tides.  It was a really relaxing and fun week, certainly a lifetime experience that I will never forget.

Shortly after this, the monstrosity known as Step Sing took over my life.  I arranged the music for Gamma Sigma Sigma and AAA's show "User Friendly", based on the premise of the movie Tron: Legacy.

It's a love-hate relationship, me and Step Sing.  At times I want nothing to do with it, at other times I am beyond thankful for the opportunity I had.  Near the end, most of the hate was directed at procedure and contest results with which I strongly disagreed.  All in all, the love aspect came out on top.

After Step Sing, the theme of my life quickly became Reconnect.  For the past three weeks, I've been trying to resurrect my social life.  The best part of it all is that I'm balancing work with that now.  I've still got a lot of night-before-they're-due assignments, but I crack down on studying when I need to and hang out when I don't.  I've been getting into routines, too.  I clean the room every Friday, go to class during the week and do a combination of working, hanging out, eating and sleeping the rest of the time.  It's worked so far this semester.

Tomorrow, I head for the mountains of North Carolina to support the Samford basketball teams as they seek to dominate the Southern Conference.  Not having much schoolwork, you might be able to expect a post or two with details.  If not, I'll be back blogging tomorrow, next week, next month or, you know, whenever.

Oh yeah, that's one more thing.  I'm restructuring CUBS.  And by restructuring, I mean taking away all structure and just doing what I do: write.  Whenever I have time and/or feel motivated, I'll write on this blog.  And it's probably a safe bet to say I won't write this much in a post very often.

Lastly, scientists reported today that the sky is green, roses are blue and violets are, in fact, polka-dot.

Just checking to see if you were still reading.

-Clayton

I feel like I should blog again some more.

I think I need to catch you up on my life, and all its many twists and turns.

Number one: College. Many of my younger viewers may ask, "Why, Clayton, how's college?" Of course, now I think about it, many of my older viewers and viewers within my peer group may be wondering the same thing. And my answer to you is: College is great! Here's a flash of my typical Samford week:

Sunday: Wake up, 8:30ish. Why I am up this early after likely staying up until one or two reading Harry Potter or watching college football highlights is beyond me. There is a knock on the door and there is a friend who I arranged to take me to church. The church in question is massive, as are many of the Baptist churches around Birmingham. The service was nothing remarkable, and then was Sunday School. I have not attended a Sunday School session outside of HFUMC since, oh I don't know, eight or ten years ago, probably. It was a very enjoyable experience, I think I might go back just for the Sunday School hour sometime. Arrive back on campus around 12:30, grab some lunch in the caf, then back to the room for an afternoon of NFL football. That's basically what Sunday consists of every week. Lots of football. Then to sleep for class.

Monday: My first class, JMC 200, begins at 10:30. I wake up at about 9 or 9:15, hop in the shower, head to the food court for a chick-fil-a biscuit breakfast, and head on over to class. Take some notes, fight some sleep, and then to Latin. Much of the same, although instead of the "take some notes" part, it's more "try to figure out what in the heck this thing means". Latin ends at 12:50, and that's class on Monday. After Latin, I hit up the caf for lunch, and head back to the room. Once back in the room, I open facebook (which will remain open long into the night), check emails, and get whatever work I have to get done. Today I'll get all my laundry done. I'm thirsty, so I walk to the mini-fridge and pull out a can of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. On this particular Monday afternoon, I pull up the 104.5 The Zone radio broadcast online, because Randy Moss is holding his first media meeting as a Tennessee Titan. I listen to 3hourlunch until 3, and then turn on the TV to NFLNetwork. I throw on my freshly-laundered band t-shirt, a pair of socks, and some tennis shoes, and head over to the band room. I then catch a ride to the gym because I'm playing for the basketball game. I play some music, shout a lot, and eat some pizza. Four hours later, I go back to the room, where I'll play on the computer, watch TV, and do some reading until I fall asleep at about midnight.

