Styled Cut

View from the Couch (4/20/05)

These are the columns I wrote for The Daily Tar Heel — mostly during Fall 2004, when I served as the student paper's inaugural weekly sports columnist. Little did I know that signing up for the job would result in me writing about UNC field hockey — twice.

8/23/04 — Columnist to advocate for readers
The introduction column. I made my case for creating a forum featuring two-way communication. The results? I wrote 18 columns, and received three emails: one from a field hockey player's mother thanking me for bringing attention to her daughter's team, another from the Provost (the field hockey coach's husband) thanking me for bringing attention to an "exciting, fast-moving" sport, and a third from my friend Kelly, who wanted me to write a column about the Red Sox.

I should note that the main desk did receive an email from someone so incensed that I had no idea what I was talking about, they couldn't bring themselves to call me by name.

9/01/04 — Field hockey deserves credit
A preseason call for attention to be paid to the UNC field hockey team, which entered the season with championship aspirations. And managed to finish with a better record than everyone in the country, including the national champion.

9/03/04 — Different forecasts of UNC season
An homage to the late Ralph Wiley in which I busted out an alter-ego to discuss UNC football and how the team would fare in the new ACC. Some people loved it. Many others were confused.

9/07/04 — Tar Heels exhibit new resilience
UNC football beat William & Mary in the season opener, and I thought I saw a resiliency that was lacking last year. After the team finished 6-5 to make its first bowl game since 2001 (where it got schmeared by Boston College like deli cream cheese) I can say, "Ha! I was right, and you doubted me. Fools."

9/15/04 — Club sports: making a splash
A look into the sport clubs subculture at UNC-Chapel Hill. It starts with underwater hockey and ends with Sport Clubs Council President Sebastian Gibbs bounding across the rooftops.

9/22/04 — Field hockey gains a new fan
A running diary of my experience attending a field hockey game for the first time. It's an … interesting sport. But one that deserves a chance. The girls wear skirts.

Barbershop Bonus: Deluxe Expanded Edition

9/29/04 — Don't flip out at football quirks
Ronnie McGill can do back flips. I actually squeezed a full column out of that. However, I did confirm that Madison Hedgecock is straight gangsta. In a complete-and-total-hick kind of way.

10/06/04 — Media gloss over Tarpley's major injury
Lindsey Tarpley broke her leg. And crickets chirped throughout the Triangle.

10/09/04 — Tar Heels can still salvage the season
The Mets fan in me wouldn't let me give up on the Tar Heels. It wasn't just a way to work New York into yet another column. Really. In any case, this is half of a point-counterpoint column I did with David Moses. You can read his part here.

10/11/04 — UNC's energetic play fuels raucous crowd
A game column from UNC's dramatic football victory against N.C. State. A great game that I hope I captured in a column.

10/20/04 — McCants behind bars after 'Late Night' sound bite
Basketball player Rashad McCants left his brain filter behind on media day, making a comment that rival schools quickly faxed to every UNC recruit. Note that I just wrote "media day," not "late night." Crossing these up in the column note only cost me a clip, but rendered a good headline completely ineffective.

10/27/04 — Zook firing an omen for Bunting
Ron Zook got canned by Florida, and I thought there were more than a few parallells. The paper's managing editor later called the comparison "tenuous." You be the judge.

10/30/04 — Boost in revenue and exposure improves ACC
An editorial arguing for the ACC expansion. It, much like the expansion itself, revolved around the money issue.

11/10/04 — Nothing faaan-tastic at Bobcats' opener
A running diary of my experience attending the first game in Charlotte Bobcats history. Last-second plans are great. The game? Not-so-much.

Barbershop Bonus: Deluxe Expanded Edition

11/17/04 — Students apathetic about crucial game
UNC was playing Duke for a chance to go to a bowl game, so I interviewed 10 people at random in the Pit. Two of them knew anything about the game — time, import, anything! And yet, come Saturday, half of Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium was Carolina blue.

11/22/04 — Bunting could be ACC's best
A column raising the possibility that John Bunting could be named ACC Coach of the Year. I'll be real: before the season, I never — not once — thought I would come close to writing that column. And you didn't either.

12/01/05 — Aspirations dashed for UNC fall sports
An end-of-season analysis of UNC fall sports. Let's just say it's a good thing there was a spring season that followed it.

12/07/04 — Tar Heels impossible to predict
During the course of my tenure I made many predictions regarding the fate of UNC football. Medium or Miss Cleo? Survey says …

4/20/05 — How to bid farewell to an icon … or not
My final column. A look back at all the amazing things I did while at the DTH. But not amazing in the sappy way that sentence implies.

Barbershop Bonus: Cut Version

Barbershop Bonus Online-Only Column

4/11/04 — Lessons in fandom: The German soccer experience
A running diary of my experience attending two Hertha BSC home games while I was studying abroad in Berlin. We intended for this to run in the paper, but it wasn't particularly timely to anything back in the States. Not to mention that it's four times longer than a DTH column's supposed to be.