Athletics at the University of Pittsburgh

Review of Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game

2012-04-16T09:06:00.002-07:00

Rob Ruck’s Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game
Robert Ruck, a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, extensively details the history of Black and Latin professional baseball and how Major League Baseball—an organization whose power is dominated by whites—raided these leagues once the MLB integrated with the arrival of Jackie Robinson to the major leagues in his most recent book entitled Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game.

Ruck’s writing shows readers that although the integration of Major League Baseball was truly a good thing and a victory for civil activists, it also had negative effects on cultural communities that have an untold story. With the MLB wanting to give off an aura of tradition and a storied, rich history, the ways in which teams acquired players from the Negro Leagues and Latin America are not details MLB brass wants the public to learn of.

Throughout the progression of the book, readers can easily see how much legwork and reporting Ruck did in order to compile the necessary details for his book. As a result of this, Ruck writes with a voice that readers want to keep reading due to the informed and confident tone his writing exudes. Every fact or story about a player or event is obviously researched thoroughly and then fully fleshed out before a reader’s eyes.

Ruck keeps a reader engaged with his smooth writing, seamless transitions from story to story, and allowing a reader to feel as if he or she is sitting in one of his classes as he details the history of baseball in Latin America as well as in the Negro Leagues. But what Ruck also does is explain the current dilemma in Major League Baseball, with the number of black players in the league declining while players from Latin America are becoming a majority in the game.

Ruck’s dilemma presents the issues associated with this problem as Latino players are much easier and cheaper to sign than black players in America. Ruck talks about the buscones, who are scouts for young players. These men find young players with talent and potential and then essentially sell them to the baseball academies many Major League teams have established in areas of Latin America. These buscones represent a blemish on the image Major League Baseball wants to exude, as they are basically using children to make money and hurting the majority of them in the long run. They give children veterinary steroids and other drugs to accelerate the growth of their bodies, which eventually destroys a lot of vital organs. Long story short, Ruck does a great job of teaching his readers about this problem.

Ruck also presents the issue of what can be called “cultural imperialism” by Major League Baseball. Cultures around the Negro Leagues were very vibrant, especially in Pittsburgh which was the jazz capital of the United States when the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords dominated the league. But, with Major League Baseball’s takeover of all baseball, these no longer exist.

Review Assignment

2012-04-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

The three reviews all have one thing in common--they stress the importance of JJ Sullivan's use of the "I". The reviewer from NPR asserts that the reason Sullivan included certain essays in Pulphead is because the stories within it deeply resonate within him and that the I is unavoidable in the stories. I feel like this relates to my writing, as when I write about myself I must include myself to make the story what it truly is.

In relation to the use of the I, the review from Amazon brings up an interesting point about his usage of the first-person—the voice of Sullivan. Calling it original and versatile, I believe it helps us as readers to understand why Sullivan is writing and how the multiple essays included show different aspects of his person. As the New York Times review says, the essays bounce around like hail.

That sentence gives off a sense that they are rather disjointed and almost non-sensical, but I think it makes sense to include essays that are not like one another. By doing so, Sullivan exhibits different aspects of his voice and writing talents, which is brought not only through his writing but through the three separate reviews.

People are not going to want to read the same things over and over again, which also plays a role in Sullivan’s selections to include in Pulphead. In the New York Times review, it says that the disparate stories cohere into a memoirlike whole. I think this derives from the multiple subjects of Sullivan’s writing and how that can be construed as a memoir as they detail many vivid scenes from his life so far.

Within the context of one another, the reviews help us to understand the wide variety of the essays included. In terms of how they are different, each one offers a different aspect of why Pulphead is a good work of literary fiction. The Amazon reader discusses his voice, the New York Times review talks about how the stories cohere, and the NPR reviewer explains the importance of the “I” in the essays.

Memoir

2012-03-30T09:14:00.003-07:00

Over winter break, I received a letter informing me that my GPA of 1.9 is leading to suspension for a calendar year. Sitting in my cold house all of break staring at a white wall didn’t help me to become any more sane about the situation.

