Earlier last week I drafted a column about College of DuPage athletics with some extremely negative connotations. It never saw the light of day, much less print or publication, although it was my original intent that it did. I wrote about how the sports programs were detrimental to the community and student body. I implied the negligence of the board and labeled the athletics department a frivolous allocation of resources. I did so brazenly, leaving blank quotations at the end for comments to be inserted by our Athletic Director, Paul Zakowski, and our new president, Ann Rondeau. I emailed them the article and waited for their response.

Their response was much more swift than I anticipated, and much more genial. I had expected retaliation and outrage but instead received a very kind invitation for an interview with Zakowski and the Vice President of Student Services Earl Dowling.

It threw me off kilter. My perspective itself seemed vulnerable. This was not the way in which my life had led me to believe these important people would respond. I was attacking their way of life. Me, a nobody, a 23-year-old sports editor at a community college, just another face in the disillusioned 30,000 of us who walk in and out of those doors every day.

It’s very strange that I am a sport’s editor. I have never had a positive inclination towards sports in the last 18 years or so that I’ve been aware of their existence. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I’ve hated sports. Loathed, even. Sports conceptually, the people who play them, the fanatics, the piles of money garnered by private interests, and of course my inability to participate successfully. Our perspectives are based off memories, and the only thing I have been able to associate with sports is greed, inadequacy and self-loathing.

When I decided to apply for the Courier in March, and realized the only position available was sports editor, I had to swallow a lot of pride. I was walking over the bridge to the Health and Science Center when I saw the ad. It was a strange feeling, yet intense, almost palpable. The prospect of being paid to write was so enticing, and yet the topic of conversation was the bane of my existence. These abysmal opinions had been maintained and molting for over a decade, but the yearning to be paid for my passion was more profound. I dropped everything I was engaged in and drafted an 800 word article comparing and contrasting boxing to mixed martial arts, without a cinch of background or prior knowledge. I was hired two weeks later.

During the big interview, I articulated all these things to them. I explained to them how I felt about sports, and why, and how unpleasant it was to maintain such an opinion about anything. They sat, they listened and they cared. I told them I thought that the most important reason for having this job is to push past my own perspective, to associate new memories and opinions with sports, to exercise my passion while simultaneously letting go of that which has kept me stagnant. I asked them to tell me what they had seen COD Athletics do for students. I asked them for reasons for positive attachment. They had a lot to say.

Check out next week for the extensive Q & A