TepBlog: Dallas

The Final Act

2007-11-10T00:51:00.000-06:00

Curtains rise.
One more go.

First, a quick update on how yesterday went.
As you may have heard, I was scheduled to go to lunch with John O’Rourke (internship coordinator), Cameron Maun (high schools editor), Garry Leavall (sports managing editor) and Bob Yates (sports executive editor). Basically, a big group of big dogs.
Well, that didn’t happen.
Instead, I went to lunch with O’Rourke, Maun, Leavall, Yates, Jeff Miller (another assistant editor) and Keith Campbell (another assistant editor).
The six most powerful men in the office. And me.
No pressure or anything.
The seven of us piled into Mr. Levall’s mini-van (I’m serious). I sat on the back bench seat. In the middle. Between Cameron Maun and Bob Yates.
Some might call that the back middle seat. Most call it the “bitch” seat. I knew my place.
We drove over to Deep Ellum to a place called the Twisted Root. The burgers were excellent, and instead of calling you by your name when your order was ready, they gave you a name. Mine was “The Big Lebowski”.
While I ate my peppercorn ranch and bacon burger, we chatted. I got to tell my world-famous noodling story from my time in Tulsa, and the bosses asked me all about my internship. What I like, what I didn’t like.
An interesting question arose when Bob Yates asked me to evaluate John O’Rourke.
Wait, isn’t that supposed to be the other way around? You mean, I have to evaluate the job that my internship coordinator, the one sitting right next to me, had done?
I told the truth. I told Bob that I couldn’t have asked for a better internship coordinator, and that he provided a great balance between letting me be independent and giving me guidance.
John thanked me for the kind words, but they weren’t kind. They were true.
In the end, everyone had kind words for me. Bob said that I had done a great job, and that I should be proud of my internship experience. He called me the best intern he can remember.
Very, very kind words. Made me feel good.
After lunch, we piled back into the van and drove back to the Morning News. I thanked everyone for lunch, and went back to the TepCube.
Later, I handed out thank-you notes. Is there anything more awkward than handing out thank you notes when the person receiving the thank you note is right there? I think not.
But everyone seemed appreciative, and I even got a hug from Sylvia.
And during the day, everyone kept hinting to me that they expected me to be back. Man, what a dream that would be to be hired by the Morning News fresh out of college.
I left for my game at about 5:15pm, anticipating traffic. And traffic is what I found. But I got there in plenty of time.
Superstar Keith Whitmire joined me in the press box, partly because he wanted to see his cousin in the drill team. He even kept my stats.
The game was pretty good, and it ended at about 10pm, which is always nice. I got my quotes and sent in my story by 10:30pm. That’s efficiency.
I came home, ran back out to make an emergency batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the Morning News’ United Way bake sale, wrote my high school blog, talked briefly to my beautiful girlfriend, and now I’m writing this blog.

Today, I woke up at about 10am. It was my last day. That was my first thought: last day.
I talked to Jen for a little bit before showering and getting on the road at about 11am.
I came into the office early today because Matt Wixon, superstar columnist, offered to go to lunch with me. Matt had taken me to lunch on my first day, and I’m a big fan of closure.
At about noon, Matt and I walked across the street to Subway. The same Subway we went to on my first day.
I ordered my sandwich and, after vehemently insisting on paying for my own, sat down to eat. We talked about everything from high school football to his future to how he think I had done.
Matt told me that I couldn’t have done any better with my internship, and that I really impressed everyone. He also told me that I’m in a position where, should a position come open, they’d come looking for me.
He also said that given the nature of the business, and how people tend to move a lot, that he would be surprised if I didn’t get a job offer before I graduated.
I was floored. I mean…I didn’t, and still don’t, know how to react.
I thanked Matt for all he had done. He didn’t need to help me out, but he did, and those types of guys are OK in my book.
I came back to my desk and was in a goofy mood. I just goofed around with Gaby and tried to make Kate smile, who I think was actually working. I spent most of the day being goofy. After all, it’s my last day.
At about 5pm, I drove over to Highlander Stadium in Highland Park. To say that I drove over there would be an understatement though. It's more like, I got completely lost on my way over there.
But I got there and found a parking spot, despite the fact that this is the worst parking situation in the world. It's a stadium in the middle of a city. It's awful.
But I found a spot, was assured by a police officer that I would not be towed, and went into the press box.
I set up shop. I blogged. I killed time before the game. And no, the food wasn't that great: wraps and chips. Yawn.
The game was pretty good, but went as expected: Highland Park, the No. 1 4A team, beat up on West Mesquite. It was fun to watch, but when it ended at 10:20pm, I had to go to work.
I ran down the steps and onto the field. While I walked over to the Highland Park huddle, Christina, the West Mesquite trainer who was my fan, said hi to me. Great to see her again.
I had a hell of a time tracking down the quarterback Winston Gamso, despite the fact that he is 6'5. But I found him and did my interview with him. I also grabbed coach Randy Allen, who is famous for wearing a fedora. Pretty sweet.
I ran upstairs and got to my computer at 10:31. 14 minutes, kid. Don't blow it on your last night.
I zoomed through the story. At 10:44pm, I hit send.
I was done.
I packed my things and got into the Baron.
I intentionally took a long way back to the Morning News. I took a side street all the way there instead of a highway, because I wanted to take in the city, the skyline, everything.
I drove down Preston Road, singing along to the radio, reflecting on my internship.
I got to the Morning News and made one more ascent in the elevator.
I walked into Cameron's office. The entire newsroom was buzzing with activity, as it was about 30 minutes to deadline.
I put the computer down in his office, shook his hand one more time, and left.
I patted Keith Whitmire and Jason Zimmerman on the back and thanked them again.
I went into John O'Rourke's office and shook his hand one more time.
Then, I left.
As I was walking out the doors of the building, out the back way towards the parking lot, I muttered one thing to myself.
"I will be back. I will make sure of that."
---
So now, I’m sitting at home, a Shiner Bock in my hand. It’s late at night, and my internship is officially over.
12 weeks have passed, and it’s been a bit of a blur. But in the end, I think I can boil the lessons I learned at my internship at The Dallas Morning News down to three points:

1) Journalism is all about being prepared
Especially on a beat, you have to be thinking three steps ahead. If you’re not organized, you’re done. It’s plain and simple. What makes Kate Hairopolous so good on the SMU beat, or what makes Evan Grant so good on the Rangers beat, or what makes Todd Wills so good on the high school beat is the same: preparation. You need to know what you are doing before you do it, and if you don’t, you’re in big trouble.

2) Be flexible
Planning is good. Planning is great, actually. But don’t get so rigid in what you’re doing that you can’t adjust on the fly. Have an idea of where you’re going, but don’t get so committed to it that you can’t change course. This also works in the sense of doing things you’ve never done before. I had limited experience blogging (at least professional blogging) and no experience on camera. But if you go into it with an idea of trying your best and just being yourself, you’re going to come out of it for the better.

3) This job, in the end, is great
Think about what I just spent the last 12 weeks doing: writing about high school football. I got to develop great relationships with coaches across the east side of Dallas, and I got to develop a rapport with the fans and readers of The Dallas Morning News. And, on Friday nights, I got paid to go watch football games. Are the hours crazy? Yes. Do you work hard? Yes. But in the end, I am a sports writer. I get to write about sports. I don’t have to go to a job from nine to five that I hate. I get to go and pay attention to sports. And that, to me, is a pretty sweet gig.

OK, I need to pause to hand out some thank-you’s. This whole experience wouldn’t have been possible without a bunch of other people.
-To everyone at The Dallas Morning News. I go into more depth in my last DMN high school blog entry, but suffice to say that the people at The Dallas Morning News are not just role models for me, but my friends. They are great people who made the experience an unforgettable one, and I’m always going to be grateful for that.
-To my mom, who has always been my biggest fan, and made sure to tell me that as often as needed during my stay at home
-To my dad, who supported me through the good times and the bad, and always took time to congratulate me on even the smallest victory
-To my little brother Jeff, who put up with his older brother staying at home and eating all the best pieces of food. And on a side note, a big congratulations to Jeff, who just earned his Eagle Scout. Way to go, little bro.
-To the producers of the computer programs that made my podcasts possible, including Audacity, Switch and SpinXpress. Tremendous products.
-To my wonderful girlfriend Jen, who inexplicably continues to put up with my crap. Thank you for being amazing
-To the Baron, the real star of the show
-To the readers, who made this blog worth it. I loved getting feedback from all of you, and you made it fun to write.
So where do I go from here? I don’t know. I’ve got one more semester at Mizzou before I graduate. From there, who knows where I’ll land. I’m going to send résumés and cover letters across the nation in hopes that someone will hire me. But if you’ve learned one thing from this blog, it’s that I love journalism, and I’m determined to make it in this business.
And what of the TepBlog? This very well may be the death of the TepBlog. I can’t imagine getting another internship, and it would take an absolutely golden opportunity to resurrect it. I’ve loved this blog, and I’ve loved the readers. It’s been an absolute blast, and if it is the end of the TepBlog, I have no regrets.
So thank you, readers, for coming along with me on this journey. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Back in 1999, legendary announcer Keith Jackson called his final game before retiring. He later came out of retirement, but his words at the conclusion of that game ring true:
“Tennessee 23, Florida State 16. And so it is done. I say goodbye to all of you. God bless, and good night.”
I haven’t earned what Jackson has, but his words speak better than I ever could.
And, for possibly the last time, now I’m writing this blog.

The curtain’s falling.
Good night.

TepBlog Podcast #11, The Finale

2007-11-08T10:03:00.000-06:00

I know, I'm throwing this up quickly, so if you didn't have time to read yesterday's blog, you can read it here.

You can listen to the eleventh and final edition of the TepBlog Podcast below:

To download the podcast, right-click here and select "Save Target As..."

I'll put up my clips later. Kind of in a rush right now.

Hardly A Day Off

2007-11-07T21:36:00.000-06:00

Days off are supposed to be lazy, right?
Right?!?

I guess the laziest part of my day was that I slept in until about 11am. But trust me when I say that that was the laziest I was all day.
I had made a list of things to do today last night, and I immediately got cracking on them.
I put on some music on my computer (Norah Jones and Coldplay) and sat down at my desk. I still had about ten thank you notes to write.
And I cranked them out. My hand hurt, but I finished them. It's a nice feeling being done with a big project like that.
I scratched "Finish thank you notes" off of my list.
Next on the list: cover letter.
I sat on my bed with the computer and started typing. I like my cover letters to be half-informal, half-formal and very unique. So here's what I have so far:

"You don’t know it yet, but you’ve been looking for me. You’ve been looking for the hardest-work, most dependable young sports writer in the nation, the one who’s going to shake up the industry and be a household name in a few years.

Well, you found me.

Though I am a recent college graduate, my experience level is higher than most anyone my age that you will find. I have extensive experience working on deadline, and I’m proud to say that I have never missed a deadline.

I also have significant experience writing features and in-depth stories. And I’m looking to the future: I’ve been hailed for my contributions in multimedia, including online video and blogging.

But above all, I assure you that you will not meet anyone who works harder than me, or who is more dedicated to excellence in every facet of the job. I love journalism, and my passion shines through in my work and work ethic.

Please read through the enclosed clips, look over my résumé and contact my references. Feel free to contact me either by phone or e-mail to set up an interview. I can’t wait to hear from you. Thank you very much for your time."

After talking with Jen, there are a few changes that I think I'm going to make, but overall, I like it a lot. I like the tone of it: confident yet gracious, cool yet ready. I'm pleased with it.
I was also pleased to scratch it off of my list of things to do.
By now, it was just 2:30pm. I made myself something to eat, played a little bit of Wii, relaxed for a bit, and then took to my next task.
Remember when I went in search of those wings for Jen for our costume party on Saturday? Well, I took them out into the garage and spraypainted them black. They look pretty good.
So, basically, I'd accomplished everything I wanted to by about 3:30pm. Pretty sweet.
After going to the bank to deposit a check, I sat around until Jeff got home, when he informed that he had lost his iPod at school.
Well crap. Let's go find it.
We piled into the Jeep (codename: the Heap) and drove up to CHS. We were digging around in the lost and found when I heard a familiar voice come from around the corner.
It was Ms. Peddy, one of my favorite teachers ever. She was my English teacher in my junior and senior year, and is one of the all-time great people. She recently got promoted to assistant principal.
We started talking for a little bit, and then she said that she had been meaning to call or e-mail me.
Why? Because she wanted me to be a judge for Academic Decathalon.
For those unfamiliar with AcDec, it's basically what it sounds like: ten academic events. It's like that competition that Eric and Billy do in "Billy Madison".
Well, Ms. Peddy wants me to judge the interview portion of it.
I asked her how far the program had fallen since they were asking me to do be a judge.
Anyways, I'm going to e-mail her and see where this goes. Could be fun.
No luck finding the iPod, so we headed back to the house.
When I got home, I started thinking about tomorrow. Namely my lunch tomorrow. I'm getting taken out to lunch by John, but apparently we'll be joined by Cameron, Garry Leavall (sports managing editor) and Bob Yates (sports executive editor). I'm a little nervous, to say the least.
I watched "Kid Nation", hung out with the family, ate Boston Market for dinner, talked to my beautiful girlfriend, blogged a little bit on the Morning News high school blog, and now I'm writing this blog.

Big meal tomorrow.
But for me, every meal is big.

My Biggest Fan

2007-11-06T20:12:00.000-06:00

Insert clever comment here.
I'm fresh out of material.

I woke up at 7:45 at the sound of my alarm. It was a bit of a late night last night, finishing up my game capsules. But it was all worth it, because that was one less thing I needed to do today.
I called my girlfriend to make sure she was up to go teach, and she was. There's nothing like starting your day by talking to your wonderful girlfriend. I just knew it would be a good day.
And I started my day like I had planned to start most of my days:
I went to the Y.
I ran my two miles.
98.
On the verge.
Can you feel the excitement? Because I can.
I came home and showered. By now, it was about 9am, so I relaxed for about an hour before leaving my house at 10.
I got to the newsroom, where it was basically just me, Gaby and Kate Hairopolous (whom I have started calling "Hate Kairopolous"...it's a little playful payback for her calling me "intern").
I had a few things to do today, and I wanted to get to work ASAP.
I called the Naaman Forest coach Bill Patterson to ask about an injury I saw on Friday night. Apparently, I saw wrong, because the player I thought had gotten injured wasn't injured at all. I go to college.
But I managed to get a note from him anyways.
I called coach Steve Halpin at Mesquite to reschedule my visit, but he didn't answer. I left a message.
For the next hour or so, I talked with John and generally was unproductive. That brought me up to about noon, when Sylvia yelled at me across the newsroom.
"Greg, your dad's downstairs."
TepDad was coming to visit today, so I met him at the elevators.
I showed him around the newsroom. He saw my cubicle, saw the newsroom, and met Gaby, Kevin and Jay-Z.
Then, we went down to the Headliner Diner, which my dad had apparently been dying to see. That, or that was his excuse for coming to see me at work. One of the two.
I had a grilled chicken sandwich and a cup of chicken noodle soup, while my dad had a cheeseburger and fries. He paid, as God intended.
After lunch, I introduced my dad to Jacques. It's funny: Jacques has been my mentor for almost four years now, and this was the first time he had ever met anyone else in my family.
The final stop on my dad's tour was up on the third floor, at the regular newsroom, or what I call "where real journalism happens."
It was kind of perfect, because my dad got to see Tim Cowlishaw as he was filming "Around The Horn". Pretty neat.
And no, Tim Cowlishaw still hasn't said a word to me.
I walked my dad out, thanked him for lunch, and got back to work.
I called Mike Overton over at West Mesquite and got a call back from Steve Halpin. The rest of my day was set.
I was pretty much doing nothing, killing time until I had to leave, when Cameron called me into his office.
He asked me about what I was doing after my internship, what my schedule looked like and how much freelance work I'd like to do. We basically came to the conclusion that he or John would call me each week and offer me stuff, and I would have the ability to accept or decline the work/money.
Not a bad gig.
After talking with Cameron about college football for ten minutes or so, I needed to go. I grabbed my stuff, walked out to the Baron and drove to West Mesquite.
I caught up with coach Overton in the halls of the fieldhouse, and he tracked down the player I needed to talk to. I interviewed him pretty quickly, shook coach Overton's hand, wished him good luck in his game against Highland Park on Friday, and turned to leave, like I always do.
But then, it happened.
I was about 15 steps from the door when someone behind me beckoned me.
"Excuse me..."
I turned to find a girl, probably a sophomore or junior in high school, who was carrying something out to the field for practice. She was a trainer.
"...are you Greg Tepper?"
Umm...OK, think quickly. Make up a name? Or go with it?
OK, that thought process never went through my head. Instead, I confirmed her suspicion.
She smiled, kind of sighed that "oh, how exciting" sigh, and extended her hand.
"Well, I'm Christina, and I just love your writing. I love your blogs. You're so funny, and you have such a great way of writing. I just love all of your stuff."
No, I'm not making this up.
I was floored. Really? You like my stuff?
Turns out, I had met a fan. And she knew who I was, and what I looked like and everything.
I thanked her, shook her hand, told her that I was glad that I could provide some entertainment and thanked her again. She smiled, and told me that it was nice to meet me.
I walked out of the fieldhouse glowing.
A real fan. And one who's not my mom.
That. Was. Awesome.
I got in my car and drove over to Mesquite. After tracking down coach Halpin, he introduced me to the player I needed to talk to. I knocked out the interview lickety-split and drove home.
I came home and relaxed. I was pretty exhausted, and even took a nap at one point.
But I spent the rest of the night watching Nip/Tuck, talking to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Pretty cool to meet a fan.
The only one, I suppose.

A Meeting To Remember

2007-11-05T23:48:00.000-06:00

Good and bad today.
But, I guess that's life.

I woke up at 9:25am, and panicked a little bit. Do you ever wake up and not know what day it is? That's how I felt today.
After gaining my bearings, I hopped in the shower and changed. I was out the door by 9:40am.
I arrived at the newsroom at about 10:15am, with only Gaby in the newsroom at the time.
The good news is, Gaby was my video partner. So, about 20 minutes later, Carl the video/web guy came over and escorted us into the conference room, where I shot my last video.
Here it is. I think it turned out pretty good.
But I was kicking myself on the way out. It's my last week, right? I should have made a statement and picked a crazy score. For example, Highland Park is the area's No. 1 4A team, and haven't lost at home since 1998. Now, I picked against them (picking my West Mesquite Wranglers), but I should have said something crazy.
Can you imagine?
"I think...West Mesquite 76, Highland Park 3."
That would cause a stir.
Anyway, I moseyed back to my desk, and most of the other people had straggled into the newsroom. I greeted them all, especially Damon, who showed me what might be the greatest Web site in the history of the world.
I tried to get organized. Believe it or not, I have a ton of stuff to do this week, even though it's my last.
I made a couple calls, talked to Kevin Stone the designer about a few things, and tried to get some stuff done before noon rolled around.
Meeting time.
I walked over to the conference room and piled my plate high with barbecue. After all, I had chosen it. And what a choice it was.
I sat down and started munching as the meeting began.
I looked up at the wall-sized dry erase board, and noticed two things.
First, that I had surged into third place in the race for the Prestigious Lance Cup. It's an award named after a former TDMN employee for whoever can get the most blog entries published in the newspaper in the "From The Blog" section on Saturday mornings.
And secondly, I apparently wasn't going to place in the "who got their story in the fastest" contest.
You see, you could always tell when I had placed, and in what place. John puts three pieces of paper up on the board, with the pictures of the three winners on those pieces of paper. Then, he puts another piece of paper over it to hide the winner.
Well, I never got my picture taken for TDMN, so John's been using a picture of Truman the Tiger, Mizzou's mascot, to represent me. Problem is, my Truman picture was horizontal, while the others were vertical.
Thus, it became kind of obvious when I would be placing and not placing.
I came to grips with that (how could I not place when I got my story in at 10:40pm?!?) while John revealed the winners.
Third place: Keith Whitmire
Second place: Damon Sayles
First place: Look in the bag
...
Wait...
...
...wait, what?
John pulled a big brown bag out from underneath the table. And what did he pull from the bag?
A stuffed tiger, complete with a graduation mortar board and a diploma.
The room laughed. I grinned and blushed a little bit. That was a really cool touch.
The meeting continued as usual, with Cameron mentioning that this was my last week, and telling everyone to make sure they say goodbye to me.
Weird. It still doesn't feel like this is ending.
The meeting ended at about 1:45pm and I scampered back to the TepCube. After wasting more time on the afore-mentioned greatest Web site of all time, I formulated a plan of attack.
This week, I needed to go out to Rowlett for a note and for part of next week's cover story, North Garland for a note, Mesquite for a part of next week's cover story and North Mesquite for part of next week's cover story.
I also had game capsules to complete.
And, Cameron had just sent me an e-mail asking me to break down the 10-5A, 12-5A and 10-3A playoff races.
Last week let-up, my butt.
I worked as hard as I could for a couple hours. I got approximately one of my game capsules done while finishing my playoff breakdowns and doing some other miscellaneous crap.
It got to be about 4:10pm before I even knew it.
Crap. I needed to leave.
I grabbed my stuff and ran out of the newsroom, hopping in the Baron and driving to North Garland.
You see, practice was going to end at about 4:45, and I needed to do some interviews.
I got there at exactly 4:50pm (thanks a lot, traffic on US-75), and scrambled inside. I tracked down coach David Farris, whom I talked to for a few minutes along with one of his players.
By 5pm, I was out of there. But my running around wasn't done.
My head was starting to hurt.
I drove as quickly as I could over to Rowlett High School, whose practice was supposed to wrap up at 5:15pm. I got there right as the players were walking off the field.
I ran over and found coach Kiff Hardin. I chatted with him for a few minutes before he introduced me to Dexter Imade, his running back that I would be writing a note about. We talked for a few minutes, and then coach Hardin introduced me to a player I needed to talk to for next week's cover story.
By now, though, it was 5:40pm. I had planned to go over to Mesquite to knock that out, but its practice was ending at 5:45pm, and it was 20 minutes away.
Instead, I got back in my car and started driving home.
Stupid headache.
I got home, after sitting in some traffic, at about 6:30pm. All I wanted to do was sit on my butt and do, uh, nothing.
But I couldn't.
With some encouragement from the TepMom, I got off my butt and went to the YMCA with her.
I got on the treadmill, put on my earphones and started running.
By the end of the first half-mile, I had stepped off the treadmill, clutching my temples.
My head was hurting worse than I had ever felt. Worse than when I got a concussion in high school. It was a searing pain.
I couldn't shake it. I tried getting a drink of water, but that didn't help. I tried walking around, but that didn't help.
I finally sat down on a nearby bench and just closed my eyes. About five minutes later, I felt a little better, and finished out my two miles.
I don't know what caused it, but it was probably a combination of being stressed out, not getting enough sleep, the bright lights, the loud music and the weather changing. But I finished my two miles, and my day.
I came home, showered, ate beef stew for dinner, cleaned my room, talked to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Long, but fulfilling, last Monday.
It's all downhill from here.

