I'm not going to lie, sometimes writing a sports column has its perks. By merely slipping on our press badges, we sports writers obtain access to the heroes that most people only get to watch from the stands or on television at home. We can mingle with soon-to-be professional athletes and joke around with some of the greatest college coaches in the business - such as Virginia men's tennis coach Brian Boland, whom I once teased about his team's lack of fan support. We get to see our name in the paper and get a kick out of hearing complete strangers talking about our work. And sometimes, we manage to see a side of life in the sports world that most outsiders can only dream about - let me tell you, the steak at John Paul Jones Arena is fantastic.
But it's not all glamour and good times. You might be thinking that I'm about to complain excessively in the next couple of paragraphs - and maybe I am - but watching the clock tick down toward a deadline for tomorrow's paper all the while knowing that you have two tests to start studying for is mighty stressful. And, as I have learned, braving the elements to drive down to the Boar's Head Inn for a multi-hour tennis tournament or sitting through the freezing cold to cover a soccer game is no one's idea of fun.
I promise I'm going somewhere with this. Just let me stay on my soapbox for a little bit longer.
You see, I thought I knew all the drawbacks to the job when I signed up to write a column last fall, but there was one I didn't anticipate. I never guessed that the last column of the year would also be the hardest to churn out. How does one sum up an entire year's worth of Virginia sporting events in a single article? I guess I could just list a few final standings and statistics from a couple of Cavalier teams and call it a day, but can numbers alone tell the whole story? A quick look at the Capital One Cup standings - an aggregation of the overall performance of a school's athletic teams - will tell you that the Virginia men's programs currently rank No. 47 in the nation, while the women's programs are fairing slightly better at No. 22. Another intercollegiate trophy committee, the Directors' Cup, currently places Virginia as the No. 20 overall college sports program in the nation. Not bad by any standards, but what do those rankings mean? Can a computer formula really define a year?
The more I thought about it, the more I saw that computer doesn't even come close to measuring a school's success throughout the year. To me, a year in review isn't a compilation of numbers, rankings or standings. Rather, it's composed of images, feelings and moments. When I sit down and think back on the 2010-11 Virginia sports year, what will I remember? Will I remember that the football team went 4-8? Probably not. But at reunions five years down the road, will I tell some of the current students about the first time I saw Mike London take the field as the Cavaliers' head coach and how Scott Stadium - if only for one game - actually felt like a real college football stadium for the first time in a long time? Absolutely.
Am I still bummed that the men's soccer team did not manage to repeat as national champions in 2010? Sure I am, but you know what? I wouldn't trade celebrating with the team in the stands after Greg Monaco registered an overtime goal to defeat Virginia Tech for another NCAA trophy.
In a few years, what are the odds that I will be able to tell you any statistics about the 2010 Virginia volleyball team's season? Not very good, but yet, I know that I'll be able to vividly recount the details of the first match I attended this year during which I felt tangible energy pulsating through Memorial Gym.
And who knows what the future holds for the No. 1 baseball team, but regardless of whether its season comes to a close with a celebration in Omaha or not, I always will remember sitting in the bleachers with my friends until the 11th inning of the Cavaliers' first matchup against Florida State long after I forget where we finished in the race for the 2011 Capital One Cup.
More than anything else, that's what being a sportswriter has taught me this year. I think I always knew that memories were far more important than statistics, but I never appreciated it until I was forced to sit down and think critically about sports every week. People always will try to quantify sports by ranking teams, counting stats and looking at number of championships. But I think it's also important that we always remember the heart of sports can never be quantified, ranked and spat back at us by a computer. It's about the feeling of pride we get when we watch our team run out onto the field and the unparalleled ecstasy we feel when they triumph. It's about the lessons in humility and patience we learn when they fail and the joy we get from knowing that we're a part of something bigger.
When I sat down to write this column, I initially wanted to decide whether or not this year was a success for Virginia sports. I looked at the rankings, the final standings and the results, and all signs on my computer pointed toward a mediocre year. But my computer didn't live this year in sports; I did. And when I look at that question, and all it stands for, the answer is a resounding yes.
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