It’s in those moments you realize it’s the little things that matter. Hanging out in the chapter room with my brothers. Smoking cigarettes in the stairwell after parties until 3 a.m. All over break I thought about that spot, reimagining it over and over in my head.

The view of the Cathedral and Pennsylvania Hall. Snow and cold winds blowing through the window we open to let the smoke out, because it’s too damn cold to go outside. The silver duct tape we used to tape our letters to the railings. The white walls, pipes, and gray tiles on the floor. It’s quite a majesty of industrial residential housing this university gave us, but I love it all the same. Especially the third floor landing of the stairwell.

I made an appointment to appeal the decision, and as I packed up my things, I hoped to whatever powers-that-be that I didn’t have to come back with them until May.

Response to Almond Reading

2012-03-24T13:51:00.000-07:00

"10 Ways I Almost Killed My Daughter Within Her First 72 Hours of Life" serves as the sort of memoir that I would like to write.
Steve Almond's ability to find humor in rather dire situations, at a very ironic extent, serves to pace his story better and keep a happier tone to the subject of the "near-death" experiences he inflicts on his newborn baby.
His style of writing made me feel like I was reading something written by Bill Simmons, my favorite writer. With the way Almond still manages to describe his scenes vividly and keep clarity through his story, his humor puts the whole thing over the top. I would like to be able to incorporate this into my paper, as I am able to find the humor in small, sometimes insignificant situations. The memoir piece will provide me a chance to display this, as I haven't really done so thus far.

NBA Column

2012-03-14T21:06:00.001-07:00

Here's weekly NBA Column if anyone's interested. I wrote it about the developing playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.

http://pittnews.com/newsstory/column-nba-eastern-conference-playoffs-begin-to-develop/

Multimedia Component of Revision

2012-03-02T04:24:00.002-08:00

Here are two interviews I posted to SoundCloud so reader of my Immersion piece can listen to the people I quote talk and glean a better understanding of their attitudes through hearing their actual voices.
There is a little over 10 minutes of content here, so listen if you care to.

http://soundcloud.com/n8barnes/donna-sanft-interview

http://soundcloud.com/n8barnes/blair-dunckel-interview

Pitt Athletic Department and its BS

2012-03-02T04:12:00.000-08:00

Pitt Athletics bases its appeal primarily on the rich history and tradition of its programs. But this academic year, the two programs (Men’s Basketball and Football) that serve as the basis for the tradition exemplify polar opposites of what Pitt Athletics calls its foundation.

Pitt’s performance in the Pete and at Heinz Field recently shows nothing related to Pitt’s so-called “proud” history. The only quality that fans received exposure to in the last football season and ongoing basketball season is incompetence.

The so-called “esteemed” football program went 6-7 this past season, capping the season in as disappointing of a fashion as they performed throughout the fall when Southern Methodist University destroyed the Panthers, 28-6 in the BBVA Compass Bowl on Jan. 7. Playing in a conference that receives an automatic bid to a BCS Bowl, fans expect Pitt to win games against schools from lower conferences.

Alas, the Mustangs from the less-recognized Conference-USA embarrassed the Panthers on a national stage—furthering the shame the football programs brings to the University of Pittsburgh.

Even off the field, the football team exemplified incompetence in the past year and a half. A Sports Illustrated report last year named the Panthers as the program with the most amount of players landing in legal trouble, and Pitt went through four coaches since January of last year.

Athletic Director Steve Pederson fired coach Dave Wannstedt before the team played their bowl game season before last, which we now see Wannstedt as the best coach Pitt has had in years. Pederson then hired Mike Haywood, who was then arrested on charges of domestic battery against a mother of one his children. The situation with Haywood was, in the eyes of alumni, handled so poorly by Pederson that many threatened to stop donating and contributing to the program.

Pederson’s next move was hiring Todd Graham, who did not even finish the previous season as he bolted to Arizona State in December before this year’s irrelevant bowl game. Pederson’s latest move is the hiring of Paul Chryst, the offensive coordinator of Wisconsin.

Fans will hopefully see Chryst improve our running game and offensive line based off his history with the Badgers. In his tenure, many offensive linemen received recognition at the conference and national levels and in the 2010 season Wisconsin almost set a record by having three running backs rush for over 1,000 yards each. Only Montee Ball—who led the entire nation in rushing yards and touchdowns this past season—failed to hit the mark, missing it by only four yards.