Good Riddance, Defensive Player of the Week

2007-11-04T23:22:00.000-06:00

Last time I had to do my Sunday ritual.
Couldn't have come soon enough.

God bless daylight savings time, because that extra hour last night was wonderful.
I woke up today about 11:30am (12:30pm if you're not counting the hour we lost), meaning I got a hell of a lot of sleep, and loved every second of it.
I stumbled downstairs, ate a sausage roll for breakfast and decided that I was going to take a stranglehold of this 100-mile goal.
I got dressed and drove to the Y. I chugged out two miles.
If you're keeping track at home, that puts me at 94 miles with five days to go. This is definitely do-able, and there will be a tremendous celebration whenever I reach the goal. Trust me.
I came home and showered. By now, it was 1:30pm and I needed to get a move on.
By 1:45pm, I was out the door, bound once again for the newsroom.
On the way to the newsroom, while jamming to the new Kanye West album, I began thinking about how this is the last time I'll have to do the Defensive Player of the Week. And, to be quite honest, I was really happy.
Again, let me reiterate: I've loved my internship. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It has been the single most exciting, challenging and beneficial 12 weeks of my life.
But going in every Sunday, trying to track down enough nominations, struggling to get a hold of coaches and players, beating my head against the desk in a vain attempt to hurry a mug shot along...I mean...it's just not that fun.
So excuse me if I was a little excited when I came into the newsroom today, knowing this was the last time I had to do this.
I came in and gathered as many nominations from my e-mail as I had. I had 16, which isn't bad, but the magic number is always 21 (20 honorable mentions, one winner).
I also watched the Chiefs game with fellow Chiefs fan Jason "Jay-Z" Zimmerman. The Chiefs lost. We weren't happy.
Anyways, I was stuck at 16 for quite a while, so I knew it was time to choose someone.
I scanned over them and picked out a winner.
And the coolest thing was, he was from North Mesquite. One of my schools. I don't think I'd given it to one of my schools before.
I called coach Mike Robinson (I had his number because, uh, I cover his school). We chatted for a little bit before getting down to business. Robinson's a guy that I've grown close to and had a good relationship with through this whole thing, so it was easy to talk to him.
He sent me a mug shot and gave me Edrick Boger's cell phone number.
Within 10 minutes.
This was going well.
I called Edrick, and got his voicemail.
Uhoh.
I tried him again.
And he picked up! Hallelujah!
We talked for about 10 minutes, and boom goes the dynamite, I was done.
That was probably the most painless Defensive Player of the Week of all. Best for last, anyone?
I waited around for another 30 minutes to see if any more nominations rolled in. They didn't. But I passed the time chatting with Bobbi Roquemore, who had come in to do a little bit of work herself (reminder: she has the cubicle next to me).
It got to be about 4pm, and I decided that no more nominations were coming in, so I was going to have to find some. I began scouring the box scores for defensive scores, found enough, and was done.
For real.
I asked Jay-Z if he needed anything else, and he said no.
But on the way out, I ended up talking to Bobbi for a good five minutes. She asked me about school, and when I'm done and stuff like that.
Bobbi told me something really nice: "Like, most interns, you can tell they're interns. But with you, you could never tell you were an intern. You've been a great intern. Best I've seen."
That really felt good.
I drove home, listening to the Colts-Patriots game on the way home.
I started writing thank-you notes, ate chicken and pasta for dinner, talked to my wonderful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Now that the nasty part of the work week is out of the way...
Let's enjoy this last go-around.

The Countdown Begins

2007-11-04T00:13:00.001-05:00

Just days left in the internship.
Yet so much to do.

I know, I know, I didn't blog last night. But I wouldn't have had much to blog about anyways. My day was pretty boring, and even though the game I covered last night was exciting, when I got hope, I was just wiped out. So I didn't blog. Forgive me.
Anyways, I woke up today at around 10am, because the TepMom and I had made a plan to go shopping at Kohl's today.
OK, you can knock Kohl's all you want, but it's great value. And I'm a miser.
After showering and getting dressed, TepMom and I took off for Kohl's down the road at about 11am. They were having a pretty decent sale, and I wanted to get a few things.
An hour and $45 later, I had a new pair of basketball shorts (reversible!), two towels and a short-sleeved knock-off Under Armour shirt. Oh, and socks. Not bad, if you ask me.
I came home and settled in for a nice day of college football viewing. My only real other accomplishment for the day was to go give the Baron a bath, spending a whole $1.50 to wash my car. Outside of that, it was just college football all day.
Oh, except for watching "Animal House" with my dad during the Kansas game. That movie never gets old.
At around 4:30pm, I got a call from Greg Riddle, one of the editors up at TDMN. He asked me if I could cover the Richardson Pearce-Mesquite Poteet game on Thursday night, and the West Mesquite-Highland Park game on Friday night.
I said sure.
And that's when it really hit me, the whole finality of this situation. I've got six more days with the Morning News, and then the internship I was so excited about will be over.
That's not to say that I haven't enjoyed it. I've enjoyed the hell out of it. But does it ever seem like the things you are most excited for seem to fly by the fastest?
Anyways, I watched Mizzou dismantle a helpless Colorado team on Fox Sports Net, ate barbecue sandwiches for dinner, talked to my wonderful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Day five is tomorrow.
The clock is ticking.

TepBlog Podcast #10

2007-11-01T16:19:00.000-05:00

You can listen to the tenth installment of the TepBlog Podcast below:

To download the tenth installment of the TepBlog Podcast, right-click here and select "Save Target As..."

And, of course, here's the latest installment of TepClips from the HS Gametime section of The Dallas Morning News:

Football forecast: It's getting hot in District 10-5A

Chance at first playoffs excites Mesquite Horn

North Mesquite quarterback is questionable

Heath seeks strong finish to cap turnaround year

Focus on task at hand, urges West Mesquite coach

What The Hell Is Wrong With You, Kids?

2007-10-31T22:33:00.001-05:00

Halloween was one big buzz kill.
This holiday is dead to me.

I woke up at 10:30am, with a list of things to do. Today was going to be productive, or at least have a semblance of productivity.
Step one: go run.
I got into some workout clothes, hopped in the Baron and took off for the YMCA. With iPod on my arm and dedication in my heart (OK, that was cheesy, but let's just see where it goes), I pounded out two more miles, bringing my total to 90.
90 miles. That's from here to Oklahoma.
I came home and showered. After a quick lunch of chicken nuggets, it was time for phase two of my day.
Step two: run errands.
I hopped back in the Baron and drove south to Home Depot.
You see, a week from Saturday, after my internship ends, I will be heading back up to Columbia both for the Mizzou-Texas A&M game and for Jen's sorority's social. It's a costume party, and Jen is going as a bee.
Which makes me a beekeeper.
Which means I need coveralls.
I made my way to the paint department and voila: white coveralls for eight bucks.
Then, I made my way over to Wal-Mart, where I purchased candy for the evening's festivities. I was really psyched about handing candy out to kids.
From there...well, I felt like doing something nice for Jen. She works really hard during the week doing classes and student-teaching, so I figured I would help her out with her costume. Plus, how hard could it be to find little wings for her bee costume?
Well it turned out to be eight stores and two hours. That's how hard. But I found some wings, and that's all that matters.
I came home and, after a little time to settle down after the infuriating shopping experience (seriously, how hard is it for a store to carry wings?!?), I told Jen the good news and started working on other stuff.
I updated my resume and references, which is always a plus.
I also managed to knock out most of my paperwork for my re-entry into Adventure Club, Columbia Public Schools' after-school program that I worked for last semester.
So, all in all, a productive day.
Except for one...little...thing...
I was all jazzed about handing out candy. That's what makes Halloween fun for adults: seeing little kids all excited about the holiday.
So, I poured all the candy (Kit-Kats and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) into a big bowl and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Apparently, people hate Halloween, because we didn't get more than 20 kids the entire night.
What the hell, kids? This is HALLOWEEN! I don't care if it's a school night; IT'S HALLOWEEN!
I don't care if you had church; IT'S HALLOWEEN! Worship all that is evil for a night, then repent on All Saints Day tomorrow!
However, through all the frustration of only having less than 20 trick-or-treaters, I did spot the most original costume I've ever seen.
A kid cut the bottom out of a laundry basket, put suspenders on it, got into the basket and stapled socks and shirts to himself.
He went as a dirty laundry hamper.
Props, kid. I gave him extra Reese's.
After that, I sat around, wrote some e-mails, talked again to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Totally disappointed in the youth.
Except for laundry kid. He rules.

Running Angry

2007-10-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Today, in a word:
Tough.

My mom tried to wake me up at 5:45am to go run, as we had agreed upon, but there was no way in hell that was happening.
Instead, I woke up at 9am, and knew immediately that I needed to get going.
I showered, changed, grabbed the pertinent stuff and ran out the door at 9:30am.
First stop: Albertson's, a grocery store down the street. Inside, Bank of America.
I had a significant paycheck in my hand as I approached the Bank of America kiosk...
...which was closed until 10am.
Nice.
I hopped back in the Baron and drove three miles north to Lewisville, where banks apparently keep normal business hours. I deposited my check and took out a little cash for myself.
After that, it was back south to Coppell, where I pulled into the Valvoline oil change place.
Can you believe that between June 29 and now, I've driven 6,000 miles in the Baron? Me neither.
I got the oil changed (I'm still amazed at how quickly they can do it) and drove to work.
I plopped down in my chair at about 11am. My tasks were clear, and I wanted to knock them out as soon as I could.
I called coach Tam Hollingshead over at Rockwall-Heath, but instead got his secretary, who told me that he was currently unavailable. I left a message for him.
I called coach Steve Halpin over at Mesquite. Remember, I went over there yesterday and he wasn't there? Well, I got a hold of him and interviewed him for the piece I'm writing about his defense.
By then, it was about noon, and my tummy was growling a little bit. And yes, I said tummy. And yes, I'm comfortable with that.
But as I was getting up to go to the Headliner Diner, I remembered that John O'Rourke was back from London.
I asked him about his travels, and how he was doing. He showed me some pictures, including where he spotted Christian Bale. Pretty sweet.
We talked a little business, including last week's HS Gametime debacle. He asked me if I had learned anything, to which I replied that yes, I had.
I feel like John has done me such a solid by putting up with me and holding my hand through certain parts of the internship that I owe it to him to be completely independent and hard-working during the last two weeks of my internship. I need to go out with a bang.
I walked from John's office to the office next door, Jacques Taylor's. I sat down and chatted with him. Like a good mentor, Jacques asked me three things that I had learned, and one thing that I've struggled with.
Learned: how to hold a beat, how to cultivate sources, how to have fun with the job
Struggled: staying hungry for that next storyline, wanting to make every story your best
We chatted for a while, and he gave me more advice. Jacques has been about as good of a mentor as you could ask for.
Finally, 45 minutes after I had originally gotten up from my cube, I made it the Diner. I ate a grilled chicken sandwich, a cup of clam chowder and a cookie. Sound familiar? It's my usual.
I went back to my desk and called Mike Overton over at West Mesquite. He told me that practice would be going from 3pm to 6pm, so I could swing by then.
I had a better idea: could I swing by before practice and talk to a player?
Sure! That works great!
Score.
Right after I got off the phone with Overton, Hollingshead from Rockwall Heath called me back. We chatted, and he asked me if I knew if his team could make the playoffs.
To be honest, I didn't know, but I pulled up the standings on the computer and told him the bad news:
His team was eliminated.
He said that he thought so, but he wanted to make sure he wasn't missing something.
We chatted for a little longer, and he talked about how he's proud of his team, and that he's seen great improvement this year.
And great improvement is right: Heath has gone from 1-9 last year to 5-3 right now. That's a program on the rise.
Believe it or not, Hollingshead thanked me as we got off the phone.
He thanked me for the coverage, and for caring about his team, and for being respectful and honest and truthful.
I smiled as I hung up the phone. That was very nice to hear.
By now, it was 1:45pm. I needed to kick it into warp drive.
I quickly transcribed my interviews with the two Mesquite players, printed off directions, and zoomed out to West Mesquite High.
I tracked down coach Overton, who was actually doing a film session at the time, and asked him to talk to Chazz Virgil, one of the wide receivers. Coach led Chazz and I into a conference room and we talked for, oh, two minutes. I didn't need much; it's just a notebook.
I thanked coach Overton and we talked for a few more minutes. I have to say, the best part of this job has been the off-the-record human-to-human conversations I've had with people. Because, in the end, I just like talking to people.
I got in my car. It was 3pm.
I drove home, stopping at Bank of America again to deposit an expense check I got today.
I got home at 4pm and sat around.
But in sitting around, I got to thinking.
And in thinking, I started to get lonely.
I started thinking about all of my friends up at school. I started to think of my fraternity brothers. I started to think of my girlfriend.
I got lonely.
You know, I think I've handled this pretty well. I've been away from 95% of the people that I care about, and I've been pretty strong throughout it. And granted, I have a great family to lean on.
But some days...man, I just miss being in Missouri.
I called Jen at around 6:30pm just to tell her that I miss her.
Then, at about 7pm, TepMom and I made it to the YMCA.
My loneliness turned to anger once I got to the Y. Don't ask me why, but it did.
So I upped my speed.
And upped it some more.
Soon, I was just flying on this treadmill. Going about 30% faster than normal.
I eventually slowed down, but I pumped through two miles, and immediately felt better.
I guess I just needed to let off some steam.
I 'm about to go shower and watch the season premiere of Nip/Tuck, which I am super psyched about.
I came home and now I'm writing this blog.

I'm over everything now.
Luckily, I have a day off tomorrow.

Joining The Team

2007-10-29T23:35:00.000-05:00

It's my second to last Monday.
Which means, it only has to suck one more time.

I woke up at 9:35 and panicked.
Crap, I needed to get going.
I showered, shaved, changed into some nice clothes, remembered my freakin' badge, and drove to work.
I got into the office, miraculously, at around 10:10am, and there was nothing to worry about.
In fact, overall, things were pretty good. My cover story was done, and I already knew what I wanted to do for next week's cover story, so I could get a jump on that today.
I said hi to Damon, Gaby, Bobbi, David, Todd, Randy, Keith, Jason (aka Jay-Z), Matt, Carl, Cameron, Sylvia, Wendy and Kevin. You know, I don't say it enough, but I really do work with some cool people. They've all treated me very well since I've been here, and I've grown to care about all of them.
Well, basically, Damon and I started getting into mischief like we usually do. We started talking about a certain school (which I will not name, as it is a little embarrassing for them). You see, this school, while I am sure the people are very nice, stinks at football. And by "stinks at football", I mean that, as sad as it is, it might be the worst team in the history of football.
Let's put it this way: so far, through eight games, this school is 0-8. It has been outscored 436-0. It hasn't scored a point, but has given up 54.5 points per game.
And in its latest game, an 83-0 drubbing, its opponents didn't even score in the fourth quarter. The opponents called off the dogs after three quarters and cruised to an 83-point win.
So, Damon and I started talking about this school. One of us mentioned that we could assemble a team to defeat this team.
And that just opened up a whole new can of worms.
So, Damon and I started building our starting lineup. Damon would play safety and wide receiver. I'd play tight end and defensive end.
Then, we started asking everyone around us. We got everyone on board: video and web guru Carl Ellis would return kicks and punts, columnist Matt Wixon would play quarterback and linebacker, stat guy/show runner Jason Zimmerman would play on the line, and so on.
Eventually, we had a whole team.
So watch your back, team that shall remain nameless. You're next.
Anyways, about 11am rolled around, and Keith Whitmire and I filmed our video. I think it turned out great, and I look pretty relaxed and pretty darn good. But you can judge by yourself by clicking here to watch it.
So, I went back to my desk, and Greg Riddle, one of the commanding officers, came over to assign me to a game. Or two.
Turns out he needs me to cover Thursday's Southlake Carroll vs. Grapevine game, and Friday's Naaman Forest vs. Rockwall game.
Now, the Friday game, I have no beef with. That's the game I was gunning for, as it is the biggest game in the East Zone.
But Thursday? Well, crap. There goes my day off.
But the good news is that right after Greg left, I got my game capsule assignments for the week. I immediately started working on them; it was the biggest thing standing between me and being ahead of the game this week.
Unfortunately, I was only about halfway done with the capsules when noon rolled around. Meetin' time.
We had hamburgers for lunch, which is always nice. John was out of town, so Cameron ran the show.
No real big news from the meeting. It was just, you know, a meeting. But the cool thing was that Todd Wills pointed out that next week will be my last week, and thus, I should pick lunch for that meeting. That was pretty cool of him.
I chose barbecue, for the record.
The meeting kind of stretched on and on, and I didn't get back to my desk until 1:45pm. I finished my game capsules by 2:30pm (score!) and planned my next attack.
Step one: make contact with Mesquite.
I called over to Mesquite High and got a hold of coach Steve Halpin after a couple tries. I told him that I was interested in writing a story about his defense, and he told me that I was more than welcome to come to practice, which would be ending at 6pm.
Step two: call North Mesquite.
I called over to North Mesquite and got a hold of coach Mike Robinson. Remember Blair Johnson, the quarterback I wrote a story about a couple weeks back? Well, he got injured in the last game. Robinson was very vague about it, and listed him as questionable. Still, it's a note.
Step three: call Mesquite Horn.
I called over to Horn and got no answer. By now, it was 3:30, and the team was probably practicing. I pulled up my handy-dandy Mesquite Horn profile sheet that I had made for each team at the beginning of the internship and discovered that the team would be practicing until "5:30ish". Sounds good to me.
I printed off directions, grabbed my paycheck and a couple copies of last week's edition of HS Gametime, and drove off to Mesquite at around 4:30pm.
I arrived at Horn's practice at around 5pm, and watched. At around 5:15pm, coach Don Payne came over to me. Coach Payne's a real nice guy who has always appreciated what I do, and is very cordial and obliging with me. We talked about his team's playoff chances (it might make it!) and I could tell he was kind of giddy with the idea.
Mesquite Horn has never been to the playoffs. Granted, the school opened in 2000, but that's a heck of a story, isn't it?
I needed to talk to one of his receivers, but Payne told me that he could only get me in touch with him after practice.
So I waited.
And waited.
Did I ever mention that 75% of sports journalism is waiting? Because it is.
Finally, at 5:45pm, I got a hold of the receiver. I shook his hand, and his hand engulfed mine.
This kid, Kelan Cheadle, officially has the biggest hands I've ever seen, and I've shaken hands with Dirk Nowitzki.
I got out of there at 5:50pm. I needed to hustle.
I hopped in the Baron and flew to Mesquite High, arriving at 5:57pm.
But practice was already over.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
I found an assistant coach.
"Hey, I'm looking for coach Halpin?"
"Uh, he's gone."
Uh oh.
"Well, I'm interested in talking to these two players. Coach knows I was coming."
"Oh, ok."
Sweet.
So, two Mesquite players and I sat down in coach Halpin's office and chatted for a little while. It went well, and I was very happy with what I accomplished.
I drove home, ate jambalaya for dinner, talked to my beautiful girlfriend on the phone, surfed the Web, watched a little bit of Monday Night Football, and now I'm writing this blog.

Only one more awful Monday to go.
But I've made my Tuesday manageable.

In and Out

2007-10-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Quick trip into the office today.
That's what I like to hear.

I woke up on my own at about 10:45am, and it was glorious. Really, it was very nice to not set an alarm and just go with whatever happened.
I got up and ate a couple sausage rolls that my dad got me. I didn't really do a whole lot until 12:20pm, when I got off my butt and went to the YMCA.
Two miles later, I'm inching closer to my goal. Can you freakin' believe it? 86 miles. That's, like, 86% of the way to my goal. Unbelievable.
Anyways, I came home and showered. I checked my blogs before I left, noting that Missouri had moved up to No. 9 in the polls.
I hopped in the Baron and drove to the newsroom. I pulled up to the gate and grabbed my...
...wait...
...wait...
...AW CRAP.
I had left my badge and parking pass scanning-thingy on my dresser at home. This did not make me a happy camper.
However, I schmoozed past the parking lot guard, and I snuck into the building behind someone with their pass. I'm a sneaky little guy.
I got upstairs and chatted with some of the stat people. It wasn't until about 2:45pm that I actually got to work.
There was good news to be had: I had about 16 nominations waiting for me in my e-mail, which is always nice.
I gathered a few more nominations and chatted with the very nice stat people. Bobbi Roquemore came in to do the Cross Country Runner of the Week, and it was nice to see her.
During some down time, I moseyed over to Sylvia's desk, looking for my paycheck. I didn't find that, but I did find Kate Hairopolous, the Morning News' SMU writer who usually sits across from me. A stat person had Bogarted her desk, so she had moved over to another desk across the newsroom.
Our conversation went like this:
Me: "Hey, Kate! How are you?"
Kate: "Oh, I'm alright. My coach [SMU coach Gary Bennett] is about to get fired."
Me: "Oh, really? Like, sometime this week?"
Kate: "No, like, momentarily."
I laughed. Turns out Bennett was fired later that evening. But it was cool to hear it from the source.
I went back to my desk and kept working. By now, I had 20 nominations, and I needed to choose my DPOW.
There was one guy from Dallas Carter who helped pitch a shutout.
Oh, and we already had his mug shot.
Jackpot.
I called the coach and talked to him. I called the player and talked to him. I wrote the briefs. I found one more nominee.
I walked out of the newsroom.
4:15pm.
That is freakin' efficiency, baby.
I drove home, drank more Heineken (me and my parents killed the keg), ate burgers and brats for dinner, talked to my wonderful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

If only every Sunday could be like this.
My job would be easy.

Viva La Draught Keg

2007-10-28T01:08:00.000-05:00

College football and beer.
God bless America.

