Posted on March 29, 2007
When I was approached about writing a farewell column for The Breeze my initial reaction was to ask myself, “Who out there actually cares that I’m being replaced as the sports editor?”
Now that I’ve had time to dwell on it, my thought still is, “Who out there actually cares that I’m being replaced as the sports editor?”
However, they’ve given me this space to write my farewells, and so to all of you who would rather be reading about the football team’s chances of winning the Colonial Athletic Association next season, I say tough luck.
As sports editor I’ve seen some big stories over the last 365 days, including Kellen Kulbacki’s All-American season a year ago for the Diamond Dukes, the controversy surrounding the decision to send the football team to Youngstown, Ohio, to play in the first round of the Division I-AA playoffs, and the women’s basketball team’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1996.
However, the biggest story by far was JMU’s decision to cut 10 programs from its athletic department in order to become Title IX compliant. Since this was the biggest story and it’s my farewell column, I thought I’d add a little bit of perspective on the cuts.
When the cuts were first made, my initial reaction was to feel bad for the athletes who were cut. I thought about how unfair it was that their favorite activity was being taken away from them and how angry I’d be if I couldn’t do something I love anymore.
Eventually, though, I got over it. I figured it’s the university’s money and it can spend it on any sports it wants. If JMU no longer wants to have gymnastics teams because it wants to spend more money on some new arenas, why should I care?
Many of you out there seem to disagree and thought I should do more to fight against these cuts. I can’t tell you how many darts and e-mails I’ve received complaining that I didn’t cover this event or how I should write a column on the university’s lack of support for the cut sports.
The truth is, my job was to provide people with the most compelling and interesting sports stories on JMU athletics. I did not think many people wanted to read about the swimming team’s final home meet, and then their final dual meet, and finally their last meet ever on a Tuesday.
You’d probably approach it the same way you’re approaching this column. It’s likely you’ve stopped reading because, let’s be honest, do you really care?
Well if you are still reading, thanks to anyone who has put up with the many typos, layout follies and the all-around poor job I did this last year. Hope you’ve enjoyed my effort and will give just as much grief to Tim and Matt over the next year.
I’d like to thank John, who put up with my constant desire to quit, and was very helpful as my co-editor.
To all the writers who have helped shape the sports section, thanks for your great work.
Also, I’d like to thank everyone I’ve had the honor to work with over the past year. It has been such a privilege to work with all the other editors.
To Matt and Caite, I say thanks for being good bosses and not firing me.
Brian Hansen is a senior SMAD major with a concentration in print journalism. He still can’t believe they put him in charge of the sports section.