On Tuesday, I have one class. However, I am determined to make Convo this morning, even if I sleep through it. I get a can of lemonade from the room, and a chicken biscuit from the food court (I'm trying hard to cut down on my Bulldog Buck spending, I'm fast running out from my Chick-fil-A consumption), and head over to Reid Chapel for the Convocation. Today's convo speaker was surprisingly interesting, a United Methodist clergywoman and yet another great storyteller. Having not gotten my nap or the last four pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in, I go to my Tuesday/Thursday class, CP. I get that essay back that I slaved over on the previous Wednesday night. "This is surprisingly well-written," I find Dr. Putt has written on it. "First semester freshmen usually do not write this well. I even suspected plagiarism at first because it is so clearly written! Excellent work!" This brightens up my day immensely, even more than my first convo credit in two or more weeks did. I take about a page-full of notes about Gothic architecture and culture, and then we get out of class at around noon or 12:15. I head straight to the caf for lunch this day, and then after chilling back in the room for a couple of hours, go to band practice. It's our first Christmas band practice, and as I note to the facebook world, "I am fully aware of the irony of the fact that we're practicing Christmas music, and I'm wearing a tshirt and flip flops." The music is different, and moderately challenging. After dinner, I come back to the room, and Patrick is watching the new 30 for 30 film on ESPN about former superstar running back Marcus Dupree. It's a nice little piece, and I enjoyed it. After that, I make sure everything's ready for my Wednesday classes, read some Harry Potter, and go to sleep.

Wednesday is the day I buy my Harry Potter tickets. There's some finagling with Fandango, but eventually everything works out and I'm ready to go. Both of my Wendesday classes included getting tests back. My JMC grade, though not stellar, is still a solid B, which I will take. In Latin, I was expecting bad things from the test, but I end up earning a similar B. While in Latin, unbeknownst to me, there is a bit of a flash-mob rave dance in the caf in order to advertise tomorrow night's freshman class rave. Sadly, I miss it. After lunch, I head to the library to put in a couple hours of work-study time. In the end, I am not able to continue, and I end up staying for only an hour and a quarter. Dinner is yet another caf affair, and I return to the room with just enough time to watch yesterday's episodes of both Glee and NCIS. After my hour and a half of online TV dosage, I head to my small group meeting. It's a particularly good group meeting for me, and I do a little more reading before I go to sleep.

Thursday is a triumphant morning. For the first time in over a month, I am able to wake up in time to get to the caf for breakfast! I also make it to Convo, which is a very nap-worthy lecture about the church in China. Perhaps it goes too long, for I am still in a lethargic state when CP rolls around. The Renaissance is the topic of this class, and it goes until about 12:10, I think. I go back to the room for a 30-minute power nap (haven't had a good one of those in a while, either...) and then lunch in the caf. An hour and a half after I get done with lunch, and it's band practice time again. I'm not really feeling too well during practice, but I manage, and suffer through a small dinner just to keep my appetite regular. By the time I get ready to go to the aforementioned rave, I'm feeling much better and ready for a fun night of dancing. Well, except for the fact that after about forty-five minutes of constant jumping and moving, etc, I felt like my lungs were about to explode, so I headed back to the dorm for a couple puffs of the asthma inhaler and I was generally back to normal. Great dance, then I feel like staying up even later to get in some Harry Potter reading. I decide that I'm not even going to eat breakfast Friday morning, as I only have one one-hour class that day. I go to sleep, exhausted from an exciting day.

On Friday, I stumble out of bed a little before ten, take a shower, and find my way to my JMC class. It's a nice lesson about cable, I jot down a few key points, and class ends. I head to the caf, and have about an hour-and-a-half long lunch (not so much eating as the social aspect of lunch in the caf). After lunch, I spend a while in the room, before choosing to throw in a little bit of work-study in the library before it closes at 5. After I finish in the library, I run into Corey and Clayton playing frisbee. I play with them for a while, and then we all three head up to the caf for dinner. There we meet the likes of Patrick and Josiah, and after a nice evening meal, we decide to head up to the volleyball game, Senior night, at the gym. We are joined by Jamieson and Red Sea points leader Throck (it's a nickname, his last name's Throckmorton). We watch the volleyball girls fall to Georgia Southern 3 sets to 1, but in a valiant effort nonetheless. Some fingerfoods follow, and then Patrick and I so choose to head back to the room and chill for the rest of the night. I find myself, once again, in the midst of a very good Harry Potter Book (Goblet of Fire, which I've been working on the majority of the week) before going to bed once again.