I woke up this morning at about 10am, because I had some work to do.
But again, my back was killing me this morning. Not as bad as before, but it still hurt.
Nonetheless, I got out of bed, stretched it a little bit, and walked downstairs. Everyone was at Jeff's cross-country meet, so I was all alone.
I took the opportunity to read the paper and work on my cover story for next week, a breakdown of the District 10-5A playoff race.
And, believe it or not, I finished the cover story. So that's, like, done.
Pretty sweet.
By then, it was noon, and I had already been watching some college football.
Which reminded me...
I went upstairs, changed, and drove to the Y. Bad back and all, I ran my two miles. I'm at 84 miles, baby, and we're almost there.
The reason I did that was because the Mizzou-Iowa State game started at 1pm, and I had to get home to listen to it via the magic of the radio on the Internets.
Long story short, Mizzou won, 42-28, in a bittersweet game. Yes, Mizzou won, but it should have won by more. Yes, Mizzou is 7-1, but Pig Brown, the team's best defensive player, ruptured his Achilles tendon and is likely out for the rest of the year. Ugh.
While I was listening to the game, I tapped my Heineken Draught Keg. Officially, this is the coolest thing ever. It combines two of the greatest things in the world: beer and toys. And the beer is fresh for 30 days! And at only $20, you can't beat the price, especially for 20 beers.
I drank some of my Draught Keg as I watched college football all day.
At about 5pm, TepMom and I took off for Grapevine Mills mall. I needed/wanted a classy coat since it's getting colder, and so we went to Burlington Coat Factory.
I ended up finding a very classy black wool coat, which buttons down the front. It's not quite a pea coat, and it's not quite a trench. It's really freakin' cool. And, for $100, it ain't bad.
On the way home, TepMom and I picked up Wing Stop wings and CiCi's pizza. We all ate dinner while watching more college football.
And now, I just got off the phone with my beautiful girlfriend, and now I'm writing this blog.

A much needed day off today.
And tomorrow, it's back to the grind.

Exercising My Executive Powers

2007-10-27T01:28:00.000-05:00

And what the blog title means is that I'm not going to blog tonight.
It's late right now (1:30am) and I am hoping to get up early and run, do some work, watch college football and drink as much of a Draught Keg as possible.
Suffice to say that my back still hurt today, but I ran my two miles, covered a blowout, got my story in in plenty of time, and now I'm writing this blog.
I'll blog at you tomorrow, I promise.
I just need the night off.

TepBlog Podcast #9

2007-10-25T17:08:00.000-05:00

You can listen to the ninth installment of the TepBlog Podcast below:

To download the podcast, right-click here and select "Save Target As..."

And, as always, here is the latest batch of my clips from HS Gametime in The Dallas Morning News:

Mesquite Poteet confident about playoff chances

Terrell coach remains positive despite two challenging seasons

Converted DB plays well as Rockwall receiver

Multifaceted QBs meet in Mesquite-Horn clash

South Garland QB sets district passing mark

Exactly What I Needed

2007-10-24T22:44:00.000-05:00

Had a day off today.
Ahhhhhhhhhh.

I woke up at 10am because I actually set an alarm.
I don't really know why I set an alarm. But I did. Go with me on this one.
I got up and immediately went downstairs to play Wii.
Then, I made it back up to my bed to surf the Internets and watch TV.
Then, I played Wii some more.
Basically, the Cliff's Notes version of my day is Wii and TV. Hey, that rhymes!
I made chicken nuggets for lunch and continued my day as usual.
I did actually do a little bit of work today. I called Homer B. Johnson, the Garland ISD athletic director, to get his opinion for a "10 Greatest High School Football Games" piece that TDMN is putting out in a month or so. You have to call him "Homer B. Johnson" because the man has a stadium named after him, and the stadium is called Homer B. Johnson Stadium. So there.
I also did a little bit of work on next week's cover story. Nothing major, just some touch-ups for now.
Then, I Wii'd some more.
I finally got off my lazy ass at around 5:45pm, when I got up and went to the Y.
Two miles later, I'm at 80 miles. 80 freakin' miles. I don't believe it.
I came home, talked to my beautiful girlfriend who was freaking out about something for no apparent reason, ate rotisserie chicken for dinner, prepared my lecture for the CHS class tomorrow (giddy up), watched those Boston Terrorists beat up the Rockies in game one of the World Series (God, I hate Boston so much), and now I'm writing this blog.

I told you yesterday that I needed a pick-me-up.
But I'll settle for a slow down.

Slapping a Band-Aid on a Gunshot Wound

2007-10-23T21:30:00.001-05:00

Had to do some emergency journalism today.
No, I'm not happy about it.

Admittedly, most of my day was pretty good today.
I woke up at around 10am and showered, following that with an uninspiring drive to the newsroom. Really, it wasn't that bad: it was just like every other drive.
Today, I had a few things I wanted to get done. Number one was to finish the notebook.
So, I got on the horn. I called Rockwall coach Scott Smith (the one who may or may not hate my guts) and asked him about his new tight end. That was a tip I got from South Garland coach Mickey Moss. See, it pays off to do stuff like that.
But while I was on the phone with Smith, I noticed that John O'Rourke was clicking in. Obviously, I was going to finish my conversation with Smith before going to talk to John, so I did.
Little did I know that all hell was about to break loose.
Let me explain: my cover story for Thursday's HS Gametime is about Pete Gee, the coach out at Terrell High School. He's in his second year, moving from a defensive coordinator job at the 2005 state champion Euless Trinity to a pretty "meh" program out at Terrell. I thought it was an interesting story because he chose to move out into the sticks from a powerhouse.
John told me that he had wished that he would have been more vigilant in talking to me about what this story was about. Turns out, he's not crazy about the story for a number of reasons: it's an outlying school, the team stinks this year, and the story isn't all that interesting.
Crap. Now I feel awful.
I really felt like I was letting everyone down. I thought it was a good story, but I didn't think of the fact that there might not be that much interest in it. Yeah, I know I'm writing about a bad program. I should have forseen that.
John blamed himself. He said something along the lines of, "you've been doing such a great job that I kind of forgot that you do need direction, and that I need to be giving you more direction than the staff writers."
This...well, I don't really know how to feel about that. Yeah, it's great that he thinks I'm doing a great job, but I don't want to be a burden. I don't want people to look at me and think, "Oh, he's the intern, we need to hold his hand."
I've been trying to establish myself as part of the team, and I feel like I killed that with not thinking my story idea through. I felt terrible. I felt like an idiot. I had screwed up, and I really needed to take responsibility.
I tried apologizing to John, but he wouldn't hear of it. He said that I had nothing to apologize for, and that he, being the expert with the experience, should have been there to direct me, a new guy who doesn't have the experience.
Still...I feel terrible.
But now we had to fix the page. John's idea was to not put the Pete Gee story on the cover, but to instead run my lead note as a cover.
Fine. Except he wanted me to write a 12-14 inch lead note.
Well, crap. What in the world am I going to do for that?
I sat down and thought. What kind of storyline can I write about?
I chose to write about Mesquite Poteet. The idea is, Poteet has played well, and it's 2-2 in district. Problem is, only three teams get in the playoffs from its district, and Highland Park, Richardson Pearce and West Mesquite all look like juggernauts. So, the idea is how do you approach it?
After a lunch of a grilled chicken sandwich, a cup of clam chowder and a cookie from the Headliner Diner, I killed as much time as possible before running out to Mesquite Poteet.
I drove out there and tracked down coach Charles Hesse and the quarterback Drew Maddox.
I drove home pissed off. How could I do this? How could I screw this up so badly? I was really angry.
I came home and changed. I went to the Y.
I ran my two miles, and my stress seemed to melt away. Amazing what exercise will do for you: get you closer to a goal (78 miles!) and relax you.
I came home and ate chicken and rice for dinner.
I came upstairs and, for all the anger that I had, I knocked out the Mesquite Poteet story, plus an extra note, in about 45 minutes.
I'm still not happy about it, though. I feel like I've let everyone down, and I don't want people to think that I can't be trusted to work on my own. I'm here to be part of the team, and I feel like I let the team down today.
I watched some Good Eats on Food Network, talked to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Tough day today.
I could use a pick-me-up.

Psych!

2007-10-22T21:27:00.001-05:00

Thought I was blogging this weekend, huh?
BOOM! IN YOUR FACE!

OK, so I may have fibbed just a little bit.
My last blog entry on Friday night ended like this:

"This whole game coverage thing is killing me.
And I have to do it again tomorrow!"

Well...that's not exactly true.
And you may have noticed that I mentioned (albeit in passing) in my podcast that I would be working the Kimball-Adamson game on Saturday night.
That, too, is not exactly a shining beacon of truth.
But, all of these were planted with purpose. You see, they were red herrings in my big ruse.
Because on Saturday morning, I woke up very early and hopped on a plane to St. Louis, was picked up by my fraternity brother Ryan, and surprised my girlfriend.
I'm not going to recap the entire weekend, but suffice to say that I got to spend a lot of time with my wonderful girlfriend, a lot of time with friends and fraternity brothers, saw your Missouri Tigers kick the dog crap out of Texas Tech, and just had a great time. I'll put up some photos a little later, but just suffice to say that it was a great weekend.
So, TepBlog fans, I'm sorry for lying to you, but I hope you see that it was for a good cause.
Now, on to today!
After staying at Jen's folks' house last night (which was wonderful; thank you so much again, Mr. and Mrs. O!), I caught a 7am flight back to Dallas. I had parked at Dallas Love Field, and had intentions of going straight to work from there.
Wasn't going to happen.
Instead, I drove back home, looking at the traffic looming upon my return trip back downtown. I had forgotten my notebook with some quotes for my next cover story, which I had to write today.
I also grabbed a fleece, because it was freakin' cold outside. What the hell is this, Texas? You're supposed to be hot! Up yours.
I drove back to the newsroom after it took me an hour to get there. Traffic, like I thought, did not cooperate, but I guess that's what I get for not being smart.
Anyways, I got to the newsroom and marveled at my own work. You see, I spent last night doing my game capsules, and they were almost completely done. All I had to do was put times and locations on the top of them, which took about ten minutes.
So, it was 10:30am, and I was already done with my game capsules. Maybe this would be a really good day.
At around 10:45am, I got pulled into the conference room by Carl, one of the web guys. Carl shoots our videos, and it was time for me and Keith Whitmire to talk about Naaman Forest vs. Lakeview Centennial.
I honestly do not think this video came out well. That's not Carl's fault or Keith's fault; I just think that I come off as unprepared and bumbling. I don't know.
You can judge for yourself by clicking here to watch it.
I went back to my desk, but before I could really do anything, it was time for our meeting.
But on my way over to the conference room, John O'Rourke pulled me into his office. This was good because I needed to talk to him about my upcoming cover stories.
We talked about this week's cover story and next week's story.
Then, John told me that I had been receiving praise for getting my story in on time, sending in a story on time without quotes if it was necessary, and staying in touch with the desk. He also said that I've been doing a really good job, and that I've impressed quite a few people.
I was really flattered. I've been trying very hard, and I'm glad to see that people have noticed, and that it is translating into results.
We walked over to the conference room, where I loaded up my plate with Pei Wei. I like Chinese food, so there were no complaints from me.
The meeting started as usual, with discussions of the various issues and story ideas that were being tossed around.
Then, John got up and revealed the top 3 people in terms of getting their story in the quickest.
Remember how I've been living in second place? Like, six consecutive second place finishes or whatever?
Well, in the words of the late great Mark Holtz...
HELLO WIN COLUMN!
Yup. I took down first place. I can't believe it, either, but I'm pumped up. And yes, it's an arbitrary award, but it means a lot to me.
You see, I pride myself on working the hardest. I'll never claim to be the best writer in the world. But, I would like to be known as the hardest-working one. And even though this award carries no prize, it's still very, very nice to get. It means that I am becoming what I want to become.
The meeting went a little long and wrapped up at about 1:30pm. I went back to my desk and tried to focus on my cover story.
I was about halfway done with the story when a brainstorm hit me: Keith Whitmire had forwarded me a possible note, so why don't I use my spare time earned through doing my game capsules early to get one of my notes done?
I called South Garland coach Mickey Moss, but he wasn't there. Turns out he was at practice from 2:30-3:30pm.
It was 2:30 then. I cultivated a plan, and put it into action.
I worked on my story up until about 2:45pm, then ran out to the Baron and drove over to Homer B. Johnson Stadium to catch up with Moss and his quarterback Nick Florence.
Thanks to a little bit of traffic, I didn't get to the stadium until about 3:15pm.
And the team was filing onto the buses.
Aw crap.
I parked my car and ran down the hill to find coach Moss. I spotted him and asked him if I could talk to him and Nick.
He told me that they were headed back to South Garland, and that I could have him there.
So, the Baron joined a parade of three buses and three huge pickup trucks back to South Garland High School. I felt like a dwarf in the NBA.
10 minutes later, I was in coach Mickey Moss' office. I got a quote from him, and then put the notebook away and asked him a couple more questions.
This was probably one of the cooler conversations I've had during my tenure. It was a legitimate, man-to-man, honest talk about what was going on in the area. Moss was very candid, and seemed almost eager to get his thoughts out there.
Now, obviously, everything he said was off the record, but it was still cool to hear it, and it gave me some ideas of some possible storylines to follow.
I caught up with Nick Florence and talked with him for a little bit. It was about 3:30pm when I hopped back in the Baron and drove back to TDMN.
I sat back down at my computer and finished my cover story. This was a huge relief, considering my next cover story, a profile of the 10-5A playoff race, isn't going to take too much time. My goal tomorrow is to finish my notebook and get 90% done with my next cover story. Ambitious? Yes. But doable.
Now, as you may remember, TDMN super-blogger Tim MacMahon knows this blog exists. In fact, I would almost go as far as to say that he's a TepBlog fan. I'm sure he'd call me a stupid intern for calling him a TepBlog fan, as that probably ruins his credibility, but I think its true. He always gives me crap about saying that he's "more bark than bite."
Well, MacMahon and I had a nice long talk today about a variety of topics. For as much crap as he takes across the blogosphere (and he'll admit to as much), the man knows his stuff. You might not agree with his opinions or assessments, but he has factual backup for everything. The man knows his stuff, period. So, it was really nice to have a good conversation with the blogface of The Dallas Morning News.
Blogface. I like that. In fact, consider it trademarked.
Anyways, after wrapping up my conversation with T-Mac (complete with him trying to guilt-trip me into covering a game on Thursday night, claiming that he thought I was "the type of guy who goes the extra mile, but I guess not", which is totally not cool), I drove home. I have to admit that I started getting drowsy at the wheel, so when I got home, I just about collapsed on the couch.
So, no, I didn't run today. But I'm running tomorrow. Mark it. 24 miles to go.
I took my dad to Coppell Tire and Auto to do something with the Jeep, ate chili for a second consecutive night for dinner, watched some Monday Night Football, talked to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Sorry to give you all the fakeout.
But I hope you understand.

My Friday, Briefly

2007-10-20T00:54:00.001-05:00

Let's zoom through this.
I'm really tired.

Basically, my day was boring. I went to the Y and ran my two miles (which, combined with the two miles I ran yesterday, make 76. YES!), and that was really the highlight of my day.
Well, except for the sandwich I made for lunch. You really should have seen this thing. Bread slice, mayo, salami, salami, turkey, bread slice, lettuce, tomato, salami, salami, turkey, turkey, bread slice. It was a thing of beauty.
Anyways, at about 5:45pm, I was off to Mesquite Memorial Stadium to cover the Mesquite vs. North Mesquite game.
I really thought this thing was going to be a blowout on Mesquite's part, but North Mesquite had other plans, jumping out to a 21-0 lead early.
Oh, and it also happened to be the slowest game ever. Halftime didn't end until 9:30pm, which made me a very unhappy camper.
Mesquite ended up coming back and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, winning 28-21. But by this time, it was 10:35pm. I needed to send something in for the first edition.
I pounded out a story and sent it in without quotes. That will tide them over.
I sprinted down the steps, almost biting it on a number of occasions because the steps were so steep.
I tracked down Mesquite coach Steve Halpin and talked with him for a little bit. I asked him where Dominique Finley, the running back who had scored the winning touchdown, was.
He was in the locker room, and the team was about to meet for a post-game meeting.
That's fine. I'll just wait.
And wait.
And wait.
An 11-year-old kid tried to convince me to write a story about him. I almost had to write a story about me punting him onto the field.
Finally, after 15 minutes of listening to that kid babble, Finley emerged from the locker room. I did my interview and ran back up to my computer.
11:05pm.
Time to fly.
I reworked my story and made it so that it was decent. I sent it in at about 11:10pm. The desk was happy to have it.
On the drive home, I had to remind myself that I'm not going to win a Pulitzer with every story. I just have to let this one go. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't my best.
I drove home, stopping for gas and a late night snack on the way, wrote a wrap-up blog on the DMN high school blog, and now I'm writing this blog.

This whole game coverage thing is killing me.
And I have to do it again tomorrow!

TepBlog Podcast #8

2007-10-18T14:11:00.000-05:00

You can listen to the eighth installment of the TepBlog Podcast below:

To download the podcast, right-click here and select "Save Target As..."

And, of course, here are my latest clips from HS Gametime in The Dallas Morning News:

North Mesquite QB is the total package

Forney's offensive line has been a bright spot

Short passing game keys Royse City attack

Garland Lakeview hopes time is right to end losing streak to Garland

Rushing yards pile up on ailing Mesquite Horn

A Big Bag of Nothing

2007-10-18T01:24:00.000-05:00

Lazy Wednesday today.
Just what the doctor ordered.

I'd love to sit here and tell you that I had many fanciful journeys today, meeting wondrous characters and engaging in adventure after glorious adventure that will be etched in my memory until the end of time.
But that would be a lie, because I spent most of my day on the couch.
I woke up at 11am by my own recognizance, and made my way to said couch. I sat there unmoving, with the exception of playing Wii and making a sandwich for lunch, until 3pm.
At 3pm, I went to the Y and ran my two miles. It's kind of sad when your most exciting adventure of the day was to work out.
I came home and cleaned out my car.
I played some more Wii.
I ate Chick-Fil-A for dinner.
I watched TV.
I did nothing.
I surfed the Internet.
I did nothing.
See, I know that a few days ago I told you that I wouldn't write abbreviated blogs. I told you that I was taking a renewed interest in the quality of the TepBlog. Well, here's the sad thing:
This is not abbreviated.
This is basically my entire day.
And I just got off the phone with the most beautiful woman in the world, and now I'm writing this blog.

A real tough day today.
Certainly hope tomorrow eases up on me.

160th Post Extravaganza!

2007-10-17T00:37:00.000-05:00

In a way, today was a representation of every day.
Busy, but rewarding.

First off, an anecdote from after I blogged, but before I went to sleep last night.
After posting my blog, and while I was on the phone with my beautiful girlfriend to say goodnight, I got a phone call from Okwus Ubogagu.
Now, me and Okwus go way back. Way back to Coppell Middle School North. Yeah, way far back. But I haven't talked to Dilly (his real nameis Okwudili or something like that, so we started calling him Dilly) in years.
Anyways, he left me a voicemail while I was on the phone with Jen, and after hanging up with her, I checked it:
"GREG MOTHERF***ING TEPPER! Dog, it's Okwus. So, I TiVo High School Sports Special every week, so I go into watch it, and THERE'S GREG TEPPER OF THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS TALKING ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL! That's so huge, dude! Anyways, good job, man, and if you get a chance, call me back. Later."
I got a kick out of that. We exchanged text messages, and I'm just glad he enjoyed the show.
OK, on to today.
I woke up at around 9:55am, after meaning to wake up around 7am. But again, what else is new?
I showered, changed, and was out the door by 10:30am. The nice thing, once again, is that traffic is really nice whenever you're an hour and a half behind everyone else going downtown.
So I get to my desk and start working the phones. Today, I need to knock out my notebook, plus I'd like to get my interviews for my next cover story on Terrell coach Pete Gee done.
So I worked the phones. I got a hold of Lakeview Centennial coach Don Willis and asked him about his upcoming game against Garland, and how they haven't beaten Garland in five years. I got a hold of Mesquite Horn coach Don Payne and asked him why his team can't stop the run. And I got a hold of Terrell coach Pete Gee. I won't spill the beans, but this really seems like it's going to be a cool story. We talked for about 10 minutes or so, and the guy talked faster than I could type. I probably got down about 3/4ths of what he said. Maybe.
After eating a grilled chicken sandwich and tomato bisque from the Headliner Diner, I printed off directions on my next great Tuesday trip, and sat around. I tried to kill some time by surfing the net, but the net has been surfed.
Today was Bosses Day, so we all had cake in the conference room. Sure, its a made up holiday, but I'll do just about anything for cake.
Finally, 3:15pm rolled around, and I hopped in the Baron and, after utting $25 worth of gas in it, drove to Forney.
After getting thoroughly lost in the quaint town of Forney, I finally found the high school and talked to coach Kevin Rush and a couple of his linemen. It's been a tough year for Forney, and coach Rush spent a couple minutes talking with me about what has gone wrong this year.
That's one of the nice things about this job: you just get to talk with people. Everyone's interested in telling their side of the story, and everyone wants you to listen. You're always entertained.
Anyways, I hopped back in the Baron and drove to Terrell. Terrell might be the farthest-east team that we cover, and it shows: it is definitely out in the sticks.
But I found the high school. The football program is pretty run down, and their equipment leaves a lot to be desired. But that is what makes the story about Gee so interesting: he had such a great gig before this (he was a coordinator at Euless Trinity), but he gave it up so that he can come out here and help these kids out. Really a cool story.
Anyways, I chatted with coach Gee after practice and then talked with an assistant coach and two of his players.
At 6:35pm, I got back in the Baron and started the 50 mile drive home.
I finally made it home at about 7:30pm, after driving a whopping 102 miles on my trip. It was definitely a long day.
And it wasn't over.
I changed and drove to the Y. After running into my friend Meera, another person I haven't seen in ages but who likes the TepBlog, I ran my two miles. That's 70, people. We're getting close.
I came home, ate Subway for dinner, watched Law & Order with the TepMom, talked to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Day off tomorrow.
After all my driving, I deserve it.

Just Another Manic Monday

2007-10-16T00:51:00.001-05:00

Mondays mean work.
Which means, I hate Mondays.