With that being said, dating back to Steve Pederson’s initial tenure with Pitt then a stretch at Nebraska until his time here at Pitt again, Pederson has a penchant for hiring personnel with character issues. Pitt fans saw this up close in the previous year as he hired a coach who allegedly beat his wife (Haywood) and another who jumped town before the season even finished.

Recently, another Pederson hire also came under scrutiny, former Pitt Basketball head coach Ben Howland, who coached the team from 1999-2003. A report recently released by Sports Illustrated details rampant drug use and abuse by Pitt Basketball players—the majority of which Howland was in fact aware of.

In addition to the football team, both basketball teams have been far from what they have been in the past. The Men’s Basketball team will finish with a losing Big East conference record and most likely miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. Even worse, our supposed “stud” recruit (who I though was vastly overrated from the beginning, and proven right about despite no one listening to me, but who does anyway?) Khem Birch left school before the end of 2011.

And although they do not matter, but still making things worse—the Women’s Basketball team is atrocious and finished the season without winning a single game in conference play, finishing the season 8-21 overall with a record of 0-16 in conference play.

In my eyes, incompetence starts at the top. And at the top of the chain is the Athletic Department.

But many fans remain unaware as to what is actually going on in the Athletic Department, and as a journalist, I found it my duty to the people I write for to attempt to discern whatever the hell is going inside the offices sequestered in the Peterson Events Center.

I chose to “immerse” myself in the Athletic Department because of how much I hate it, and I have many reasons: I think the people who work there are incompetent and have no sense of the attitudes of students and fans who shell out money to watch the teams play, the football team sucks, the men’s basketball team is atrocious, the women’s basketball team would probably lose to a group of eighth-grade boys, Steve Pederson is an idiot who ruined Nebraska’s Athletic Department after leaving Pitt and is apparently back to finish the terrible job he started, the lack of success of our so-called “storied” programs is a direct result of the Athletic Department’s shoddy work, we are on our fourth football coach in the span of a single calendar year—which no program should ever have to contend with in the event it is under capable and competent leadership (which ours certainly is not)—and maybe, just maybe, if I talk to the right people, I can get a glimpse at some aspect of is going on in there, because god knows no one else does.

The “immersion process” began when I e-mailed Brian Regan about spending some time in the Athletic Department. After sporadic communication over the course of two weeks and deadline drawing near, I was finally given a real contact in Donna Sanft, Pitt’s Executive Associate Athletic Director. As I found out later, passing me from one person to the next became a common theme throughout the experience.

They scheduled me to “immerse” myself during a women’s basketball game, adding even more excitement to the dull prospects of the evening.

I met Sanft (a name that, when you think about it, is rather harsh to pronounce and does not conjure up pleasant thoughts upon the cacophony of saying it—makes me think of construction, don’t ask me why) on the day of my “immersion” in her office on the Pete’s lawn level, where restaurants like SubConnection and Pasta Plus are located. I did not glean much about her. All I noticed was that she was short, portly (she dressed entirely in black, potentially subscribing to the phenomena that black is a “slimming” color), and her office looked out over nothing special, but merely Scaife Hall across the street. For someone apparently as important as her, I would think she would have a better view of our relatively scenic campus (the view from my room up in my frat house is better, and I’m nobody!).

As I sat down, I did what any good reporter would do (after ensuring I had the correct spelling of her name and contact information in case I needed a follow-up interview—which I didn’t, as I could tell from the unhelpfulness of the first interview—of course) and allowed her to talk about herself and whatever she does (the things you generally don’t care about).

“Men’s basketball is one of my direct responsibilities, the financial aid program for the athletics department and what we call financial services for student life. I work directly with the life skills program which is career development, community service, leadership, health and wellness and all those other things that are kind of pertinent for student athletes,” Sanft said.

“I work with the athletic trainers and the strength coaches and I oversee men’s basketball and all other sports except for football,” she said, “18 of our 19 sports I’m involved with.”

From there, I wanted to know more about (what I actually cared about) how the Athletic Department handled issues of the past year, notably the previously mentioned items.