Saturday gets a late start from me. I wake up shortly before 11, shower, watch some college football, and then head to the caf for brunch. There are some conspiracies regarding a birthday party, and I head back to the room. Corey comes in, I end up taking a run to Taco Bell with him and Zach. After we get back and while we are consuming our Taco Bell, Jamieson enters, detailing us about a certain prank to go down. I spend a large part of my afternoon on that effort after my weekly phone call to the parentals. After dinner, I anxiously await the next step of the prank, but we are foiled by someone close to a victim. I have a nice facebook conversation with this un-named source, and find myself compromised somewhat in the war of pranks that is happening throughout Samford. I suppose it feels a little like when countries entered the World Wars a while after they started. I await my just rewards. Meanwhile, I watch the fourth Harry Potter movie, and end up having to stop after a while, because it is so horrendous. I then watch the South Carolina-Florida and Alabama-Mississippi State games before catching the ridiculously awful ending of the fourth Harry Potter movie. Around this point, Patrick returns from the dorm lobby, and we watch SNL and some football and basketball highlights before he calls it a night and I turn to this, my blog.

Well, that's a sample week. Now that you know that, I'll just go on about some trivial stuff...

1. CUPCAKES. And I'm not talking about that thing that looks like a muffin but is much better. I'm talking about teams, like Louisiana-Monroe, like Georgia State, like the University of freaking Notre Dame, that college football teams play two, three, seven games against each season. Those ones that scream "easy win, let's get in here, play a little ball, throw our bench in, and get the hell out of here" on the schedule. It disgusts me. Every team in the SEC has played at least three, and while I'm a big fan of the SEC, I think they need to play easy-win teams that are a little more competitive by name, like Big Ten and ACC schools. Those of you that have been following all my crazy facebook action know my obsession with cupcakes and their complete lack of benefit.

2. We've got Randy freaking Moss!!!! Thats right, boys and girls, Randy's a Titan. Get excited, it's going to be a great ride in Nashville for the second half of the season, and--dare I say it?--playoffs?!?

3. Oh, I gots me a youtube channel now! You can find me at http://www.youtube.com/user/churdle76. I may or may not eventually be posting videos, but it's really just a thing for me to use for comments or liking videos or stuff like that.

4. And I've also gots me a tweeter!! Although I myself am not a twit, and do not tweet, I felt like I should get a twitty-thing to follow some other twits that like tweeting. So if you want me to add you to my followees, tweet me up @churdle76. If you want to add yourself to my followers (or, as I prefer, twitstalkers), just do whatever you do to follow a twitty type by searching the same tweetie-name.

5. What else, what else? Oh, I'm annoyed by Christmas coming before and above Thanksgiving again, I'm in the middle of a little No-Shave November action, and I get some more money in the bank this week. Also, my midseason NFL Picks are as thus: Titans, Texans, Colts, Jaguars AFC South; Steelers, Ravens, Browns, Bengals AFC North; Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders, Broncos AFC West; Jets, Patriots, Dolphins, Bills AFC East; Falcons, Saints, Bucs, Panthers NFC South; Packers, Vikings, Bears, Lions NFC North; Rams, Seahawks, Cardinals, Niners NFC West; Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Cowboys, NFC East. Playoff seedings will be Jets, Steelers, Titans, Chiefs, Ravens, Texans in the AFC; Giants, Falcons, Packers, Rams, Eagles, Saints in the NFC. Wild Card games: Titans over Texans, Ravens over Chiefs, Packers over Saints, Eagles over Rams. Divisional games: Ravens over Jets, Titans over Steelers, Eagles over Giants, Packers over Falcons. Conference championships: Ravens over Titans (you don't know how much it hurts me to say that), Eagles over Packers. To keep to my original pick of Super Bowl Champion, Ravens over Eagles.

Oh, last but not least, congrats to the San Francisco Giants for bringing home the World Series championship for the first time since your west coast move over fifty years ago.

That's it for now, folks, I'll be back with more action sometime later.

-clayton