I was supposed to wake up at 6:30am and go run.
But, like a lot of things I was supposed to do, it didn't happen.
Instead, I got out of bed at about 7:30am, got dressed into my stuff to go work out, and promptly fell back asleep on the couch.
Bad news.
I woke up, realized that I didn't have time to go to work out, showered, changed, and left my house at 9:15am.
The problem is, it was raining today. So traffic sucked. Meaning I didn't get to the newsroom until, oh, 10.
When I got there, I sat down at my desk and started planning my day. Quite a few things on the agenda, obviously, because it's a Monday.
First step: video.
Today, I was paired up with superstar columnist Keith Whitmire, and we talked about Thursday's South Garland-Rockwall game.
The video went well. After you've done a video every week for six weeks, and you've just been on TV, it's no sweat.
You can check out the video by clicking here.
Oh, and by the way, you can check out my appearance on High School Sports Special below. I know, there's an overlay about some Flip2Mac thing, but that's just the program I used to download the embedded video from the Web site. So ignore that.

So after the video, I went back to my desk and started getting going on my game capsules. I got through a few of them before it was time for the meeting.
We had barbecue for lunch, which was awesome. I actually got commended on my game story from Friday night, which you can read here. It's always nice to know that I'm holding my own.
Oh, and I also got the second place prize for getting my story in second-quickest. You might notice that I've pretty much set up shop there in second place.
Well, I'm not resting on my laurels. As God as my witness, I'm going to come in first one week. Damn it.
Anyways, the meeting wrapped at about 1:30pm, and I headed back to the TepCube. Over the next two hours, I managed to both finish my game capsules and write my story about Blair Johnson, North Mesquite quarterback. That, my friends, is efficiency.
Well, it was 3:45pm, and I could do a few things. I could try to hit a practice and get a head start on tomorrow.
Or, I could go home.
I bet you think I went home, right?
WRONG, SUCKERS!
At 4:15pm, I hopped in the Baron and drove out to Royse City. Yep, the farthest school that I covered. But I hadn't been out there in weeks, and I needed to make an appearance.
I got there at around 5:15pm, and walked into the indoor fieldhouse. I watched practice for about half an hour before it wrapped, then interviewed coach Rodney Webb and wide reciever Carlos Gallegos. Both were very nice.
I got back in the Baron and drove home. It took an hour. It wasn't fun.
When I finally got home, it was 7pm, and all I wanted to do was lay down.
But I couldn't.
Instead, I got my workout clothes on, and the TepMom and I drove to the Y.
I ran my two miles. YES!
Then, I came home and had even more work to do. This week, I'm responsible for the "Away From The Game" featurette in the HS Gametime, meaning I need to profile an area athlete who does something other than just play sports.
I had a kid in mind. So, I called him, talked to him for a few minutes, and was done.
Finally.
I ate leftover Chinese food for dinner, watched baseball, talked to my wonderful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Well, Mondays suck.
But we already knew that.

Triathlons, TV, and Turbulence

2007-10-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

A wide variety of things today.
These are the days the TepBlog was made for.

The day started with Alarmageddon at 7:30am. It was one of those times that I thought, "Hey, why not just roll back over and go to sleep? It won't hurt."
Except it would. Badly.
That's why I got up.
I showered and changed. This was going to take a little bit of preparation, because this would likely be the last time I was at the house all day. I took with me my blue dress shirt with white pinstripes, as well as the folder of stuff that Debbie Fetterman, the Dallas Morning News running writer, had given me about today's triathlon.
At 8am, after pounding a Slim Fast, I hopped in the Baron and drove downtown.
Once I got to the greater downtown area, I noticed that my usual route was re-routed, with cones blocking roads. Oh yeah, the whole triathlon thing.
I parked at in the Belo lot. I could have parked over at Reunion Arena, where everything was centered, but parking could be a chore, and it was within walking distance from TDMN.
I grabbed my bag and walked over. There was a decent crowd there, and there were quite a few tents set up there. If you've ever run in some sort of road race (like the Turkey Trot in Dallas), it's just like that.
I set up shop on top of a hill.
I've been trying to think all day how to describe this type of event, and I finally came up with it.
Back in 1996, while my family and I were living in Atlanta, we scored a load of tickets to the Summer Olympics. I was really jazzed to go to these different events, because hell, it's the freakin' Olympics!
The first event my family and I went to was rowing out at Lake Lanier. I was really excited as we took our seats in the grandstand, looking out on the open water.
And then the first race started.
And nothing was happening in front of us.
In fact, nothing happened in front of us for a good, oh, four minutes. That's because the rowers started way down the lake, away from us.
That's what the triathlon was like. It was really exciting when someone came by, but to begin with, it didn't happen for about twenty minutes.
Luckily, I had a storyline to chase. Turns out that one of the triathletes had visited an elementary school in Dallas earlier in the month, and the school was out to support her. So, I spotted the mob, tracked down the principal, and talked to her for a couple minutes, with a speaker blaring in my ear.
It was halfway through my conversation with the principal that the first place finisher, Greg Bennett, came through. With his win, Bennett had won all five races in the Life Time Fitness Series, meaning he won an extra $300,000 bonus. Nice payday.
I finished up my conversation with the principal and was tapped on the shoulder by a man with a goatee.
"Are you with the Morning News?"
Yep.
"I'm Tony. I'll show you to the press area."
Turns out Tony was a public relations guy with the race. Basically, over the next hour, I would tag along with Tony, and he would get me access to everyone I needed, including the women's race winner, the womens' points winner, a blind triathlete who finished under two hours, and a Dallas-area racer.
If you ever want to feel like a fat disgusting slob, go to a triathlon. It'll happen real quick. Everyone there is in crazy good shape, and makes me feel bad for struggling through two miles a day.
The nice thing, though, was that in the VIP tent, for media members and racers, it was all healthy foods. I munched on a muffin and drank some green tea to go.
At 10:30am, I walked back over to the newsroom. It's very weird to be there so early on a Sunday, because you're completely alone. I sat down and got to work on my notebook. Long story short, it was done by 1pm, which made an excellent segue into my next chore for the day:
Defensive Player of the Week.
The good news was that, now that people doing stats had filed into the newsroom, I had a decent amount of nominees for that time of day.
The bad news was that nobody stood out. Nobody had really overwhelming stats to me, which is unusual. Usually, there's one guy who just had an ungodly game, blocking sixteen punts and tackling everyone in the crowd. OK, not really, but go with me here.
I worked on getting organized, without a clear favorite, up until about 2:30pm, when it was time for my next duty of the day:
Time to be a television star. Today was my day to be on High School Sports Special on Channel 8.
I went out to the Baron and changed into my blue dress shirt with white pinstripes. I looked sharp.
I walked over to the WFAA building, which is literally right across the access road from the Morning News, right smack dab in the middle of the Belosphere.
After getting let into the building, I was escorted by Paul, the producer, to the green room, where I would wait for 10 minutes.
I was summoned to the studio at about 3:05pm. The first thing I noticed was how small the studio actually was. Cameras and all, it was not much bigger than my living room, which is shocking. Growing up watching the High School Sports Special, I had always pictured the studio to be a lot bigger. I was wrong.
Also, it was freakin' freezing in the studio. No lie: it was probably 55 degrees in there. Something I'll never understand.
After standing around the studio with the producer for a couple minutes, in walked George Riba. George has been with Channel 8 sports for a long, long time. Usually, it's a guy named Joe Trahan doing the show, but George was filling in for him as he was covering the big Patriots-Cowboys game today.
He shook my hand and smiled. He asked me about myself, who I was, how long I'd been at the Morning News, if I knew Chase Daniel. On TV, he comes off as very professional, very well-to-do. In person, he's very colloquial and friendly. Both personalities work for him.
We sat down at a little table that I had seen Joe Trahan speak from for years. Alright, this was pretty cool.
George and the producer asked me what I wanted to talk about, what was interesting in my area. I told him about Mesquite (started 0-3, has won its last three), Garland (highly ranked, now 1-5), Naaman Forest and Lakeview Centennial (surprise teams). So there was our agenda.
Two minutes later, after George fixed his hair (I'm not kidding), we started filming. I tried to remember what my mom told me: just relax. Just relax.
I relaxed, and I just started talking. George made it very easy to just have a conversation with him, and that made me almost forget that the cameras were even there.
Before I knew it, we were done. Seriously, it went by that fast.
George shook my hand firmly, smiled, told me that I had done a very good job, and thanked me for my time. I thanked him for having me, thanked the producers, and left.
At 3:25pm.
Funny. I had pictured that taking longer. Oh well, more time for me!
And I'd need it.
I got back to my computer and had a few more nominations for Defensive Player of the Week. This was good, but again, nobody was really standing out.
I wanted to name a kid from W.T. White, who returned both a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown, as the winner, but after calling Cameron, that wasn't to be.
Instead, I ended up deciding on a kid named Chris Ellison from Red Oak. He had a pretty good game against the No. 11 team in the area, Lancaster, and had helped Red Oak win its first district game in over four years.
So I called the coach, Mike Shields, who answered and politely told me that he would get me a phone number for Chris (which he did) and a mug shot.
Sweet. Things are going well at 4:15pm.
I called Chris. No answer.
4:30.
Call again. No answer.
4:45.
Ditto.
I call coach Shields, explaining the situation. He gets on it, and starts calling his players to get a cell phone number. He says he'll get back to me as soon as possble.
The mug shot has arrived. The player in the mug hasn't.
5pm.
No calls.
5:10pm.
No calls.
I'm starting to get frustrated, so I call coach Shields. He says that he has a number, but he's going to call it to make sure that it's the right one, and that he'll call me right back.
5:20pm.
No call.
Now I'm mad, because Shields has clearly been jerking me around. I call him back, and he says the number he had has been disconnected.
So, I grow a pair. I issue an ultimatum.
"My deadline is getting close. If I don't talk to Chris in the next 20 minutes, I've got to move on to someone else."
That got his attention. He said he would continue calling people.
It was 5:25. So he had until 5:45 to get back to me.
Well, 5:40pm came, and I decided that it was stupid of me to sit on my butt and wait for something that wasn't coming. It's time to move on.
I called Denton Ryan coach Joey Florence to ask him about his linebacker, Jake Strickland, who is next in the pecking order. He says that he'll get me a mug shot and a cell phone number lickety-split.
Excellent. That's what I like to hear, coach! Finally, things are going my w-...
Ring.
Ring.
Telephone. It's for you, Greg. It's coach Shields. He has Chris on the line.
Oh.
Um.
Really?
Yep. He's there, waiting by the phone for you to call. Is it still in time?
I glance at the clock. 5:44pm. A minute before my ultimatum.
I take down Chris' number, stand up, and explain the situation to everyone around me. They all half-laugh, half-sigh. This isn't good. I just told another coach that I was naming his player DPOTW, and now I have to call him back and say "Sorry, no dice"?
This stinks.
I call Chris. I have to beat answers out of him, because he's very short with me.
Ironic moment of the day: I ask him to tell me something people don't know about him, and without missing a beat, he replies:
"I'm lazy."
REALLY, CHRIS?!? IS THAT WHY YOU HAVEN'T PICKED UP YOUR PHONE FOR, OH, TWO AND A HALF HOURS, AND PUT ME IN THIS PREDICAMENT?
Grr.
I hang up with Chris, and make the fateful call to coach Joey Florence.
Voicemail.
Score.
I leave a really apologetic voicemail, explaining the whole situation to him. I even sent him an e-mail telling him the same thing.
I finished up my stuff and left at 6pm. And I felt awful, like I had snubbed a perfectly good candidate while rewarding a kid who seemed totally disinterested in it. Did I do the right thing? I mean, ultimately, Chris was more deserving, I guess.
I drove home and munched on chips and salsa before eating a meal of chicken and fish.
I watched Nevada lose to Boise State in quadruple overtime before checking my e-mail one more time for the night.
I had an e-mail from someone I didn't recognize, with the subject line "Lakeview Parent (making your sign) ;-)".
Hmm.
I opened it. It was from a Lakeview Centennial parent.
Let's rewind a little bit. As you may or may not know, I write on the Dallas Morning News high schools blog, especially during games. And at the end of every game, my little schtick is to hand out "helmet stickers", a contrived award for the players that I think played especially well or were especially impressive. It's all part of a bit post-game wrap up post that I call, well, "Wrappin' Up".
Well, on Friday, I covered the Lakeview Centennial-Sachse game, and came away impressed with Lakeview Centennial. So, in my "Wrappin Up" post from that game, I wrote the following passage:

"Print it on shirts. Put it on banners. Paint it on your car. Plaster it on you wall. Make it your computer desktop. Call your friend and tell them. Make it the theme of your next band halftime show. Whatever you do, just make sure you remember this:

Garland Lakeview Centennial is legit.

I had my doubts coming into this game. Serious doubts. Who would score for this team? Was this defense really good enough to carry the team? Where are its homerun hitters? Who, really, are Lakeview's playmakers?

But every one of my questions was answered. Lakeview gets its points where it has to have it from whomever it has to have them from. It can score on the ground, and it can score through the air. Lakeview has game-changers and playmakers, but the team doesn't rely on them. Instead, it spreads the ball around, spreads the wealth, and spreads the defense. The offense wears you down, and then beats you late.

And the defense is fast, the defense is aggressive, and the defense plays angry. This is as close to an elite defense as I've seen this year, and it is good enough to carry the team when the offense struggles.

And look at the rest of its schedule: it's already past Rockwall, and the game against Garland is looking less threatening by the week. Sure, games against Naaman Forest and South Garland are going to be tough.

But you know what? Garland Lakeview Centennial is good enough to make the playoffs. 5-1 looks pretty good, and 3-0 in district looks even better.

At the beginning of the season, you couldn't pay me enough to say this, but now I'm not just saying it; I'm shouting it:

Garland Lakeview Centennial is legit.

And in a district where some of the favorites are faltering, Lakeview might just be playoff-bound."

I wrote it because, well, I really do think that Lakeview Centennial is legit. They proved it to me with a gutty win in an obvious trap game (it had just beaten a good Rockwall team, and they very easily could have looked forward to this week's game against Garland).
So this e-mail I received (I won't print it, because I don't know if the parent would want it printed) essentially said asked if I would be at the Lakeview game this week, because this parent and the other drill team parents were thinking about making signs proclaiming "Garland Lakeview Centennial is legit."
She went on to tell me how much she enjoyed my writing, and how much all of the drill team and the drill team parents enjoyed my writing, and how she thought the game would go on Thursday, and why it's special to see her daughter's team doing well, and so on and so on.
I was floored. Real, actual fan mail. It might have been my first real unsolicited piece of fan mail. It brought a big smile to my face. I showed my parents, and they thought it was cool, too. I told Jen, and she thought it was cool, too.
So, if there are "Garland Lakeview Centennial is legit" signs at the game on Thursday, you'll know why.
I watched myself on High School Sports Special with my mom and little brother (I think I did pretty darn well, if you ask me), talked to my beautiful girlfriend, and now I'm writing this blog.

A long, crazy, but ultimately fulfilling day.
This is what the business is all about.

Disappointment Saturday

2007-10-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

Decent day, and a crappy night.
Such is the life of a Mizzou fan.

TepMom came into my room and gave me a shove at 9:05am.
"Greg, College Gameday is on. It started at 9, and it's 9:05."
You see, ESPN College Gameday, the world's most popular pre-game college football show, was broadcasting from Norman, Oklahoma today. What's the occasion?
No. 6 Oklahoma vs. No. 11 Missouri.
I know, it's funny to see a number in front of the word "Missouri". It's weird for me, too.
But anyways, I got up and watched. I sat there on the couch as they previewed all of the games, and as Lee Corso, resident guru, chose Oklahoma to beat my Missouri Tigers. Just like everyone else.
Well, College Gameday wrapped up at 11am, and then it was time to get my day started.
I ran upstairs and changed. Ten minutes later, after listening to that "You're The Best" song from The Karate Kid to get pumped up, I was in my car, bound for the YMCA.
I struggled through two miles. Maybe it was because it was my sixth consecutive day to run, or maybe it's because I ate late last night, but for some reason, it was a real struggle to run those miles today. But they're done, and I'm up to 66 miles.
I came home, showered, changed into a Mizzou shirt, and got back into the Baron.
I drove over to SportClips for a haircut. I signed the list, realized that it would probably be an ungodly amount of time before I could get my hair cut because everyone wants to watch college football on a Saturday while they are getting their hair cut, and got back in my car.
Instead, I drove over to Fantastic Sam's, and got my hair cut by the same wonderful Asian lady who cut my hair for four years during high school. Just like the good ol' days.
I walked over to Albertson's (the grocery store is next door to the Fantastic Sam's) and deposited my paycheck at the Bank of America in there. The teller told me that I was pre-approved for a Visa. Yep, I'm sure I am. Just run my check, lady.
I bought a six-pack of Miller Lite tall boys and drove home.
After showering and changing, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I sat around watching college football and sending a few e-mails.
The one thing I did do was call a few people who can help me with my coverage of the triathlon tomorrow morning. I'm a little unsure about this whole thing. From what I understand, it's going to be a little...well...crazy, especially when it comes to the finish line. Think about it: there are no rosters, and I have no idea who any of these people are. And yet, I'm supposed to come off as an expert in my story tomorrow?
Ruh-roh. Tune in tomorrow.
Well, long story short, 5:30pm rolled around, and with a few Miller Lite tall boys in hand, I watched the Mizzou-Oklahoma game. In the end, it was a really interesting game. It was entertaining, and Mizzou kept it close throughout, ultimately falling to the No. 6 team 41-31.
I'll do my full breakdown during my podcast on Thursday, but basically, just know that I am overall pleased with the game and how Mizzou played, and I have a feeling this won't be the last time Mizzou and Oklahoma play this season.
After mourning the loss with Jen on the phone for a little bit, I went down and watched a few more games with my mom. You've got to love the TepMom, who loves college football. She knows so much about it, she could work at the Morning News. She's pretty cool.
I went upstairs, got into my PJs, and I'm about to call Jen to tell her good night, and now I'm writing this blog.

Buckle up for tomorrow.
Lots of things going on.

Late Night Bullets

2007-10-13T02:10:00.000-05:00

Late night.
Equals short blog.

I know, I promised to get caught up with the blogging, but tonight is an exception. I'm dog tired after writing about the Sachse-Garland Naaman Forest game. So, we're gonna keep it short and sweet, and I promise here and now that this will be the last bullet blog I ever do. Ever. Hold me to that.

-Woke up at 7am
-Drove my little brother to school
-Drove home
-Fell asleep until 11am
-Checked my blogs
-Went to the Y and ran two miles
-Showered and changed
-Went to work
-Talked with the DMN running writer about the triathlon I will be covering on Sunday
-Sat around
-Killed time
-Printed directions
-Killed more time
-Drove to Garland Williams Stadium
-Ate one piece of CiCi's pizza
-Watched as Garland Lakeview Centennial topped Sachse
-Ran downstairs
-Got quotes
-Ran upstairs
-Wrote the rest of my story
-Sent it in at 10:48pm
-Drove home
-Talked to my beautiful (but a little under the weather) girlfriend
-Wrote this blog

Last shortcut ever.
I promise.

TepBlog Podcast #7

2007-10-12T00:10:00.000-05:00

First off, an apology. I know I didn't blog yesterday, and really, there isn't an excuse. I just didn't do it. I apologize to anyone who was really looking forward to it, but there wasn't much going on yesterday (I went to work for about an hour and a half, came home, played Wii, ran two miles, didn't write this blog), and I really had no motivation to blog. But I know I made a commitment to blog every day, and I'm going to start trying extra hard to live up to that commitment.

Now that that's out of the way, you can listen to the seventh installment of the TepBlog Podcast below:

You can download the podcast by right-clicking here and selecting "Save Target As..."

And, as always my clips from this week's edition of HS Gametime in The Dallas Morning News:
Gunshot wound changes W. Mesquite senior's perspective

0-5 North Garland looks for a confidence builder after close calls

Rockwall puts last week's loss behind it, moves on

South Garland is familiar with playing close games

Mesquite's defense is picking up steam

No Excuses

2007-10-10T02:13:00.000-05:00

I've been lazy with the blogging.
Time to kick it up a notch.