“Those are all very different situations,” Sanft said, referring to the many crises of this year, “so they are handled on a case by case basis. But I would say that me, first, my first concern is always what the best thing is for Pitt and what the best thing is for student athletes. I think that we are a very student-centered department here, so I think that in everything we do we really do kind of evaluate how various things are going to impact student athletes and turn our attention into that first,” Sanft said.

Sanft also discussed the importance of finding quality student-athletes to recruit into the Pitt family. The athletic department places a high premium on coaches finding recruits who exhibit athletic, academic and personal excellence and those factors are discussed greatly internally, Sanft said.

“When I meet with recruits, when I’m done talking with them, I’m thinking to myself inside my own head, ‘Why wouldn’t you want to come here?’” Sanft said, “[Pitt] is just a great place.”

Another pressing issue for Pitt is moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The conference is an upgrade over the Big East both academically (especially because we’ll no longer be grouped with West Virginia) and athletically, fans are concerned about the move after the incredibly disappointing seasons many teams experienced this season.

A larger issue is when Pitt will be able to move to the conference. The terms of leaving the Big East are paying $5 million and waiting 27 months. But WVU recently sued the Big East to waive the waiting period and won their lawsuit to join the Big 12 next season. Pitt does not figure to take a similar course of action, however.

“We’re really excited about our move to the ACC,” Sanft said. “The schools in the ACC are great academic institutions and I think that they’re a very good match for the University of Pittsburgh in that regard.”

As for trying to leave the Big East early, Sanft did not seem concerned. The department signed a contract with the conference stating what needed to be done if they left, and the department will stick with that agreement, Sanft said.

“That’s the way Pitt is, we said we were going to do it, so we are going to do it,” Sanft said.

Being a “relative expert” on sports (which I am pretty certain is a veiled insult…) as I have been called, I have not only written about a lot of sports but also listened to many interviews, whether they are on the radio or television, or ones I conducted personally. With this experience, I can usually sift out the filler from what is important to a story and unfortunately all I got was filler.

What Sanft told sounded like it came straight off Pitt’s Public Relations desk and I don’t know if she actually believed what she said or if she just thought I was an idiot and ate all of what she had to say. Probably the latter.

After speaking with Sanft for a short time, I began what I deem my mini-journey through the Pete, where I was handed off to multiple people (who didn’t seem to care that I was there, and treated me more as a thorn in their side).

I received a tour from Rocky Marquera, someone who works in the Compliance Department. He left me with Tim Pederson (the nephew of Steve) who showed me how the lights work, and then dumped me in the media holding room.

There, I met Blair Dunckel who works in coordinating facilities for sporting events. I watched most of the game with both Dunckel and Marquera, neither of which seemed the least bit interested in what was happening (but who can blame them?). Dunckel donated more attention to following a Michigan State (of where he is an alumnus) men’s basketball game on his phone, while Marquera spent his time texting biddies and making plans for the evening.

During halftime, as the poor souls assigned of covering the disaster known as a women’s basketball game feasted on fried chicken and macaroni and drank Diet Pepsi (SODEXO CATERING AT ITS FINEST!!!) Dunckel spoke about his experience around the program during the hard times experienced in recent times.

“When coaches leave it’s difficult on the players, it’s difficult on the staff. Change is not taken well, even from high school up to the professionals, change doesn’t go over well,” Dunckel said. “We try to rally around and get back on track and stay supportive. But the media is so hard that internally it’s hard to try and not bring a negative attitude to work, morale gets low, the coaches are disappointed, they’re struggling to win and they’re paid to win, that’s their job and you want them to be successful.”

As with most of the other things I heard, what he told me was mostly PR. But what interested me most about Dunckel and Marquera was that they really did not seem to care. That this was a well-paying job for these guys, and whether the teams win or lose makes no difference. (Great story idea, I know, but no one would ever answer questions about that, because then, you know, they might lose those jobs.)

Anyway, once the game ended in another beatdown with Pitt on the receiving end, I left as soon as I could. Having fulfilled my time commitment, and little potential for a story to begin with, I was done with the place.