I woke up this morning at around 9am. And, considering I had hoped to get out of the house by 10, I decided to run after work instead. That would prove costly, as I will explain later.
I drove to work. And "work" is an appropriate name for the place, because that is exactly what I had a ton of to do today.
I got on the horn and started calling coaches. I got a note from North Garland coach David Farris, which is nice. I couldn't get a hold of South Garland coach Mickey Moss, but it's one of those things where the assistant coach answered, and I really think that Moss was right behind him shaking his head, saying "No, I do not want to talk to a reporter right now" as he munched on some sort of burrito.
Or, that's how it looked in my head, at least.
Anyways, I also called three other coaches-- North Mesquite's Mike Robinson, Mesquite's Steve Halpin and Rockwall's Scott Smith-- to set up opportunities to come to their respective practices.
I also put in a call to West Mesquite coach Mike Overton. Turns out that I needed to ask Markeith Elder, the guy I'm featuring in Thursday's cover story, a few more questions, and I didn't particularly want to drive all the way over to WMHS. He told me that he would have Markeith call me ASAP.
I was, in general, sitting around at about 1pm when an e-mail popped up on my screen from Wendy, the assistant to sports head honcho Bob Yates.
Free Mavericks tickets available for tonight, free Stars tickets available for tomorrow night, and free Stars tickets available for Friday night.
These types of e-mails come out about once or twice a week, but these especially caught my eye.
First, because I knew that I wanted to go to some sort of sporting event not including a triathlon or high school football game this week
And secondly, because TDMN has notoriously awesome seats.
I quickly replied to Wendy, asking for two tickets to Wednesday's Stars game. I replied approximately 14 seconds after she sent the initial e-mail.
She wrote back:
Cool. They're yours. Come pick them up.
SWEET!
So, as a late birthday gift to my little brother, I'm taking him to the Stars game tomorrow night.
And we're sitting in the Platinum Level, which is like the club level except snootier.
And we're sitting at center ice.
And we're sitting on the front freakin' row.
And it was free.
My job doesn't suck. Let's put it that way.
Anyways, after doing this and that for a couple hours, including eating a chicken sandwich and cup of soup for lunch, I hopped in my car at about 2pm.
I drove east on I-30 to eventually reach Mesquite High School. This was the first time I had been here, and it is impressive.
Mesquite won the state title back in 2001, and the trophies and banners and awards from all the years of success are strewn around the smallish fieldhouse.
I knocked on a door and peeked my head in, looking for coach Halpin.
Instead, I peeked my head into an intense film study going on.
With the entire team.
Who all turned to look at me.
Awk-ward.
Eventually, I found coach Halpin, sat down and chatted with him in his office for a little bit, talked to one of his players, and left. Halpin's been in the game for a long time, and he knows exactly how to deal with the media. He's very polite, he answers the questions as best as possible without sounding dumb, and generally sucks up to them. He's got it down.
Well, now it was 3pm, and I had nothing to do. My next appointment would be at North Mesquite at 5:15pm, so I had time to kill.
Hey, I'll drive over to West Mesquite and find Markeith!
I was half a mile away form WMHS when my phone rang. It was Markeith.
I pulled over, asked him some questions, and finished the conversation in three minutes. So now it was 3:15pm, and I really had nothing to do.
So, I did what anyone else would do.
I went to the mall.
You see, North Mesquite High School is right off of I-635 in Mesquite. And across the highway from NMHS is Town East Mall, which seemed like the only logical way to kill time.
So, for the first time since I was in high school, I walked the mall. I stopped into a bookstore and read a couple chapters in Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You!)", checked out some clothes I can't afford at Abercrombie, and browsed the clearance rack at Sam Goody. All in all, I successfully killed an hour. Now, it was time to go to practice.
I drove over to NMHS and watched the last 30 minutes of practice. Afterwards, I interviewed two players and enjoyed a nice sit-down interview with coach Robinsons, and went off on my merry way at 5:40pm.
I hopped in the Baron and drove even farther east, this time to Wilkerson-Sanders Stadium in Rockwall to watch Rockwall High practice.
I had spoken with coach Smith before on the phone, and he agreed to let me talk to one of his defensive captains after practice.
Let me explain something: when I go to a practice to get a note, I generally have a storyline in mind. I know how I want to start the conversation so that, should all else fail, I'll have that storyline to write a note about. 90% of the time, something better comes up, but just in case, I always have a storyline in mind.
This time, at Rockwall, my storyline was its defense. In its two wins, Rockwall's defense has been excellent. In its three losses, Rockwall's defense has been torched. This includes last week's upset loss to Lakeview Centennial, an up-and-coming team that Rockwall (at least in my opinion) should have beaten.
So, I asked the defensive captain about what happened to the defense in the Lakeview game, and what the defense needs to improve on. All the while, I could feel coach Smith's eyes boring holes though my skull.
After talking to the very nice player, I turned and talked with coach Smith. He was very defensive throughout the conversation, and answered all of my questions very vaguely, using a lot of coachspeak. This isn't 100% unexpected, but still a little disconcerting.
But after the interview, a shocking exchange occurred.
Smith asked me why I came to practice today with that kind of "slant" (his word, not mine). He went on to say how he likes to keep things positive, and that "you can write whatever you want, but" he's got a great group of kids.
I was shocked. It's the first time in a long time that a coach has questioned my tactics.
I explained to him that I was surprised that Rockwall had lost to Lakeview, and that my observation was that the defense had let them down in the game.
To his credit, coach Smith smiled and thanked me for coming out to practice, even shaking my hand at the end. But you could tell that he was very displeased with me, and he didn't appreciate someone trying to write something negative about his team.
It bothered me for about 15 minutes as I drove home. Was I wrong to choose something negative to focus on? Should I have instead found something more positive about the team upon which to write a note?
But then it hit me:
No. I shouldn't have changed anything. I was doing my job.
My job is not to give everyone positive press. My job is not to pump sunshine up everyone's butts. My job is to inform, and to write the truth. And the truth is, if you look at the numbers, my existing angle is very valid.
Smith might think that I'm out to get Rockwall. He might think that I have an agenda to bring down Rockwall. He might think that I have some sort of existing vendetta against Rockwall.
On the contrary. I like Rockwall, and I think they're a very good team, making the Lakeview loss even more baffling.
For the first time in a long time, I was reaffirmed in exactly what I am doing. It's my job to report the facts, and to ask questions, and to investigate trends. It is not my job to make everything all sunshine and daffodils.
I drove home and sat down, recapping my day for the TepMom. It got to be about 8:15pm when it hit me.
Aw, crap. I need to run.
So, at 8:30pm, I went to the YMCA and ran two miles.
Which explains why I'm up at almost 3 in the morning. It all comes full circle, doesn't it?
I came home, showered, ate dinner with TepDad (chicken, asparagus, peas and carrots), talked to my beautiful girlfriend on the phone about getting fired up for your job, and now I'm writing this blog.

Getting questioned by the coach doesn't bother me.
If anything, it strengthens my resolve.

Bullet Blogging

2007-10-09T01:04:00.000-05:00

Beware.
This blog is loaded.

It's late and I have a ton of stuff to do as a result of my procrastinating by watching the Yankees lose (yay!) and the Cowboys lose (boo!).
As a result, we're going to go through this bullet style. Ready? OK!

-Woke up at 6am
-Woke up again, for real this time, at 7am
-Went to the Y
-Ran two miles
-Patted self on back for running two miles
-Showered, changed, and relaxed until 9am
-Left for the office
-Transcribed my interview for this week's cover story off of my recorder
-Recorded this video
-Began to write my story
-Went to my meeting
-Was commended on my game story from the Richardson Pearce-West Mesquite game, which, for some reason, is still not online
-Won the silver medal for getting my story in second-quickest
-Bragged a little bit about Mizzou
-Ate pasta for lunch
-Went back to my desk
-Banged my head on said desk while trying to write my story
-Finally finished my story at 5:30pm
-Drove home
-Showered
-Ate burgers for dinner
-Watched the Yankees lose
-Watched the Cowboys win
-Talked to my beautiful girlfriend
-Wrote this blog

That wasn't so bad, was it?
Told ya so.

The Afterglow

2007-10-07T22:15:00.000-05:00

A day after a glorious night.
Can't ask for much more.

To be honest, I woke up this morning and had a few thoughts:
Did that really just happen?
Did Missouri, a program mired in sub-mediocrity who seems to pride itself on torturing its fans, really just annihilate Nebraska, a program so rich in history and success that it rivals the greatest in the land?
Did Missouri really look that good?
Did my school actually make me proud to say that I go there?
Really?
The truth is that yes, all of those things happened last night. As a result, I woke up with a big smile on my face. The sun was shining. Birds were chirping. Water was extra refreshing.
I walked downstairs and found Jeff on the computer. I went out and fetched the paper, reading the Missouri game story in The Dallas Morning News.
Yep. Still felt good.
I spent most of my morning and midday reading the blogs and the newspapers. I wanted to see the reactions of everyone to what can only be considered Missouri's coming out party.
I also Wiied. Needless to say, it was a wonderful morning/afternoon.
At 1pm, I told Jeff not to burn the house down and got into the Baron, bound for the newsroom.
Remember, my mission on Sundays is to finish the Defensive Player of the Week as quickly as possible.
On my way over to the newsroom, I heard that the new AP rankings were out. That would definitely be worth checking out.
I arrived at 1:30pm and got to work, wearing my Brad Smith jersey with pride. Jason Zimmerman, the big dog on Sundays, came over and asked me "Hey, how bout them Tigers, huh?" I resisted the urge to hug him. I was still giddy.
I checked my e-mail (after a little bit of technical difficulties; turns out that I don't get to keep the really cool laptop dock thing...don't worry, I still have my laptop and wireless card, just no dock...back to the desktop) and, after compiling those in my e-mail, found that I had 11 nominees. Not great, but not bad for this early in the day.
Instead of going through the box scores right then to find defensive players who had scored touchdowns, I decided instead to check the latest AP poll. I mean, c'mon, what's the harm?
And there it was.
No. 10 USC
No. 11 Missouri
No. 12 Virginia Tech
No. 13 Florida
Holy freakin' crap. Missouri is the 11th-ranked team in the nation.
Holy freakin' crap. Missouri is one spot behind USC, a team that has played in two of the last three national championship games.
Holy freakin' crap. Missouri is two spots AHEAD of Florida, last year's national champion.
I felt numb. Is this happening? My team's supposed to be disappointing me by now.
I snapped out of my funk and got back to work. I sped through some box scores and found a few more kids who scored defensive touchdowns. Over the next hour or two, I got enough nominations either from box scores or from the stat people working around me.
At 2:45pm, I had chosen the defensive player of the week: Pat Mason, a senior defensive tackle for Garland Lakeview Centennial. What's funny is that I actualyl interviewed him for my story on Lakeview Centennial a few weeks ago. Crazy.
Anyways, over the next hour, I called the coach, called the player, wrote up the required stuff, got a mugshot (yay!) and filed my story.
I left at 4pm. Two and a half hours to do Defensive Player of the Week? I'll take it.
I drove home and sat on my butt for a while, with intermittent breaks to take Jeff to church and play Wii.
At around 7pm, I logged onto one of my favorite college football sites, CollegeFootballNews.com. It usually provides an abundance of good content on most every team in the nation, making it my one-stop shop for college football info.
I browsed around the site, especially the front page where they put all the new stuff. I checked out all the stuff, saw that Chase Daniel is getting a little bit of Heisman hype, and then clicked on the CFN Rankings.
Where do they put Missouri? Go look. Just go look. I won't tell you.
I'll give you a hint: they rank Missouri higher than sixth but lower than fourth.
Fifth.
5th.
In the nation.
I couldn't breathe. Missouri, according to CFN, is better than 114 other teams in Division I-A. The only teams ranked ahead of Mizzou? LSU, Ohio State, Cal, and Oklahoma (Mizzou's opponent next week).
Shocking? Yes. But not nearly as shocking as what I read next on CFN.
Bowl projections.
Where's Mizzou?
In the Sugar Bowl. As an at-large bid to the BCS. Playing Florida.
My heart stopped.
I fell back onto the couch and looked at the ceiling. This could not be happening. Not to my team. Not to Missouri.
Now, let me make my stance on Mizzou's football team very clear: I am not yet sipping the Missouri Kool-Aid. This Godforsaken athletic program has sucked me in too many times only to disappoint me in the end. See: 2003 basketball. See: 2004 football. See: 2005 football. See: 2005 basketball. This program has a history of punching me in the gut right as I hop onboard the bandwagon.
That's not to say that I don't love my Tigers. I'm rooting for them harder than anyone in this country. But Missouri athletics is like a really bad ex-girlfriend: she's teased you, she's given you hope that maybe it will work again, she's led you on, and then BAM! She kicks you in the nuts.
Not this year. I'm not falling for it.
Yet.
Could Missouri win the Big XII North? Absolutely. In fact, they SHOULD win the Big XII North. And I'm rooting for them to win the Big XII North. But I'm not going to go out of my way to start talking this team up, if only because they have a history of making me look like a real ass.
With all that said, let's look at the facts:
-FACT: Missouri just dominated Nebraska.
-FACT: This is the most talented Missouri team ever.
-FACT: Missouri beat Illinois on a neutral site, and Illinois has gone on to knock off Penn State and Wisconsin.
-FACT: Missouri's offense is not stoppable.
-FACT: Missouri's defense, when they play like they can, make Missouri an elite team.
So, where do I stand? I have one foot on the bandwagon. A win in Norman next week could mean...I don't even want to say it...A win in Norman next week could mean a real "dream season".
But I also have one foot off the bandwagon, firmly planted on firm ground. Because Missouri could very easily go into a tailspin and make everything a moot point.
A win at Oklahoma next week, and I'm going to hijack the bandwagon and drive it with my feet so that I can pat Chase Daniel on the back.
Does that make sense? I hope so. Just call it cautious optimism.
I spent the rest of the day watching TV, eating Subway for dinner, cleaning the house, and now I'm writing this blog.

Tomorrow, it's back to work.
I wish this weekend would never end.

Off Running: Liveblogging Missouri-Nebraska

2007-10-06T13:42:00.000-05:00

Midnight
Where to begin, where to begin...
First of all, anyone who doesn't think that Chase Daniel is a top 5 QB in the nation is a crazy person. Look at his performance tonight: 31-46, 403 yards, 2 TDs, no INTs, plus 11 rushes for 72 yards. I cannot remember a Missouri player being that dominant in a game, and that includes Brad Smith.
Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker are competing for the title of Best TE in the Nation. And they play for the same time. Coffman finished with 5 receptions, 76 yards, a touchdown and a should-have-been-touchdown on the greatest catch I've ever seen. Rucker, not to be outdone, finished with 8 catches for 100 yards, plus ran four times for 12 yards and a touchdown. Unbelievable.
Jeremy Maclin, Will Franklin and Denario Alexander were all great. They made the catches they needed to.
And that defense. Oh, that defense.
That was the big question mark. Could Mizzou stop Nebraska? Could Mizzou stop Marlon Lucky and Sam Keller?
The answer, overwhelmingly, is yes. 274 total yards for Nebraska, including holding Marlon Lucky to just 67 yards rushing. The tackling was crisp. The pursuit was great.
One gripe: the secondary was average at best. That secondary needs to tighten up, especially on third down. But other than that, a fantastic performance from the defense.
Mizzou finally, FINALLY finished a game. They went 60 minutes of fantastic football. Mizzou IS one of the best teams in the nation, and they proved it tonight.
And what a win at home, in front of a standing-room only crowd decked out in all gold. What a win on national television. What a win, period.
And even Gary Pinkel didn't screw it up.
Oh, and happy 21st birthday, Chase Daniel. I'd be happy to buy you a beer when I get back to Columbia.
Goodnight, folks. Mizzou-rah.

11:54pm
Mark the time. 11:54pm. Missouri has defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers in an absolutely dominant performance, 41-6. Wow. Unbelievable.
5-0. And a huge win at home.
Give me ten minutes to gather my thoughts.

11:52pm
Whoa. Jack Arute was just talking about Woodstock and said "Don't take the brown acid."
Whoa. A little too much information, Jack.
Clock is winding down. First down.
Chase Daniel had 401 yards passing tonight. Unreal.

11:50pm
Nebraska's punting. This is a glorious day in Missouri football history. Just a dominant performance all the way around, especially in the second half.
Mizzou has the ball, up 41-6 with 2:58 to play. And CHASE PATTON IS IN THE GAME! YES!

11:47pm
Alright, Nebraska's got the ball at midfield. Stop 'em, Tigers. I want this second half shutout. I don't want any garbage time scoring.

11:44pm
Jack Arute reports that "This is a kinder, gentler Gary Pinkel."
As opposed to this?

11:40pm
And in the "Insult to Injury" category, Mizzou just downed a punt at the Nebraska 6. What a night.

11:37pm
Now, there are two schools of thought:
Do you leave Daniel in to jack up his stats, to get him in the Heisman conversation?
Or do you take him out for fear of injury, and put in fan favorite Chase Patton?
I do the latter. But then again, I'm not Gary Pinkel.

11:34pm
Chase Daniel makes his smartest decision of the night: he slides after getting a first down.
Does Daniel enter the Heisman conversation? Doesn't he have to? Right now (he's still in the game), he's 30-44 for 397 yards and 2 TDs (no INTs), plus 11 rushes for 72 yards for two scores. He's unconscious.

11:30pm
Nope, Chase Daniel is still in. I don't know why: Nebraska is going to start taking cheap shots.
And Ron Franklin is now talking to Matt Davison, the guy who caught the famous Kicked Ball win for Nebraska about a decade ago. I hope he burns in hell.

11:28pm
Nebraska has to punt. This might be the most glorious game in Missouri football history.
Now, do you put in Chase Patton? You have to, don't you?
HAHAHAHAHA! I just saw the most ingenious sign I've ever seen. It's one Missouri fan holding up a poster board that says "Wound", and another shaking a poster board cutout salt shaker towards it.
I just fell on the floor laughing. Bravo, Mizzou fans. That was awesome.
And, in fact, bravo to every Mizzou fan there at Faurot tonight. You made that stadium a force to be reckoned with, and you played a huge part in this. Bravo, bravo, bravo. Go have a Keystone Light on me.

11:25pm
OK, I know I'm going to sound like a classless Missouri fan, but I really don't want to give up a garbage time touchdown. There's something really, really nice about shutting out Nebraska in the second half. It sends a real message.
So, yes, Missouri is probably going to win (!!!!!!!!!!!) but let's keep it going.

11:22pm
Dear Coach Pinkel-
I'm sorry for griping about you for four years. Tonight was very, very nice. Thank you.
I promise not to gripe about you until next week.
Thanks,
Greg Tepper...

11:17pm
HAHAHA!
HAHAHAHA!
HAHAHAHAHA!
Mizzou just faked a field goal, and ran it in for a touchdown. Martin Rucker ran it in.
HAHAHAHA!
That is so classless, but so, so sweet.
In fact, upon further review, it's the same fake field goal play that Mizzou ran two years ago in the Independence Bowl. How do I know that? Because I was there in Shreveport, enjoying the worst city in the nation.
Mizzou 41, Nebraska 6, and it's the fourth quarter.

11:14pm
Aww. I miss the Missouri Waltz.
And Chase Coffman gets the manliest 15-yard personal foul penalty ever. What a beast.

11:10pm
Watching Missouri try to run the clock out is funny, because that is totally not their game. So, instead, Daniel wings it out to Maclin for a 10 yard gain and a first down.
Mizzou with the ball in Nebraska territory, and the clock is running.
Martin Rucker just caught a screen pass, and ran over about six people en route to a 20 yard gain. I love this offense. I can't say that enough. This offense is transcendent.
In fact, that's the end of the third quarter. Mizzou 34, Nebraska 6, going to the fourth.
I have four fingers in the air. Fourth quarter is ours.

11:08pm
Jack Arute says that Tony Temple has a sprained ankle, and "could come back". But, as Arute said, with the score the way it is, and the way the offense is going, why bring him back? That's not to say I don't want Temple playing; it's just to say I want a healthy Temple.

11:04pm
That is just plain huge.
Mizzou just stopped Nebraska on a 4th and 1.
This defense has really shown me something. It used to be "bend, don't break." Well, right now, they're not even bending. That much.
But remember: IT IS NOT OVER. MISSOURI CAN (AND MIGHT) BLOW THIS!
But it's nice to have the ball on your own 33, up 28 points, with 2:42 to play in the third quarter.
But it's not over. Keep reminding yourself. It's not over.

11:02pm
Another first down for Nebraska. This thing is not over, and Mizzou needs to keep the foot on the gas.
Hell, run up the score. It's Nebraska. Nobody will blame you, Pinkel.
And you know what's amazing? That's the first time I've said Pinkel's name tonight.

10:59pm
My little brother Jeff chimes in with a great point:
Jeff: "How much time is left?"
Me: "Seven minutes in the third." (as I'm dancing)
Jeff: "So, it's not over yet?"
Exactly. It is not over yet. And if anyone can blow this, it's Mizzou.
Keep the foot on the gas. You've GOT to keep the foot on the gas.
Bad Guys just got a big gain from Lucky.
This thing isn't over.
Foot. Gas. Repeat.

10:55pm
I'm just laughing out loud right now. L. O. L.
Why?
Well, Chase Daniel just hit Denario Alexander on a long touchdown pass. 48 yards to be exact.
My little brother thinks I'm insane. I am just laughing out loud.
This is great.
This is America.
Mizzou 34, Bad Guys 6, 6:51 left in the third.
Greatest. Offense. Ever.

10:53pm
A nice swing pass play to Denario Alexander gets called back for holding. It's good to see Alexander, who switched over from defense last year, get involved, even if it gets called back.
Tick tick tick. Bleed clock.
Goddamn, Chase Coffman just hauled in a fade. Goddamn, he is good.
Goddamn, I love this offense.

10:50pm
OINK! OINK! OINK! OINK! OINK! OINK!
That is an interception for Pig Brown, baby!
OINK OINK OINK!
He hit triangle. That was definitely a user pick.
Mizzou ball on its own 21.

10:48pm
I know I've been pointing out all the bad things about this defense, but the Mizzou defense is pursuing exceptionally well. Now they have a big third down.
And they give up a first down.
That's why I can't get too excited.

10:46pm
Nebraska finally wises up and throws the ball out to Marlon Lucky. He gets about 17 on a swing pass. Got to tighten up the coverage in the flats.

10:44pm
You know things are going well when I get really fired up for a tackle on the kickoff.
Ed Cunningham: "There are a gaggle of NFL scouts here tonight."
Well, quack quack.

10:41pm
So, apparently, if you take the ball across a certain line at the end of the field, they give you six points. That's what Chase Daniel just did.
In other words...
TOUCHDOWN CHASE DANIEL! TOUCHDOWN MISSOURI! 3-YARD TD RUN!
I just scared my little brother again.
11:08 left in the third. Missouri Americans 27, Nebraska Freedom-Haters 6.

10:40pm
After getting 20+ yards on a reverse, Jeremy Maclin catches a beautiful ball on the sideline.
I like him a lot.

10:38pm
Ron Franklin: "The scouts can't wait for William Franklin to come out."
Giggle.

10:36pm
Keller badly, BADLY underthrows an open receiver.
Chant with me.
THREE AND OUT! THREE AND OUT! THREE AND OUT!
Huge stop by Mizzou. Now, if this offense can get going, things can start to look very bright.
Mizzou ball on its own 37.

10:35pm
Pressure forces a Keller fumble, but he gets it back.
Pressure is key. Pressure is life. Pressure is everything.
Third and very long for Nebraska deep in their own territory. Gotta force a punt here.

10:30pm
Great shower. We're ready to go.
Some halftime stats:
Chase Daniel is 19-32 for 223 yards and a touchdown
Sam Keller is 11-22 for 96 yards
Inexplicably, Marlon Lucky has only touched the ball 12 times for 72 yards
Martin Rucker has 5 catches for 68 yards
Mizzou has 296 total yards; Nebraska has 139

Nebraska gets the ball after half. To me, the first possession is huge.

10:22pm
OK, here's what I think:
-Mizzou offense looked unstoppable in the first two drives, but sort of tailed off at the end of the half, especially in the end zone. Mizzou needs to keep up what they're doing, and then finish the job.
-Mizzou defense, overall, has been pretty good. Six points, obviously, is pretty good. But what concerns me is that Nebraska is picking up third down conversions with relative ease, especially on quick outs and speed outs by Marlon Lucky. They need to tighten up on third down.
-What I'm worried about is if Callahan wises up and decides to start running Marlon Lucky a lot. I'm still afraid he could bust out and put up a huge second half.
-At least two drops in the first half, maybe three, by Mizzou receivers. That's got to stop.
-I'm legitimately worried that 14 points isn't enough, especially because Mizzou is by no means a second half team. But if that defense keeps holding up, and the offense can keep rolling, Missouri can win this game outright.
-Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker and Chase Daniel are really good.
-Here's hoping Tony Temple comes back, and has a big second half.
-No turnovers in the first half. The big gameplan for Nebraska was to force turnovers. So far, they haven't. That said, Mizzou hasn't forced any turnovers either. Keep that in mind.
-I'm sweating like a Pig Brown. I'm going to go take a halftime shower and come back ready to go.