The only realization that I came to regarding Pitt Athletics is that, at the very least, they care about their students. The facilities in the Pete are pristine, with a study lab for students and tutors on-call for athletes nearly 24-7.

Beyond that, I heard a lot of words that day. But as many have said and will say many times again, actions speak louder than words. Yes, the people I was in contact with were polite enough to me but beyond that, it made no difference to them that I wanted to understand their thoughts about the department.

Despite that, I feel I made a slight progression from hatred towards pure ill-will toward the Athletic Department primarily because of the emphasis on the students even though they are really “athlete-students” as opposed to what the NCAA wants them to be called, student-athletes.

Hopefully, things will begin to improve for Pitt. The men’s basketball team has two ESPNU Top 100 incoming prospects in center Steven Adams (No. 4 among incoming centers) and James Robinson (No. 5 among incoming point guards. Alongside talented young players such as Malcolm Gilbert, John Johnson, Travon Woodall and J.J. Moore, Pitt should be contending at their expected level within two or three years.

As for football, the only hope is that Tino Sunseri will no longer start at quarterback and new coach Chryst can transform the offensive line and running backs into a powerful ground-attack to churn out yards and prevent drives from stalling as they did all too often last year.

For women’s basketball, there is even a glimmer of hope. Coach Agnus Berenato has a glut of young talent in Big East All-Freshman Team member point guard Brianna Kiesel, as well as a talented guard in Marquel Davis. Most importantly, the team this season was composed of six freshmen and six sophomores. Although they struggled mightily this year, the experience will mount and help the team down the road.

As for the Athletic Department as a whole, well…I still hate it.

Guest Post by Bill

2012-02-26T12:57:00.001-08:00

Misinformed Editorial by Bill

I don’t know thing one about sports beyond the names of the balls used in each type of game, but Nate’s article described a bureaucracy behind the scenes that I haven’t heard of before. It sounds like they hire coaches and do a kind of PR work; they work out the apparatus of where games take place and other things like that.

Another interesting angle could include the crew who met up at the top floor. The pre-game talk made me think of that scene from Almost Famous when Stillwater is chanting before they go on stage. I’m going more hypothetical from here, when it also makes me think of some guy running the lights, but not really caring about what’s going on down there, and if he doesn’t care then why’s he doing it.

To be relevant again, I think there’re a lot of stories about the people who make the games possible. I’m wondering where Nate will take all of these characters in his piece, and I’m hoping to hear more from the people above.

Jeremy Lin, Behind the Basket, My ID

2012-02-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

Since I need to post more creativity on my blog, I figured I would start sharing my Pitt News articles in the event anyone is actually interested in reading them and following this blog.

http://pittnews.com/newsstory/column-linsanity-overrated/

I wrote this about Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks' apparent phenom. As a "relative" expert, as I have been referred to (which is probably a veiled insult) in class, I think he is overrated and I presented my case henceforth.
I also got sick and tired of hearing about him every minute of every day, and having the majority of the ESPN Alerts I get sent to my phone being about what Jeremy Lin did in a single quarter of a game.

As a result of this piece, a former Pitt graduate named Zach Blott contacted me and wants me to write for his website he runs about the NBA, Behind the Basket. It is not a paid position, but the site is pretty well-read and followed, so the opportunity to further my name as a writer beyond this campus is worth a lot in and of itself.
I really like the focus of the website, as it is entitled "The Antidote to Conventional Wisdom", meaning it takes a look at the NBA from a different perspective, which is something I try to do, but am too often stifled by my editors at TPN.
I prefer not to get caught up in all the hype surrounding whatever happens to be going on at any given time, whether it is Pitt athletics or professional (hence, my attitude towards Pitt athletics), and I think this site will encourage and develop that attitude.
Long story short, I'm really excited to start writing for this site.

http://www.behindthebasket.com/

Also, I seem to have gotten caught up in the throes of the "Thirsty Thursday" phenomenon last night, and I lost my ID. So, if anyone's seen it, let me know.