10:10pm
Memo to Lou Holtz: shut the hell up, you old bag.
Nebraska runs out the clock, and Mizzou goes into halftime up 20-6. A real solid half. Give me ten minutes to get down some halftime thoughts.

10:07pm
OK, I've calmed down. Kind of.
But seriously, you have to see this catch. It was unreal. And it was a touchdown that was ruled incomplete, and the replay showed it was complete, and then they reviewed it and said it was incomplete.
Anyways, Mizzou just threw it incomplete on third down, and Wolfert will try a 33-yard field goal to put Mizzou up 14.
And...it's good!
America 20, Terrorists 6, only seconds left in the half.
But keep in mind that it really should be 24-6.

10:03pm
Oh my sweet merciful God.
Oh Jesus Christ on a cracker.
Chase Coffman just made a one-handed, one-footed catch in the corner of the end zone, and they called it incomplete.
Replay says otherwise.
That is the single greatest football play I have ever seen in my entire life.
Jesus Christ monkey balls.
AND THEY JUST CALLED IT INCOMPLETE!
That's ridiculous.
That is ridiculous.
Even the announcers think it's a touchdown.
Ridiculous.

10:02pm
0:27 left in the half, Mizzou ball on the Nebraska 9. Second and goal. This offense could really use this TD.

9:58pm
Chase Daniel just ran for 29 yards on 3rd and 10. Goddamn this kid is good. And he's really trying to get this crowd even more fired up.
Another TD before halftime would be massive.
1st and 10 on the Nebraska 30.

9:57pm
Ugh. Third and ten on Missouri's 40. Love to get a first down and get at least three before half.

9:55pm
Ed Cunningham just called Chase Daniel a "heady quarterback". I love that word.
Then he said "I don't think you want to give Chase Daniel this much time."
If that's not the understatement of the year...

9:51pm
YES! Ziggy Hood gets great pressure on Keller, and forces a field goal try. 39-yard FG is good.
America 17, Terrorists 6, 1:51 left in the half.
Anyone else feel like that's way too much time for this Missouri offense?

9:48pm
First down and goal on the 10, and Van Alexander shoots in for a sack. First one of the nice.
PRESSURE! MORE PRESSURE!
Then a delay of game penalty. Second and goal for Nebraska on the 22. Got to hold them to 3 here. Have to.

9:45pm
Way too much time for Keller. Anyone can find an open receiver when there is no pressure on him.

9:43pm
Breaking news alert: Tony Temple said "I will be back after halftime" to Jack Arute. Great news.

Breaking news alert: Sam Keller isn't very good.

9:40pm
Tony Temple is seen limping into the locker room. Not good. We need him to come back after halftime. Hopefully he will pour some 'Tussin on it.

9:39pm
IDK. My BFF, Rose.

9:37pm
Well, crap. Drive stalls in the red zone. Wolfert's 23-yard field goal is good.
America 17, Terrorists 3, about 5 to go in the half.

9:35pm.
Stanford just intercepted USC. USC's going to lose. Holy crap.
Mizzou ball on the five yard line. Second and goal.

9:33pm
Great drive going by the Tigers. Real nice and efficient.
USC is on its way to losing to Stanford. I sent my little brother to keep my updated.
Oh, and as I say the whole "great drive" thing? Chase almost throws a pick. I'm going to shut up now.

9:27pm
That melted cheesy burrito from Taco Bell looks disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. You couldn't pay me to eat it.
Alright, my fingers hurt. I'm taking a ten minute break, unless something huge happens.
(Chase, that's your cue to score.)

9:25pm
Crap. Short pass.
WAIT! INCOMPLETE! OUT OF BOUNDS!
Phew. That was close.
Now, what do you do, Nebraska?
Punt. Nice. Touchback. Mizzou ball, up 14-3 in the second quarter.

9:24pm
Third and 2. Another huge play. A stop here would be...well...huge.

9:21pm
Drop #1 for Nebraska. 3rd and 15 for Nebraska. Need a stop. Need a stop.
Oh, and Mizzou's stadium crew is playing the Chris Benoit entrance music.
NO! The pass was overthrown, but Pig Brown threw a HUGE hit on the receiver and he's getting a 15-yard penalty and a first down.
That was not smart. Very dumb, Pig. Bad Pig.

9:19pm
Short out caught for a first down, plus a five yard facemask penalty. First down, Nebraska. Not good. Tighten up, Tigers.

9:18pm
Sam Keller goes to get the play from coach Bill Callahan. It's like the sequel to Dumb and Dumber.

9:16pm
Mizzou's punting, probably because of the drop. In fact, definitely because of the drop. Not good.
Nebraska ball on own 19. Let's go, defense. Need a stop.

9:14pm
Some black girl singing R&B just brought us back from commercial. Bizarre.
And Jeremy Maclin just dropped a long pass. Two drops. Can't drop the ball, Tigers.
In other news, Chase Daniel is straight LOCKED IN right now.

9:11pm
Ron Franklin just called an option play "a little bit of razzle dazzle."

I would give anything to see what he calls a halfback pass.

One quarter in the books, and you've got to be happy from a Mizzou standpoint. The offense has been nearly unstoppable, and the defense has done enough. And that's the name of the game.

9:10pm
Daniel throws it up to the huge Chase Coffman, and he draws a pass interference penalty. They could do this all night. And they should.

9:09pm
This just in: Jack Arute grew a goatee.

9:05pm
Huge stop by Mizzou. They say that stops like this are "moral victories", but this is a big win. 26-yard field goal by Nebraska.

Mizzou 14, Terrorists 3, 0:49 left in the first.

On that last play, I was up screaming at my TV. God, I really want to be there. My girlfriend's dad and brother are sitting on the White Rock M behind the north end zone. I'd kill to be there right now.

9:03pm
It's obvious that if Nebraska is going to win, it means that Marlon Lucky is going to have to be huge. He's getting some big runs. First down Nebraska in the red zone.

9:02pm
Mizzou is getting pressure, but they are just a half-second slow getting to Keller. First down Nebraska, in Mizzou territory.

9:00pm
Hello, Ron Franklin. I've missed you.
This defense is swarming. I love it.

8:57pm
Holy crap, Faurot is packed.

Timeout, Nebraska. I've gotta pee.

8:56pm
Big play for Nebraska, but it's coming back on a penalty. Nice.

AND WE'RE SWITCHING OVER TO THE MIZZOU GAME! YES!

But I still hate you, ESPN.

8:54pm
There are 50 seconds left in an 18 point game, and ESPN is still showing it.

There is blood shooting out of my ears.

8:52pm
Va Tech just scored to go up 17 points. How are you not switching, ESPN?

And while I'm typing...TOUCHDOWN CHASE COFFMAN! CHASE TO CHASE! YES!

Jeff Wolfert's PAT is good. America 14, Terrorists 0, 4:57 to go in the 1st.

What a spectacular drive. And a spectacular beer. And just a spectacular world.

8:51pm
Complete pass to Will "The Helicopter" Franklin. Find me a better nickname in this world. I dare you.

First and goal on the Nebraska 10.

8:50pm
Flea flicker for Mizzou. Flea flicker. That's a freakin' schoolyard play!

Down to the Nebraska 22! Love this efficiency.

8:49pm
I hate you so much, ESPN. 3:08 to go in an 11 point game, and you're not switching over.

I hope you die, ESPN.

8:46pm
Big third down and 9 conversion on own 20. Huge. I love this offense.

Someone explain to me how there is another official's review in the Va Tech-Clemson game. Someone explain it to me, because I'm about to go crazy.

8:45pm
Mizzou announcer Mike Kelly reminds me that my home is my biggest investment. Huh.

8:42pm
Let's start the chant, shall we?

Three and out. Three and out. Three and out.

HUGE statement by this Mizzou defense. Mizzou ball on own 20 after a penalty.

8:41pm
ESPN just cut to a clip of the Mizzou touchdown. Chase Daniel just shakes hands with everyone. That is freakin' awesome.

BIG hit by William Moore. That crowd sounds RI-DIC-U-LOUS right now.

8:40pm
Excellent. False start on Nebraska. Get loud, Columbia, MO. Trust me, there's nothing else to get excited about in the town. This is your chance.

8:37pm
OK, not to bring myself down, but that touchdown score doesn't mean much. We all know that Mizzou can score. The question now: can Mizzou stop Nebraska? We're about to find out.

4:29 left in the Va Tech-Clemson game, and there is an official's review. I hate you, Clemson. I hate you so much.

8:36pm
TOUCHDOOOOOOOWN MISSOURI! 1-YARD TOUCHDOWN RUN FROM CHASE DANIEL! I think I just scared my little brother, who is upstairs in his room and refuses to watch me drink myself into a stupor.

PAT is good. 7-0 Mizzou. Great opening drive. Great start. Great everything. I love my life. (Remember that, because it might change.)

Now, for another beer.

8:34pm
Incomplete pass in the end zone on second down, but pass interference on the cheating Cornhuskers. First and goal on the 1.

Two tall boys down. I'll get a third at the next break.

8:34pm
MIZZOU! BALL! ON! NEBRASKA! 1! YES! GO! TIGERS!

I just wish I could see it.

8:33pm
Mike Kelly and John Cadalec, the two Mizzou radio guys, sound giddy. So am I. Mizzou ball on Nebraska 26. OK, I need to slow down.

8:32pm
Mizzou first down to Jeremy Maclin, AKA the X Factor.

SWITCH OVER, ESPN!

8:30pm
First down to T-Rucker. Man, if he's not the best tight end in the nation, than Chase Coffman is. And if Coffman isn't, Rucker is.

ESPN just put a little teeny tiny scoreboard in the top right hand corner of the Clemson-Va Tech game for the Mizzou game. Thanks a lot, assholes.

8:28pm
Tommy Saunders drops a pass. Drop number 1. If Mizzou starts dropping, Mizzou is screwed.

8:27pm
Holy crap, the game is on, and I'm listening to Mike Kelly on the Tiger Radio Network. We have the ball. Holy crap.

8:24pm
According to the guys over at TigerBoard (who are equally pissed off that the Mizzou game isn't on right now), Mizzou is getting the ball first. Oh my gosh, I am so hyped up, I'm about to spill my beer.

But I won't. Don't worry.

8:22pm
Va Tech just kicked a field goal, putting them up 19 with 7 minutes to go.

There is exactly no reason not to switch over to Mizzou-Nebraska. Clemson is NOT winning. They are NOT coming back. Switch over to the better game, ESPN. For the love of God, just switch over.

8:16pm
ESPN just ran a teaser showing Sam Keller throwing a pass in warmups. It was probably intercepted.

10:30 to go in the Va Tech-Clemson game, and for some reason, Va Tech is throwing. Damnit, Va Tech. I can't make a joke about you because you got all shot up earlier in the year, but please, just run the ball.

What's worse, the scroller is now saying something like "The game is available on ESPN360.com." Which means the chances of switching over early are slim or none.

8:10pm
Scroller on the bottom of ESPN says that the Mizzou-Nebraska kick is at 9:26 Eastern, meaning in about 15 minutes. 11:17 left in the Clemson-VA Tech game, and Clemson is driving. Ugh. Get this damn game over with. Run out the clock, Clemson. I don't care if you're losing. Just kneel it.

8:04pm
15 minute warning. Let's go through the checklist, a la Brad over at The 12th Manchild:

-Brad Smith jersey, to evoke his ghost? Check.
-Beer? Check.
-Remote control hidden from little brother? Check.
-Emergency bottle of whiskey should the unthinkable happen? Check.
-Computer? Check.

I think we're ready.

Right now, ESPN is showing Virginia Tech vs. Clemson. It's Va Tech 31, Clemson 15 with 14 minutes to go. I swear to the Almighty that if ESPN doesn't switch over to Mizzou-Nebraska at 8:15pm, I'm finding the number for Bristol and making an angry call.

Go Tigers.

7:41pm
Actual text message conversation that just occurred between my brother Matt (a Texas Tech grad) and I:

Matt: "Not even halftime. 28-3 tech over ISU. Crabtree has 2 tds. 16 in total for the season."

Me: "Steroids. By the way, missouri is wearing gold pants tonight. To my knowledge, last time they busted out the gold bottoms? Last year vs tech. Go tigers."

Matt: "Wow. So they want to go for the liberachi (sic) look?"

Me: "Hey, as long as they beat those nebraska terrorists, they can wear de la hoya's fishnet for all i care."

A little more than half an hour. Tall boy No. 2 is open.

7:16pm
Breaking news alert coming from Rock M Nation's Ross Taylor at Faurot Field:

Gold pants.

I'm getting giddy. And it's not just because I'm halfway through my first of six Miller Lite tall boys.
6:10pm
A couple things as we are now two hours from kickoff:

-Per Awful Announcing, your announcers this evening will be Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham and Jack Arute, presumably in play-by-play, color and sideline roles, respectively. I'm a big fan of Franklin, who was ESPN's No. 1 college football play-by-play guy on College Football Primetime from 1987 until 2005. Cunningham and Arute, for the most part, I have no opinion on.

-Last check of the betting lines have Mizzou favored by somewhere between 6 and 7 points.

-I know it's been beaten into the ground by pretty much every other blogger, but I will never watch Frank TV. It's not that I don't like Frank Caliendo. I think he's rather funny and the best part of a bad show (MadTV). But TBS's apparent marketing scheme to beat "Frank TV" into each of our subconsciousnesses during the MLB playoffs has made me turn against not just Caliendo, but President Bush, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino.

-Kansas might have beaten Kansas State in Manhattan, but I'm still not sold. If anything, this game just confirms my notion that everyone is overreacting just a little bit about Mizzou's game at Kansas State later this year.

-As for the Red River Shootout, I don't really know what to feel. I've never been really impressed by Texas, and Oklahoma seems like if they play anyone with a pulse, they lose about half of their talent. Mizzou-Oklahoma, at the very least, will be entertaining next week.

-How great is that Illinois win looking right now?

Less than two hours to kickoff. Get your popcorn ready.

3:38pm
We're a little less than five hours away from kickoff, but I figured I would remind you exactly who is playing and what is at stake.

vs.

1:53pm
For those of you finding us for the first time, especially via the stellar Mizzou blog Rock M Nation, welcome to the TepBlog. My name is Greg Tepper, a senior journalism major at The University of Missouri, currently interning for the sports department at The Dallas Morning News.

Like most Mizzou students, I live and die with my Tigers. Well, mostly die. But there is some living sprinkled in there among the death.

And I know as well as you do that tonight is a very special night for Missouri. Tonight is Nebraska. It's a game that, preseason, people would tell you would determine the Big XII North title. Even though the conference has been muddied by the likes of Kansas State, Kansas and Colorado, this still may be the biggest game in the division this year.

I couldn't make it to Columbia for this one (I have to work tomorrow), but never fear: the Worldwide Leader in Sports is broadcasting the game. And so will I.
Starting at about 8pm tonight (kickoff is 8:15pm), I will be liveblogging the Missouri-Nebraska game, feeding you my thoughts on the game as it happens. So check back early, check back often, check back every ten seconds or so.

So there's your primer! Enjoy the game, check back often starting at about 8pm, and GO TIGERS!

(Hardcore TepBlog fans have probably noticed that I didn't blog last night. Problem was, I got home from covering my game in Richardson at about 11:30pm, and playing Wii seemed a lot more interesting than blogging. But suffice to say that I got my story in on time, and all is well in the world. For some reason, my story hasn't been posted on the Internets yet, but as soon as it is, I will link to it.)

TepBlog Podcast #6

2007-10-04T15:19:00.000-05:00

You can listen to the sixth installment of the TepBlog Podcast below:

You can download the podcast by right-clicking here and selecting "Save Target As..."

And, of course, the clips:

Naaman Forest is conditioned to win

Garland's Caldwell back, but Aghayere is out

North Mesquite coach wants to ensure players win in classroom, too

Terrell alters gameplan to boost QB's confidence

Pushed to the limit, Rockwall-Heath falls

Happy 16th Birthday, Jeff Tepper

2007-10-04T01:12:00.000-05:00

Going to be a short one today.
Too much celebrating with the birthday boy.

Let's do this bullet style, shall we?
-Drove to the office at 10am
-Made a few calls
-Got my last note for the notebook
-Carried on a spectacular conversation comparing Garland DE Chancey Aghayere to Ferris Bueller with about half of the newsroom
-Met my dad for lunch at Uptown Bar and Grill
-Sent a few e-mails
-Interviewed West Mesquite coach Mike Overton
-Left at 1:30pm
-Arrived home at 2pm
-Sat around
-Watched the Rockies beat the Phillies
-Watched the Red Sox beat the Angels
-Watched the Diamondbacks beat the Cubs
-Set up Jeff's birthday present (a Nintendo Wii!!!)
-Went to Outback Steakhouse for Jeff's birthday
-Played Wii
-Talked to my beautiful girlfriend
-Wrote this blog

I know it's short.
Deal with it.

I Just Want To Relax

2007-10-02T21:46:00.000-05:00

Day from hell today.
Just like every Tuesday.

Let's cut to the chase tonight, because I really don't feel like blogging, but I know I have to. There are days in which blogging is a real joy, a chance for me to relieve some stress.
Today ain't one of those days.
I woke up, went to the Y, ran two miles (that makes 50, halfway home), showered, changed, and drove to work at 10am.
Today was notebook day, which is one of my least favorite days. It involves the most work, and usually involves me running around for at least three of the hours that I work.
The first thing I had to do was follow this story of a referee. Apparently, said referee had a heart attack during the Naaman Forest-Sachse game, and John had put it on me to find out about him.
So I started calling around, first calling Baylor Medical Center in Garland.
Nobody was talking.
I talked to the PR people at the Garland branch.
Nobody was talking.
Finally, I got a little help from the corporate Baylor office, where a nice lady told me that she would check on the guy for me. Finally, I was getting somewhere.
I tracked down the website for the Dallas Football Officials Association and gave them a call. I talked to the secretary of the "chapter" for a few minutes, and he gave me some vital details.
About 30 minutes later, I got a call back from the lady at Baylor with my information. Sweet. There was note No. 1.
Or so I thought. More on that in a bit.
I started calling more coaches. Jeff Jordan at Garland. Tam Hollingshead at Rockwall-Heath. Mike Robinson at North Mesquite. Those would be my other notes, but I was going to go out to Rockwall-Heath and North Mesquite to watch practice.
Lunch was a grilled chicken sandwich and a cup of clam chowder.
I worked and worked and worked, trying to get notes and ideas for notes and printing out directions for my wonderful journey.
At 1:30pm, I walked into Cameron's office to confirm everything with the referee thing. He said that it was cool to run it as a lead note for HS Gametime on Thursday.
I ran it by John O'Rourke. He wasn't cool with that.
Instead, he thought that we should have a brief about it in the paper tomorrow.
Which means I would have to write a brief when I got home, considering I was about to head out the door.
It also meant that I would need to find a fourth note for my notebook.
This was not fun.
I got in my car and drove to West Mesquite High School. I walked up to the fieldhouse as all of the football players were walking there, too.
As I was walking up, one of the kids yelled out to me.
"Hey...where are you going?"
I sarcastically answered.
"Heading to the fieldhouse to suit up. Ready to hit somebody."
He looked at me like I had three heads.
Ten seconds passed, and he addressed me again.
"Wait, you go here?"
I smiled.
"Nah, man. I'm a reporter with The Dallas Morning News."
He smiled back.
"Ohh. I thought you went here."
Second time in a week that somebody has mistaken me for a high school student. And this time, it WAS a high school student.
I went into the fieldhouse and tracked down coach Mike Overton. He said that he would go grab Markeith Elder, the guy I needed to talk to.
And he brought in the kid who thought I was a high schooler. I'm not even kidding you.
So, I interviewed the guy for about 10 minutes, and he was cool.
Then, I drove over to the Mesquite Police Department to pick up a copy of a police report I would need for the Elder story. I'll tell you all about it after I write it.
I bought a Diet Dr. Pepper at a convenience store. I opened it, and it tasted terrible. So what'd I do?
I called the number on the can. A refund coupon is on its way as we speak.
Then, I drove over to North Mesquite High School. I caught up with coach Mike Robinson, who was a very nice guy. In fact, he was a little too nice.
He's instituted mandatory study hours during practice for all of his players. And even though I just came to get a couple quotes and run, he insisted that I follow him around and let him give me a tour of everything.
Again, very nice. But 30 minutes later, I told him that I needed to get to Rockwall-Heath.
So, at 4:15pm, I took off for Rockwall-Heath. I got there and caught the last 20 minutes of practice. I talked to a player and coach Hollingshead, and made the long trek back to Coppell.
When I got there, I tried to sit around, but that failed miserably, considering I had a whole lot to do.
So, I went upstairs and wrote the referee brief.
I wrote 3/4ths of my notebook, considering I need one more note.
I talked to my wonderful girlfriend on the phone.
I transcribed my notes from my recorder from the Elder interview.
I ate pot roast for dinner.
And now I'm writing this blog.

Long, unnecessarily frustrating day today.
And the worst part: I have to work tomorrow, too. And the next day, and the next.

Crossing the Halfway Checkpoint

2007-10-01T22:45:00.000-05:00

A Monday with a few twists in it.
Just like I like it.

My alarm clock went off at 6am, and I got up with it.
For about 30 minutes.
Then, I was right back to sleep for another two hours, before waking at 8:30am and deciding that it is time to get up.
Shower, change, drive.
I got to the TepCube at around 9:30am and, after high-fiving fellow Chiefs fan Jason Zimmeman, started checking e-mail. Normally, when I walk in on a Monday morning, it's not very common to have any e-mails worth reading.
Not today.
I had a letter from Robert Decherd in my e-mail. Robert Decherd, for those who don't know, is the big big big big big big big dog at Belo. Head honcho. Big cheese. The man.
And he was writing me a letter! Holy crap!
Well, not exactly me. More...everyone who works for him
"Dear Fellow Employee:
Today we announced a significant and exciting milestone in our Company’s 165-year history. The Board of Directors has approved a plan to create separate television and newspaper companies by spinning off Belo’s newspaper businesses into a separate, publicly-traded company. Our press release is attached."
It went on for quite a while, but here is the gist of it. Belo, the megaconglomerate, is breaking up into two completely independent companies. One company, A.H. Belo Inc., will control all of the current Belo's newspaper and Internet assets (meaning TDMN, Al Dia, The Providence Journal, Denton Record-Chronicle, et al). The other company, Belo Corp., will control all of the current Belo's television assets (like Channel 8 in Dallas, among many others).
Now it's important to note that these changes will not take effect until the first quarter of 2008, at a very minimum. Still, this basically means that they are cutting Mama Belo in half. Which means I need to hug her as much as I can now.
Anyways, at 10:15am, I went into the conference room to shoot my video. My partner this week? Gabriel Cabarrouy, my buddy from across the TepCube.
There was only one...little...problem...
I literally could not pronounce his last name.
It prounounced CAB-ah-rrrrrooooeeee. The "rrrrrrrooooeeeee" represents a rolling of the tongue, something I'm not very good at. Cabarrouy.
So, instead, I opted to let Gaby say his own name. And then Gaby turned on the CRAZY energy, and I just tried to keep up. The video turned out alright, but you can check for yourself by clicking here.
After the video shoot, I ducked into John O'Rourke's office. I had asked him on Friday night if I could get a mid-internship report card/progress report on Monday, and he had told me to come in at some point on Monday.
To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. John's been extra tough, it seems, on me and my work, and very nitpicky. I didn't know what he was going to say.
But he stunned me.
"Overall...you're doing a great job. You've really picked up the job and done it very well."
Whoa.
He went on to tell me that he would refer me to anyone that I want, and that he had already referred me to Bob Yates, the sports department's top dog, as a potential candidate.
Whoa.
He told me that my writing was way better than it should be at my age.
Whoa.
It was all very flattering, but I made sure to ask him afterwards what I could improve on. He mentioned a few things, like tightening my ledes and paraphrasing nonessential quotes, but said that overall...and here's the part that really struck me...
"It's obvious that we made the right decision. It was the second time around, but we made the right choice in the end."
Whoa. That is probably the biggest compliment I've ever received, considering where it was coming from.
But I know that I can't get a big head. This is, after all, a step. This isn't an end; it's a path. I just took another step in the right direction; now, I need to continue going that way.
I retired back to my cube and tried to do a little bit of work. It didn't work, because I spent my time forcing Damon Sayles to add me as a Facebook friend. He did. It was awesome.
At noon, it was time for the weekly meeting. Before the meeting got going (but after grabbing some pizza for lunch), top sports dog Bob Yates talked to us about the whole corporate split thing. A lot of the staff asked questions, but I felt like it wasn't really my place. Instead, I chilled and listened.
After the meeting actually got going, John got up to reveal the arbitrary "who got their story in the fastest" award. And guess what? Despite the fact that I sent my first story in at 10:48pm (without quotes) and sent in my final story (with quotes) at 11:05pm, I got the silver medal, for the somethingth time in a row. I'm consistent, at least.
The meeting adjourned at about 1:45pm, and I needed to get to work.
I made a call to West Mesquite coach Mike Overton to ask him about next week's cover story. I'll be going over there tomorrow in the early afternoon.
I made a call to Garland coach Jeff Jordan, whose team fell to 0-4 with a loss to Rockwall last week, to ask him about some injuries. I'm going to need to call him back tomorrow, just to confirm some things he told me.
I transcribed my quotes from my recorder for this week's cover story. I got writing, only interrupted by Cameron calling me into his office to chat about something he wants me to cover in a couple weeks (we'll get to that as the time approaches). By 4pm, my story was done. By 4:30pm, after crunching some numbers for a sidebar of the story, I sent it in.
Now, it was capsule time. But first, I needed some water.
I got up to walk to the employee workroom when I heard a voice behind me.
"Hey, intern!"
It was the first time I had been called "intern". Just "intern". Ever.
I turned, half smiling and half angry. It was Kate Hairopolous, the SMU beat writer. She smiled at me, and asked me about the Garland team. We talked for about five minutes, about SMU and Garland and other things. It was the first time that Kate and I had an actual conversation, because I always feel bad interrupting her while she is working. But this was nice.
Anyways, I finished up my capsules at about 6:30pm and drove home. I ate...well, nothing for dinner. I wasn't really hungry. Instead, I changed clothes, drove to the YMCA and ran my two miles. Whoo!
I sat around, watched the Rockies beat the Padres for the NL Wild Card, talked to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Long, encouraging, confusing, interesting day.
Tough act to follow, Tuesday.

Saying Goodbye, Saying Hello

2007-09-30T23:51:00.000-05:00

Got Jen off, and got back to work.
Back to the grind.

I rolled out of bed at 9:30am, and made my way downstairs to my older brother's old room, which we have transformed into a guest room/computer room.
I kissed Jen on the cheek to wake her up, and gave her a big hug. She woke up with a smile, and said that it was the best way to wake up.
I hope so.
After laying with her for a few minutes, I made my way into the kitchen, where my mom and dad were cooking breakfast. Thirty minutes later, breakfast was ready: scrambled eggs, slab bacon and biscuits. Yum.
The rest of the morning was spent reading the newspaper, chatting with Jen and the TepParents, showering and changing, and checking some e-mail. Oh, and helping Jen pack.
Yep. Unfortunately, today was Jen's departure date. She had come for a long weekend, and she says that she had a blast. We did everything Dallas: toured downtown, ate Mexican food, my mom and Jen went shopping, and we topped it all off with an incredible trip to the Texas State Fair yesterday.
It was a great weekend, but everything has to end. And unfortunately, today was that day.
At noon, Jen said goodbye to the parents. She thanked them for their hospitality, and hoped that she could come back soon. My parents told her that she is welcome anytime, and that they enjoyed her visit as much as she did.
A few minutes later, Jen and I were driving to Dallas Love Field in the Baron.
I know that I'll see her soon. And I know that we talk every night on the phone. And I know that we're both in the same place when it comes to our relationship.
But saying goodbye to Jen was one of the hardest things I've ever done. That girl has been nothing but strong throughout this entire ordeal, and she has been so supportive of what I'm doing. She's my second-biggest fan (behind TepMom) and I love her more than anything.
But because she's been strong, I owed it to her to be strong. Jen sometimes gets on to me for not showing enough emotion, but today was an exception. Jen was a little upset, and I needed to be strong for the both of us.
So I didn't cry. I parked and walked her into the airport and watched as she maneuvered her way through security. I stood there with stoicism, smiling and waving and insisting that everything would be alright.
I walked out of the terminal after she disappeared out of sight. Tears welled up in my eyes as I walked to the car. I sat in my car for a couple minutes and just reflected on the weekend, and our relationship.
Yup. I'm in love with the girl, and I already miss her again.
After a couple minutes to collect my thoughts, I drove away, bound for The Dallas Morning News.
Back to reality.
I arrived at about 1:30pm and got to work. The nice thing was, I had a bunch of nominations already in hand, thanks to writers and editors and coaches e-mailing me some nominations.
After 20 minutes of collecting all of the nominations, I had 16. Right off the bat, that is a great number. Remember, I need a total of 21: one winner, 20 honorable mentions.
Over the next hour, a few more trickled in and, before you knew it, I had 24 nominations.
Yikes! You mean to tell me that I have more nominations than I know what to do with? What a concept?
I scanned over the nominees looking for a winner.
To me, there are two types of winners of the Defensive Player of the Week:
Category 1) Mammoth Stats
This type of nominee might not play for the best team, and the game he played in wasn't the most important one, but his numbers are too amazing to ignore. For example, last weeks when I wrote about the kid from Rockwall Christian, he had ridiculous stats: 15 solo tackles, 9 assists, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and a blocked punt. It usually also helps to have a wide variety of stats. For example, if you get 20 tackles, but that's it, you're likely to get an honorable mention, but your chances of winning are pretty slim.
Category 2) Mammoth Impact
This type of nominee might not have eye-popping numbers, but he had a very good game in a very big game. This week's winner was this type.
His name is Steven Terrell, and he's a free safety for Allen. Now, Allen is the No. 2 team in the area, according to our poll. And they opened district play this week against No. 5 Plano. Needless to say, it was a huge game.
And Allen won, 35-26.
And Terrell was one of the main reasons: nine tackles, two pass defenses and a fumble recovery. He also blocked a field goal and intercepted a pass late in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Yep. We have a winner.
After making a call to Todd Wills to get the Allen coach's cell phone number, I talked to the coach for a couple minutes. He gave me a quote, and he said that he would look into a mug shot.
Uh oh.
No, don't worry. I had a mug shot within 15 minutes. No repeat of Rockwall Christian this week.
Anyways, I called Terrell. He was a really nice kid, and I think he might be the first one to actually thank me on the phone for selecting him. We chatted for a few minutes, and I got down all of his pertinent information.
It was 3pm.
By 3:30pm, I had the Defensive Player of the Week submitted, the mug shot in, the Honorable Mentions typed up, and my poll completed.
It's quittin' time.
I went out to the Baron and drove home, just two hours after I had arrived.
If only every week were like that.
I drove home, ate a little pizza for dinner, fixed the Internet, confirmed that Jen had gotten home safely, played a little Madden and now I'm writing this blog.

Day of mixed emotions.
Tomorrow, there's only one emotion: anguish.

Going to the Fair, Going to the Fair, Going to the Fair, Hey Hey Hey Hey

2007-09-29T22:03:00.001-05:00

No blog tonight, because there's not much to report. Jen and I went to the fair, and it was awesome. I had a corny dog, fried cookie dough (ridiculously good) and fried cheesecake.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to spend more time with my girlfriend.

Bullet Blogging, Redux

2007-09-29T01:03:00.000-05:00

Let's try this again.
Abbreviated blog!

Alright, folks, it's 1 in the morning, and I have to be up in a little less than seven hours to go run before I go to the State Fair of Texas with Jen tomorrow. So let's make this short and sweet, shall we?

-Awoke at 10:30am
-Got in the pool with Jen
-Ate lunch outside with Jen
-Watched "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" with Jen
-Sat around with Jen
-Took Jen up to Austin Elementary so that my mom could take her out with the other teachers
-Got my blog ridiculed by my old journalism teacher Gail Richardson, citing "boring crap like when you woke up and what you ate"
-Ignored my old journalism teacher Gail Richardson, because she clearly has no idea what in the hell she is talking about. Case in point:

Total hits on Gail Richardson's Web site this year: 0
Total hits on my Web site this year: 1,501

The defense rests, your Honor.
-Drove back home to drop off a load of my mother's stuff from work (it was her last day at Austin Elementary today)
-Drove to work at 4pm
-Arrived at the newsroom at 4:45pm
-Picked up my wireless card from Cameron
-Printed out directions and otherwise prepared for the game
-Drove to Wildcat-Ram Stadium over in Richardson
-Ate a chicken salad sandwich and potato salad in the press box. Oops. Is that an uninteresting detail, Gail Richardson? Well, the people who have logged onto my Web site 1,501 more times than yours seem to disagree.
-Watched the game, which sped along through the first half
-Watched as Wylie inexplicably threw the ball with six seconds left in the half (and the clock running, and the play clock off!) from their own three yard line, only to have it intercepted and run back for a go-ahead touchdown
-Relaxed at halftime
-Blogged along the way...I won't link directly to each blog entry, but if you'd like to read them all, just go to http://hs.beloblog.com and look for my entries
-Watched as Wylie pulled away, mainly because Berkner threw it away
-Watched the single longest third quarter in football history, lasting from approximately 9:15pm until 10:10pm
-Worried about deadline
-Called my editor for the evening, Marc, and explained the situation
-Watched as the game finally ended at 10:48pm
-Sent in stats and a story without quotes at 10:50pm (I was writing through the fourth quarter)
-Sprinted down the stadium steps
-Ran over to the Wylie locker room
-Waited
-Waited
-Waited
-Watched the door to the locker room open, only to realize that it was just a trainer
-Waited
-Waited
-Finally interviewed the coach and the quarterback
-Sprinted back across the field and up the stairs
-Plugged in my quotes
-Re-filed my story at 11:05pm
-Drove back to TDMN to pick up the paycheck I had stupidly left at my desk, and to drop my computer back at my desk
-Drove home, arriving just after midnight
-Chilled with Jen for a little bit
-Came upstairs
-Wrote this blog

There, that wasn't so bad, was it?
It was great for me.

Podcast Alternative

2007-09-27T23:36:00.000-05:00

Alright, folks...there will be no TepBlog Podcast this week, due to Jen being in town. I couldn't find time to podcast today because I was too busy showing Jen around Dallas. We had a blast, and capped the night with a great meal at a local Mexican restaurant.

However, as promised, here are my NFL and NCAA picks:

NFL
Last Week: 9-7
Overall: 28-20

Houston over Atlanta
NY Jets over Buffalo
Baltimore over Cleveland
Dallas over St. Louis
Detroit over Chicago
Miami over Oakland
Green Bay over Minnesota
Carolina over Tampa Bay
Seattle over San Francisco
Pittsburgh over Arizona
Indianapolis over Denver
San Diego over Kansas City
Philadelphia over NY Giants
New England over Cincinnati

NCAA
Last Week: 5-2
Overall: 16-5

West Virginia over South Florida
Oregon over Cal
Nebraska over Iowa State
Alabama over Florida State
Wisconsin over Michigan State
Clemson over Georgia Tech
Texas over Kansas State

Blog at you tomorrow after my trip to Wylie-Richardson Berkner!

Michael Freakin' Young

2007-09-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

Baseball and nothing today.
Sounds pretty good for working from home.

I awoke this morning at 10:30am when my cell phone rang, blaring "(I Don't Want To Lose) Your Love" by The Outfield in my right ear. The caller ID said "UNKNOWN", but I knew exactly who it was.
I answered. It was Cameron.
He wanted to know if I was available to work on Saturday.
Uh...
I explained to him that my beautiful girlfriend Jen is coming in town this weekend, and I was planning on taking her to the fair that day.
He sighed. Too bad, he said, because he was going to send me to the Jackson State-Grambling game at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday night.
I told him I couldn't do it, and said goodbye to him.
I felt a little bad about it, but really, I've already made a commitment to take Jen to the fair. And, damnit, I want a corny dog. Or six.
I rolled out of bed and showered. After getting out of the shower, the phone rang again. It was my dad.
"Hey, guess what?"
Uh...
"Rangers play an afternoon game."
What?
See, TepMom and I had planned on going out to the Rangers game today, the final home game of the season. But we didn't bother checking what time it started, assuming it was a night game.
Wrong.
That meant I'd be going it alone. I've been to baseball games alone, and I'm paid to go to sporting events alone. It's no big deal.
So, at about 12:30pm, I drove out to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, arriving at about 1pm.
I had a coupon for a free ticket, so I got in for free, settling among the 10,000 or so in the ballpark. I sat down the right field line about six rows up. Pretty sweet seat.
What's even sweeter, you ask? It was Dollar Hot Dog Day. No joke. I was in heaven.
The game started, and the Rangers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, thanks to an RBI single by Michael Young and a two-run homer by Sammy Sosa.
But back to Young for a second. You hardcore TepBlog fans might notice that this is the second time that I've used the title of this blog entry. I used it last year to commemorate Michael Young's 2006 All-Star Game MVP performance.
The biggest storyline going on today, considering the Rangers were completely out of the race for the playoffs, was Young. He was sitting on 197 hits for the season entering the game, needing three to get to the 200-hit plateau for the fifth consecutive year, a feat that only Wade Boggs and Ichiro have accomplished since 1940.
So, with that first-inning single, he was in business.
He grounded out in the third. He struck out in the fifth. Things weren't looking good for Young to do it at home. I grabbed a cold Shiner Bock and two hot dogs.
(Oh, and the Rangers kept pouring it on. Lots of hits, lots of runs.)
In the sixth, Michael laced a single into right field. Number 199. This could happen!
And up stepped Michael Young in the seventh inning. Bases loaded. One out. Rangers leading 11-2.
The crowd rose to its feet, and began chanting "Let's Go Mike! Let's Go Mike!"
On a 2-2 pitch, Michael Freakin' Young delivered a single up the middle, hitting the bag and bouncing into short left field. Two runs scored. Mike made history.
The crowd, and me, went bananas. A long, long standing ovation.
Michael Freakin' Young.
Oh, and then my favorite baseball player of all time, Hank Blalock, smashed a homerun two pitches later. What a five minute span.
The Rangers ended up winning 16-2, and I got to shake hands with some players and manager Ron Washington as they thanked fans and we thanked them back. I even got my hat signed by the Blue Glove Lefty himself (and Jen's favorite Ranger) C.J. Wilson.
I drove home happy as could be.
Was this season a success for the Rangers? No. They had dreams of winning the AL West, and might end up finishing last in it. The pitching wasn't great. The hitting wasn't great. The managing wasn't great. Hell, even the mascot sucked.
But there is something very refreshing about hearing an usher bid fans farewell on their way out.
"See you next year, folks!"
Damn right you will.
I drove home and, after once again being goaded by my father, I went to the Y and ran my two miles. Yep. I did it. I sure did. 44 miles in the bag. Let's Go Greg!
I came home, showered, ate Boston Market with my dad, cleaned my room in anticipation for Jen's arrival, talked to her on the phone, and now I'm writing this blog.

Fun day today.
Tomorrow, hopefully, will be better.

No, Coach, I'm Not A Student Here

2007-09-26T00:40:00.000-05:00

Did my usual Tuesday day from hell routine.
Joy.

God bless the TepMom. She really tried to rally me out of bed at 6am, shaking my leg and excitedly encouraging me to get out of bed after she had just returned from the Y herself.
Didn't happen. But she tried, and that's good enough for me.
Instead, I rolled out of bed at 8:15am, knowing that I needed to get to the newsroom so I could get everything that I wanted to get accomplished...accomplished.
Shower. Change. Drive downtown.
I got to my cube at about 10am, and really tried to get work done right off the bat. I called coach Charles Hesse over at Mesquite Poteet, the guy I couldn't find for the life of me during my failed trip over to Poteet yesterday. Voicemail.
I called Kevin Rush over at Forney. No answer.
Well, crap. If I can't talk to people, I can't get information, now can I?
(Side note: I e-mailed Hesse and got an e-mail back, so we're square on that front.)
OK, Greg. Focus on your cavalcade of whimsy.
I needed to go to three practices today...now, I needed to see if the practice times would work out for me.
I knew from a phone call I made yesterday to Sachse coach Red Behrens that their practice would end at 5:45pm. And I knew that Naaman Forest tended to have early practices, ending around 4pm or so.
I called Naaman Forest coach Bill Patterson to confirm. Yep, their practice would be wrapping up at 3:30pm. That's a good start, both to my trip and to my planning of the afore-mentioned cavalcade of whimsy.
The real wild card, though, was Rowlett. I needed to go to their practice, but would the ending time fall between 3:30pm and 5:45pm?
I called Rowlett coach Kiff Hardin, who, probably as a result of his first name, I kept wanting to refer to as Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin.
Anyways, I called him. Rowlett practice would end at about 5pm.
Swish!
To celebrate, and because it was noon, I grabbed some lunch at the Headliner Diner. A tuna salad croissant, fruit and chips. Oh, and water. And as much as I would have liked to take the opportunity to have lunch with a colleague and pick their brain, the only one in the area at the time was Gaby, and he was swamped. Maybe some other time.
I read my usual round of blogs, and started printing off directions. TDMN to Naaman, then Naaman to Rowl...
Wait, what's this "Error in printing" thing?
I tried again, and got the same problem.
So, I dialed IT services. I was on the phone with a woman in Colorado (where the call center is located, who then forward the problems on to the appropriate places) when Sylvia, one of the sports department's office managers, told me that I had a phone call.
From IT.
I know. Weird.
After I got off the phone with the lady from Colorado, I called Carl from IT back. Turns out he was working on my laptop and needed me to log off of my desktop (because computers explode if the same person is logged in at two places). And I wasn't to log back onto my desktop until he called me.
So, I sat there, with literally nothing to do.
So I cleaned my desk.
And sat there.
And read the Newberg Report again.
And sat there some more.
At about 2pm, Carl came to my desk, looking awful flustered. You could tell that he had about a million better things to do than hook a stupid kid up with a laptop.
But, by 2:15pm, I had a pretty new toy: a laptop, complete with a dock so that it now functions as my desktop as well. It's kind of weird, and I'm still getting used to it.
I finished printing off my directions and ran out to the Baron at about 2:45pm. Time to roll.
I drove, pretty uneventfully, over to Naaman Forest High School in Garland. I'd been there last week, but now I wanted to write a cover story about them.
I had to wait around for about 20 minutes, but after practice, I knocked out my three interviews: QB Levi Keffer, LB Chris Shinault and coach Bill Patterson.
It was 3:55pm when I got back in my car. It wouldn't be until 5pm when the Rowlett practice would finish, so I decided to take my sweet time getting over there.
I finally got there at about 4:15pm, and I wanted to fill up my water bottle. I meandered over to the fieldhouse, and found the door to the locker room propped open.
I went inside and began filling up my water bottle. There was a student trainer in there, but he didn't give me more than a first glance.
My bottle was half full when I heard a voice booming at me.
"Who are you, and what are you doing in here?"
I turned. It was Kiff Hardin, Rowlett's coach, looking at me with that same face I'd seen on all of my high school football coaches, a fine mix of anger, frustration, curiousity and genuine confusion.
I told him that I was Greg Tepper, a reporter for The Dallas Morning News.
Hardin laughed.
"Oh! Jeez, you're a young-looking guy. I thought you were student."
I don't know how to feel about that. Thanks, I guess?
I walked out to practice. At one point, I walked over to watch the defense, and the student trainer who was in the locker room asked me how old I was.
"21," I replied.
"Man, you do look young," the student trainer said.
Again...is that a good thing?
Practice took longer than Hardin had told me, and I didn't get a chance to interview him and QB Brandon Loy until about 5:25pm. Now I had to book it.
I hauled it over to Sachse High School, and made it over there at exactly 5:45pm. The team was already inside, but I was directed to the appropriate player to talk to, LB Everett Daniels, and had a nice sit-down conversation with coach Behrens in his office, the first sit-down interview I've conducted with TDMN.
I was on my way out when an assistant coach called my name. I'd never met this coach before, but apparently he knew my first name, because that's what he called out to me.
"So, who's the pick for Friday?"
Uhhh...
"Well...you know..."
Man, I really didn't want to tell him that I picked Naaman Forest to beat his team. I really really didn't. This was a big guy; he could probably shot-put me through my car windshield.
"...can't lie to you, coach. I picked Naaman."
He nodded.
"Yeah, I think they're better."
You've got to admire his honesty.
I drove home, logging my mileage all the way, and arrived home at around 6:30pm. I wished TepMom and TepDad a happy anniversary, bought Jeff and I Chili's for dinner, watched Mark Cuban and Floyd Mayweather (my official picks) cut a rug on Dancing with the Stars, talked to my beautiful girlfriend that I'm going to see in just a couple of days, and now I'm writing this blog.