Joan Didion Multimedia

2012-02-18T18:58:00.001-08:00

I chose this YouTube clip because although it is not Didion reading the White Album, it is a reading that allows readers to better understand her voice and attitude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscGFfdBZqk

Immersion Project Revision

2012-02-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

For my Revision of the Immersion Project, I am going to focus on improving the structure of my project so it shows my changes in thought in a more organized manner.
As for the multimedia component, I am going to post the interviews I recorded which will end up totaling around 8 minutes of audio.

Why I (Sort of) Believe in Pitt Athletics

2012-02-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Although many choose to immerse themselves in topics which help them learn more about the person or topic they cover, I find my immersion process took me to places that allowed me to learn more about myself and my own attitudes.

Many know from my articles in the Pitt News or posts on social media that I express frequent displeasure regarding the University of Pittsburgh Athletic Department, especially during this tumultuous season. The results of this season’s events justify my thoughts to an extent.

When faced with this project I knew I wanted to get inside the Athletic Department and learn about someone who could potentially shed light on the attitudes of people in the department. I just wanted to be a fly on the wall, and learn about the people who work there as I and most other students on this campus know very little about them.

I knew easier stories existed, but where does the point of an exercise like this exist if I will not receive a challenge as an aspiring sports writer? I certainly received it.

The focus I desired lie upon the Pitt Men’s basketball team. So, I contacted Pitt’s Director of Basketball Operations, Brian Regan. After two weeks of sporadic responses to my attempts at contact, he transferred to someone who abetted my efforts much more, Donna Sanft, the Execute Associate Athletic Director at Pitt.

She informed me I could spend time around members of the department before, during and after the women’s basketball game against St. John’s on Jan. 31. With that, I knew my focus needed to change, and I went in with an open mind as to what the topic of my immersion piece eventually would turn out as, and I hoped I would find a story that within my experience.

I met Sanft in her office at 5 p.m. that night and she informed of the multiple people I would be in contact with. At that moment, I realized it was nigh impossible to write my story about a specific person.

However I interviewed Sanft before I went off with Rocky Marquera, an assistant compliance officer.

The issues I have had with Pitt athletics this season revolved mainly around some of the occurrences of this past year, and played a large in role in why I chose to immerse myself in Pitt’s Athletic Department.

With the four head coaches Pitt has had in the past year—something no team should ever be exposed to, the lack of success of our supposed “storied” football and men’s basketball teams, the atrocity known as the women’s basketball team, the re-hiring of Steve Pederson a few years ago, I believed the department to be very unaware as to the attitudes of fans and students on the very campus regarding Pitt Athletics.

These thoughts and events guided many questions I had regarding the program, revolving around Todd Graham, Khem Birch, the football team and both basketball teams. But in order to maintain the goals of an immersion I also brought along some standard queries to attain a higher understanding of the people who work there and their responsibilities.

Sanft, the first person I spoke with, also became the first person to begin to alter my thoughts on the program. But as the associate AD, she oversees many different aspects of the program behind the scenes.

“I work with the athletic trainers and the strength coaches and I oversee men’s basketball and all other sports except for football,” she said, “18 of our 19 sports I’m involved with.”

While talking about her various responsibilities, Sanft began to emote an attitude that I was not expecting to find. She seemed passionate about what she was speaking about, everything from student-athletes’ life skills to having College GameDay at Pitt earlier this basketball season.

But her commitment and passion for Pitt really shone when she spoke about the thoughts and feelings surrounding the aforementioned issues, especially those of this current academic school year.

Sanft also stressed the importance of finding quality student-athletes to recruit into the Pitt family. The athletic department places a high premium on coaches finding recruits who exhibit athletic, academic and personal excellence and those factors are discussed greatly internally, Sanft said.

Another large issue looming over the Pitt athletic community is the move to the Atlantic Coast Conference for all sports. Big East commissioner John Marinatto will not let Pitt or any other school leave the Big East before the 27-month waiting period is up, an action that has brought legal action from West Virginia University, a school wanting to move to the Big 12.

At Pitt, the issue does not seem as pressing to the Athletic Department as it does in Morgantown, but members of the department look forward to the move nonetheless.

“That’s the way Pitt is, we said we were going to do it, so we are going to do it,” Sanft said.

After I spoke with Sanft, Marquera met me in the office and took me around the Peterson Events Center for a tour. A recent graduate of Pitt’s Barco School of Law, Marquera works as an assistant compliance office.

Marquera deals with the NCAA rules and is tasked with helping to ensure Pitt stays within compliance of the many rules put forth by the NCAA. He also is tasked with taking care of the opposing team and referees when they arrive at the Pete.

The most interesting place I spent time in on the tour was the Media Lounge, where members of the media outlets covering events hang out in before the game. Something I learned from this was the amount of down time the staff has when preparing for a game, especially a women’s basketball game.

While in the lounge I spoke with Blair Dunckel, a facilities assistant for the department, who gave me another glimpse into the attitudes of Pitt’s Athletic Department, especially surrounding the issues with Todd Graham.

“We try to rally around and get back on track and stay supportive. But the media is so hard that internally it’s hard to try and not bring a negative attitude to work, morale gets low, the coaches are disappointed, they’re struggling to win and they’re paid to win, that’s their job and you want them to be successful,” Dunckel said.

This more humanistic approach helped me to understand that the attitudes of the Athletic Department are not as I originally thought. Both Dunckel and Sanft said things along similar lines in that the people that make up the department and athletic programs come first, and not the benefits or rewards.

Prior to the start of the game I met Tim Pederson, an event production assistant and nephew of Athletic Director Steve Pederson. Tim took me upstairs and showed me the sound and lighting room on the top floor of the arena, where I watched the crew as they went through the pre-game introductions. Then, I went to the floor and watched the game from the press row.

The Panthers lost the game pretty badly to St. John’s, 66-51. I went to the press room to listen to coach Agnus Berenato’s press conference, with Brianna Kiesel and Ashlee Anderson flanking her.

Her comments postgame, as well as the player’s did not make for anything that would relate to this piece, as other student media outlets were there asking questions for their news stories. However at the end of her conference, Berenato, completely unsolicited, made one final statement not to the players but to the people in the conference room that further affirmed the change in attitude I experienced over the day.

“You can all pick and choose what want to do on a Tuesday night, so thank you for coming out and supporting us,” Berenato said.

The entire experience toned down my feelings of discontent for the department, and raised my hopes for them. I now believe the department to be more competent than I previously thought and aware of what is going on and their priorities are on the people in the department, not just winning.

Although we all want to see the programs win, I learned a lot about how the department places pertinence on their employees, coaches and student-athletes. If we don’t win a single game, I could at least be confident that the Athletic Department is handling these matters, and bright things lie on the horizon for Pitt Athletics. That is why I believe in this school, why I came here, and why I know good things will come for Pitt Athletics.

And as it was said in The Dark Knight, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Immersion Research

2012-01-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

Source 1: The Shame of College Sports
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/

This is an article about the litany of wrongdoing in college sports. I chose this because of the many scandals that have occurred in the NCAA and I wanted background for my story in the event I find anything that applies to what is here.

Source 2: A Student's Perspective
http://www.cardiachill.com/2012/1/27/2729786/pitt-football-recruiting-basketball-tickets-pittsburgh-panthers-oakland-zoo-top-25-rankings-polls

I chose this because it brings an alternate perspective to the issues of the Pitt Athletic Program this season.

Source 3: Steve Pederson Wikipedia Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Pederson

I chose this because it gives a background of Pitt's athletic director, and although it is a Wikipedia page, it gives a lot of information on what he has done in the past, especially with the Nebraska football program.

Source 4: Following a legend is easy part
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/college/s_775456.html

I chose this because although it is an article about Penn State's coaching search, it parallels some of the issues that the Pitt athletic program has had with football coaches and an analogy is made to Steve Pederson's alienation of alumni.

Source 5: No predicting coaching success
http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/sports/bob-smiziks-blog/31391-no-predicting-coaching-success

This is an article that provides commentary on Pitt's new coach, and their overall issue with coaches in the past year which I find to be the fault of the Athletic Department.

5 Ideas for Immersion Project

2012-01-18T01:26:00.000-08:00

1. Pitt Athletic Department
2. Local Restaurant/Business
3. Security Guards in Residence Halls
4. Professors
5. Pitt Police