I'm sleeping in tomorrow.
High school students, you know, need their sleep.

Blogging With Bullets

2007-09-25T01:13:00.001-05:00

Short and sweet tonight.
It's late and I'm tired.

Okay, so, it's currently one in the morning, and I've had myself a long day. Blogging was the last thing on my mind, but I knew I couldn't blow it off for the second time in four or so days. So, the solution is bullet points. Short, sweet, to the point, no frills. Just my day, broken up into handy, bite-sized chunks.
Ready? Go!

-Woke up at 7:30am
-Showered and dressed
-Drove to TDMN at 9am
-Worked on game capsules
-Talked with Damon, Bobbi, Gaby, Kate and T-Mac
-Put in a photo request for my next cover story
-Made a couple unsuccessful calls to coaches
-Shot my video, which you can see by clicking here
-Checked and wrote some e-mails
-Met with Jacques, who gave me some excellent and practical writing advice
-Continued to work on game capsules
-Went to the high school writers meeting
-Was awarded silver medal for having second story in
-Ate Mexican food
-Debated the screening policy on the DMN's high school blog
-Went back to my desk
-Continued to work on game capsules
-Sent this video to Damon Sayles
-Ignored Damon as he ridiculed me for sending him such a silly video
-Got the last laugh when Damon admitted that he loved it
-Made a decision to do my game capsules at home and instead go to Mesquite Poteet's practice
-Drove to Mesquite Poteet
-Discovered that practice was already over
-Got mad
-Calmed down
-Got mad again
-Let my anger subside
-Drove home
-Ran two miles, at the urging/annoyance of TepDad
-Ate spaghetti for dinner
-Watched Monday Night Football
-Finished my game capsules
-Planned out my day for tomorrow
-Talked to my beautiful girlfriend
-Wrote this blog

It was an emergency, so I pulled out the bullets.
Hope nobody got hurt.

And Now, We Play The Waiting Game

2007-09-24T09:27:00.001-05:00

A short stint at the office turned into a long ordeal.
And no, I’m not happy about it.

The day started off innocuous enough. I rolled out of bed at about 10:30am and, after talking to my girlfriend briefly, meandered downstairs.
It got to be about noon when my mom asked if I wanted to go to the Y.
Yeah, I guess I should, shouldn’t I?
So, TepMom and I made it to the YMCA, where it was practically empty (considering they open at noon on Sundays, you can kind of figure out why).
I ran my two miles and did my ab workout, and TepMom and I were back at the house around 1pm. That, ladies and gentlemen, makes 40 miles. 40% there. Keep chugging.
I showered, changed and, after drinking a Slim Fast, walked out to the Baron and drove off to the Morning News at about 2:15pm.
I arrived at 2:45pm. Mark that time in your head.
I sat down at the TepCube and started to get to work on the Defensive Player of the Week stuff. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of games this week, considering most teams had a bye week. As a result, there weren’t a lot of nominations. I think I got a total of 11 outside contributions.
At any rate, I found the guy that deserved to be the DPOTW: a sophomore linebacker from Rockwall Christian Academy named Cody Wallace. The kid had 15 unassisted tackles, 9 assists, 3 sacks, two forced fumbles and a blocked punt. That’s a beastly effort.
The coach had left a voicemail on the hotline to nominate Wallace, so I called the number that he left. He answered and seemed excited that I had chosen Wallace. He answered all my questions and then casually asked if I’d like to get in contact with the head coach.
What? He wasn’t the head coach?
No. He was just an assistant. And, moreso, he was the kid’s uncle. Definitely not quoteable.
The remaining questions answered: yes, I could have the head coach’s cell phone number; yes, I could have Wallace’s cell phone number; and yes, the guy I was talking to would get me a mug shot of the kid.
I called the head coach. Voicemail.
I called Wallace, and talked to him for about 10 minutes. It really might have been his first interview, because he seemed very nervous. But I got everything that I needed from him, and wrote his entire mini-biography that the DPOTW entails, sans a coach’s quote.
I tried the head coach again. Voicemail.
By now, it was about 4pm. Later than I’d like, but things were alright.
I started to fill in the rest of the honorable mentions by scanning the box scores and game summaries. Basically, if you scored a touchdown on defense, you got an honorable mention.
I got all of those done by about 5pm, which is convenient, because that’s when the head coach called back. I interviewed him, and got my quote. I asked him if he, by chance, had a mug shot. He said no, but that he knew that the assistant coach (the uncle) was working on it.
Great. All systems go. Now, all I needed was the mug shot.
I called the uncle assistant coach again. He said that he was going home, and he would do it when he got there?
Going home?
Yep. Turns out he was at a baseball game that entire time.
Thanks for mentioning that, coach.
So I waited. 6pm came and went. I tried to entertain myself with YouTube videos, but they only last so long.
I called at 6:30pm. He said that he was uploading the photos to his computer, and that he would e-mail it to me as soon as he could. He said it would be in the next 10 minuntes.
I called at 7pm. He said that his computer was screwing up, and that his wife was putting it on her computer instead.
I certainly hope he heard the hostility in my voice, because I was very, very not happy.
7:30pm came. This was freakin’ it. I am damn tired of this.
I dialed his number again, ready to read him his rights. It was on its second ring when…
DING!
You have a new e-mail.
There it was.
He answered, and asked me if I got it.
I told him that I did, and gave him a very half-hearted “Thank you”.
So, at 7:30pm, almost five hours after I arrived, I left the newsroom.
I drove home, ate burgers and bratwurst with the family, moved a whole lot of furniture for my mom so that the house looks nice when Jen comes in a couple days, talked to Jen on the phone, tried to solve my house’s Internet crisis, tried to solve my little brother’s technology and writing crisis, and now I’m writing this blog.

Frustrating day today.
And tomorrow’s Monday.

Back to Back

2007-09-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

Two blogs to cover two days.
My fingers hurt just thinking about it.

Let's start with yesterday. I rolled out of bed at about 10:30am and picked up the paper.
There, on the highly-revered back page of The Dallas Morning News sports section, was my story about Southlake Carroll's win over Rockwall.
I spent my morning (or what was left of it) checking e-mail, making my daily round of blogs and watching midday television.
Not to sound like a 1980s stand-up comic, but what is the deal with midday television? It's awful. Obviously, television peaks at 10am when The Price is Right comes on, even if it is repeats. But from there? Straight down the tubes. Soap operas, Maury Povich and worse. If I were a television executive, I would market primarily towards slackers who stay at home during the day. There is loads of untapped potential there. Why not play great stuff during midday and dominate that time slot? Yes, the audience size is smaller, but you would quite literally be able to harness everyone in the United States by playing good programming during the midday. Then, during prime time, just run infomercials. Concede the prime time slots to the big networks and make as much money as you can on informercials. Then, when the next wave of bad programming comes on the other channels (after about midnight, there is nothing on TV), fire up the great programming again. You would OWN the ratings during those two times (midday and super late night). You're telling me that drunk college kids wouldn't watch that channel during those two parts of the day? This is a gold mine waiting to be mined; someone just has to have the guts to pour in the necessary financial principal to start it up. Okay, I'm off my soap box.
At about 12:15 p.m., I turned on my little brother's Game Cube and started another game in my Madden season with the Browns. But right before the opening kickoff, it hit me:
You need to go run.
Oh crap. But I'm so comfortable on the couch!
You need to go run.
But I'm about to kick off! The ball is on the tee!
You need to go run.
Damnit.
I turned off the console, changed, and drove to the Y. I was back home by 1:15pm, with two miles under my belt. I would say to crank up that odometer, but it has already been cranked.
I showered, changed and, at 2:15pm, hopped in the Baron, bound for the Morning News.
Upon my arrival, I returned the computer I had used Thursday night to Cameron, who had resorted to cleaning his office to stave off boredom caused with not having Internet or computer access. He thanked me, and told me that my story was pretty good.
I retired to the TepCube, where I checked e-mail, did a little blogging and just wasted time for the most part.
John came over and mentioned a little thing in my story that was wrong, and I really tried to take what he said to heart. That's part of the new thing I'm trying: instead of getting offended or taking criticism personally, I'm making a conscious effort to understand it as a point of emphasis instead of a rip. I'm trying to make a renewed effort to be a student of the profession instead of taking criticism personally.
I spent the next, oh, two and a half hours doing a whole lot of nothing. I talked to Gaby, the only other writer there from the high school section. I printed off directions. I found wireless hotspots (very important), checked more e-mail, read a bunch of articles online, and sat there.
At 5:15pm, I took off for Flower Mound High School's Jaguar Stadium. Tonight, I'd be watching the mighty Flower Mound Jaguars take on the Keller Fossil Ridge Panthers. I'd already seen the Panthers in their season opener, a loss to Rowlett.
After flashing my badge a few times, I found my way up to the press box. It was a decent sized press box, if a little cramped, but that was OK.
Except there was no Internet. Of course not.
I made my way back down the elevator to the Baron, and drove to my first possible Wi-Fi hotspot, outside a Culver's a couple miles away.
I pulled up outside the Culver's and, still sitting in my car, pulled out my laptop. Yep, I got wireless here. Nice. I had my options.
I drove back to the stadium and set up shop in the press box. I was sitting on the end of the press table, next to a pane of glass separating the press area from a private box.
That private box was soon filled. By whom, you ask?
A birthday party.
Six or seven 10-year-old boys entered the room, exclaiming "Cool!" upon seeing the view. Two parents soon followed. I wish my parents took me to a high school football game for my birthday. OK, not really.
I grabbed some food, fending off the kids for some pizza and a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. The game kicked off, and started off pretty ho-hum. I kept my stats and hardly noticed when another journalist came in after the first three series of the game and sat down on press row.
I think she was from a Keller newspaper. Why do I think that?
Oh, it might have been the fact that she did not stop cheering for Fossil Ridge the entire game.
Now, cheering in the press box is strictly taboo. As a matter of fact, Jerome Holtzman wrote a book called "No Cheering in the Press Box". Yeah, it was about 44 different long-time sportswriters telling their stories, but you get the point. It's written in some press boxes, and unwritten in others. But everyone knows the rule.
But that didn't stop this woman. She cheered for specific players ("Yeah! Go John! C'mon....YEAH! GREAT THROW! YEAH!") or the team at large ("C'mon, guys, let's go! Yes, there we go!"). Part of me found it mildly amusing; the other 99% of me wanted to yell at her to pipe down.
The kids in the birthday party watched me turn red with frustration through the pane of glass.
Long story short the game ended at 10:10pm with a 23-10 Fossil Ridge win. Time to get to work.
I ran out of the press box and down the stands, calling the Morning News to let them know of the final score. I flew across the field and, after pacing through Fossil Ridge's alma mater and coach Baccarini's post-game pep talk, I tracked down the star of the game, QB John Killion (you may him from such hits as "Yeah! Go John! C'mon...YEAH! GREAT THROW! YEAH!"). After talking to him for three minutes or so, I tracked down the coach, and talked to him for a couple more minutes.
I looked at the time on my cell phone. 10:20pm.
This is do-able, but I've gotta hustle.
I glided across the width of the field and (no joke) scaled the six-foot wall separating the stands from the field.
I always wanted to be on that Nickelodeon show "GUTS". Do you have it? Damn right I do.
I sprinted up the steps (AKA the AgroCrag) and back up to my computer. About half of my story was written, but I needed to fill in some blanks.
My handwriting isn't great when I'm in a rush, but I deciphered my notes and got down my quotes. At 10:35pm, I put my story and my stats into an e-mail, packed up my stuff, and flew back down the AgroCrag...er...the steps.
I sprinted to the Baron. After getting caught behind Fossil Ridge's buses, I gunned it down Flower Mound Road to the Culver's. They were closing, but their parking lot was still open. Suckers.
I pulled into a parking spot, opened my computer, saw my full bars of wireless access, and hit send.
Error message.
Wait, what? This isn't how it's supposed to be. I'm supposed to succeed! Damnit, it's 10:44pm, what the hell?
Send.
Error.
Send send send.
Error error error.
NO! What is this?!?
I opened my web browser and...
..Culver's wanted me to accept their terms and conditions.
Of course.
I didn't even read them. I just scrolled to the bottom of the page and hit "Agree".
Then I hit send.
And then it sent.
10:45pm. On the dot.
I called the newsroom. They had it.
Phew. That was close.
I drove home (luckily, Flower Mound is very close to Coppell), talked to my beautiful girlfriend on the phone, opted against blogging, and hit the hay at about 2am.
Which brings us to today...

There's not a whole lot to tell about today.
I woke up at about 11am, if only to watch college football. And that's what I did.
At noon, TepMom and I went to Best Buy. TepMom and TepDad are about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, and TepMom needed help getting TepDad a gift.
So what did we get him? A 19" flat screen HDTV.
Note to self: get married for 25 years so I can get an HDTV.
I came home and realized that there was something missing from this Saturday day-off scenario:
Beer.
So, I went on a B-double E-double R-U-N to get some Miller Lite. I returned and started drinking. It made everything much more enjoyable.
Mizzou won (yay!) and I watched about a dozen other games during the day.
At around 7pm, TepMom, TepDad and I went over to this new barbecue place in Coppell, where you can pretty much order as much brisket, sausage, chicken, ribs, or whatever else off the smoker that you want. I ate way too much.
Afterwards, we went over to watch Jeff finish umpiring his last game of the day, then took him to Dairy Queen before heading home.
Now, I'm sitting on my bed, happy that this blogging is over, and now I'm writing this blog.

Week six of the internship starts tomorrow.
Buckle up.

Not Happening

2007-09-22T00:41:00.000-05:00

I know, I'm sinking into a bad habit of not blogging, but after yesterday's double dip and tonight's game, I can't get real fired up about blogging tonight. I'm sorry.

I'll do the double duty tomorrow, but know these things:

-I got my story in on time
-I ran my two miles
-I'm awesome

That's it! Have a great day, and I'll double blog at you tomorrow!

TepBlog Podcast #5, plus Covering the Best

2007-09-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

You can listen to the fifth edition of the TepBlog Podcast below:

To download the podcast, right-click here and select "Save Target As..."

Here's the latest batch of my clips from the HS Gametime section of The Dallas Morning News:

Royse City securing place among 3A powers

No rest for Rockwall's opponent

North Garland's youngsters spend week learning

Senior's position switch boosts Mesquite Horn's defense

Coach won't ease up on 3-0 Garland Naaman Forest

---

Got to cover the best matchup in the state tonight.
No pressure.

If you want to know what I did before I went to the newsroom at 3pm, listen to the podcast. In fact, listen to my podcast regardless.
Anyways, I got to the newsroom at about 3pm, making sure I could be totally prepared for the game tonight. First step first: Internet.
I called the stadium as soon as I got to the office. And no, they do not have Internet. Of course not.
I went into Cameron's office, because he wanted to brief me on everything.
You see, tonight, I was covering the Southlake Carroll vs. Rockwall game. Southlake Carroll just had their 49-game winning streak snapped; they hadn't lost since 2003. Needless to say, they have a lot of state championships.
Rockwall is a very good team with a very good quarterback who could very well challenge for a state championship (maybe). And they were playing at home, on 12 days rest.
Cameron ran down everything: I needed to get in a 10-inch story and stats by 10:30pm (earlier than usual!) if Carroll won. If Rockwall pulled the upset, I would get more space (between 12 and 14 inches) and probably the cover of the sports page.
Then, there was the Internet issue.
Gaby had loaned me his wireless card, but that was worthless to me, considering it didn't go into my computer. Unless...
Cameron loaned me his laptop. Which he did.
Score.
So, at 5pm, after printing out directions, I made my way to the Baron, completely loaded down with stuff (my own bag with my own computer, plus Cameron's bag with his computer). I filled up with gas and, after sitting in traffic for a long time, got to the stadium at 6:15pm.
And who was sitting next to me tonight?
TDMN blogger Tim MacMahon, a guy who had already labeled me "the Mizzou Mouth" in a blog post today. Probably because I'm one of the few guys at TDMN who will dispute his opinions on the blog.
We talked throughout the game. He's honestly a lot more bark than bite. Yes, he still thinks I'm dumb for voting for Allen as the No. 1 team instead of Southlake Carroll, but oh well.
Anyways, after getting the computer set up and getting some pizza for dinner (there was actually a very nice spread there), the game began.
Rockwall jumped out on top, 21-7. Uhoh. Upset alert!
Southlake came back. They tied it at 21, then Rockwall took a 28-21 lead. This was a real offensive shootout, especially with two of the best quarterbacks in the area in Southlake's Riley Dodge and Rockwall's Braden Smith.
But after Rockwall's touchdown that put them up 28-21, something happened.
The ensuing kickoff was taken by one of Carroll's up-men, JR DB Matt Rake. He started returning it and...
BAM.
Laid out. Absolutely lit up. The crowd oohed and ahhed. The tackler celebrated.
Rake did nothing.
He just laid there. Motionless.
Uhoh.
He was down for 15 minutes. The game came to a halt. His mom, dad, sister and twin brother who is also on the team came to his side.
The stretcher came out.
Oh crap. I got a little nervous. This was an important story, and I had to tell it.
I ran down to where the ambulance was parked. I started asking a lot of questions to the EMTs, but they couldn't tell me anything.
And then, here he game. Wheeled up on a stretcher, motionless, with his helmet still on and his facemask taken off. He looked...peaceful. Relaxed.
His mom, however, didn't. She was walking with her daughter (probably 16) and her husband, wearing Rake's jersey. She was crying.
Part of me wanted to ask her a question. The other 99% of me knew how inappropriate it would be. Plus, what answers could she tell me?
Instead, I found a Rockwall trainer, and started asking questions. What can you tell me? Is he moving?
He couldn't tell me much, but he told me that Rake would be taken to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, and that yes, he was moving his arms.
I went back up to the press box. The game had already started up again, but it took me about five plays to get back into it. It really does make you re-think what you are doing, watching a game that real kids play with real consequences.
Anyways, the game continued, and it was a really, really fun game to watch. 28-28 at half. 35-35 after three quarters.
Finally, Southlake pulled away, winning in the end 49-42.
The game ended at 10:25pm.
Uhoh. Get to work.
I flew through a 9-inch story without quotes. It was more important to get my stuff in on deadline than to have quotes. The first edition goes out at 11:15pm, and I needed to get something in that first edition.
I sent it in, along with the quotes. It wasn't great, but it was something.
I ran down to the field to get some quotes. I tracked down Riley Dodge, the QB and son of former Carroll coach/current North Texas coach Todd Dodge.
His dad has taught him well, because he was very politically correct, very by the book, very professional.
I tracked down Hal Wasson, the new coach. He gave me about the same.
I looked at my cell phone: 10:40pm.
I called the newsroom. I told them that I would re-file the story by 11pm with quotes.
Now, it was time to fly.
I ran back up to the press box and started fixing my story with quotes. Change this, alter that, move this, re-write that.
I sent in the re-file at 10:55pm.
Slides into home...SAFE!
I packed up all my stuff, said goodbye to T-Mac, and drove home. On the way home, I talked to Ross of the exceptional Every True Son blog, and we rapped about the game. I got home at about 11:55pm, where I talked to my beautiful girlfriend, poured myself a drink, and now I'm writing this blog.

You got TWO pieces of TepBlog today!
You are so lucky.

My Home Office

2007-09-19T23:19:00.000-05:00

Worked from home today.
Read: I was lazy.

It was about 9:15 am when I woke up and, as I like to rub in to my girlfriend, I only woke up then because I had to do just a little bit of work. Yesterday, while I was at Garland's practice, I had told Garland coach Jeff Jordan that I would call him today.
When I asked him what time was good for him, he said anytime between 9 and 11.
So, at about 10am, after waking up and getting some semblance of my bearings on exactly where I was and what I was doing, I called Jeff Jordan from my love seat.
One thing about Jordan that you need to understand, is that he only knows one level of energy: high. The guy is chipper and happy every day, all day. Seriously. And he's especially nice to me, probably because the story I'm writing is giving him a chance to tell the world that his team, even though they're 0-3, doesn't suck.
So the interview went well, because Jeff wants to say something interesting. That's always nice. 10 minutes later, I was off the phone.
Now, I only had one other thing to do for the rest of the day, and that was to write my notebook.
At 11:15am, it was done. Pretty sweet, huh? All my work done from my love seat by 11:15am? I was proud of myself.
Well, until about 11:45am, when I got a call from John O'Rourke.
He did what he does so well, and does so often: he criticized me and my work. And again, I know it's his job, but it is increasingly difficult to separate John's criticism of my work with John's criticism of me.
I made some adjustments and re-sent my notebook at noon. Oh well.
The rest of the day (at least between noon and five) included playing Madden (the Browns are 4-0), watching TV, reading my usual round of blogs, reading another chapter in "The Millionaire Next Door", shopped online for a car GPS system, and generally not much of anything.
At 5pm, after my mom had gotten home, I decided to go on a bit of an adventure, for the sake of doing it.
This summer, I worked at the University Club, a real lah-dee-dah members only dining club in the Mizzou alumni center. While there, I acquired a taste for fine foods and, more importantly, fine alcohol. Including wine.
And I even found my favorite wine. It's a white called Evolution, and instead of being made with one type of grape like Riesling, Chardonnay or the like, it's made with nine different grapes and designed to have a very clean, crisp taste. It is, in a word, awesome.
Problem is, it's a tad hard to find.
So, I did a little research and found a liquor store over in Addison, about 10 miles away, that carried Evolution.
I had a mission.
An hour later, I returned from the liquor store victorious, with a $20 bottle of Evolution.
My mom and I enjoyed a glass of it while we ate chicken and rice from the Crock Pot. After dinner, I had settled back on the love seat, watching TV when it hit me:
Ah crap. I never worked out.
So, instead of sitting on my butt and letting the day go by, I went to the YMCA and cranked out two miles and an ab workout in the YMCA's last hour of open business. You can put it on the board...YES!
I came home, talked to my wonderful girlfriend on the phone for a little over an hour and a half, and now I'm writing this blog.

Home office?
That's an oxymoron.

PS: Tomorrow's podcast will be up much earlier than usual, considering I have to work tomorrow night. And, since I am working tomorrow night, I will come back tomorrow and add a blog underneath the podcast. If that makes sense. In any case, tune in tomorrow, TepBlog fans. -GT...

On The Road Again

2007-09-18T22:39:00.000-05:00

Swung by three practices in the span of four hours.
The Baron needs a rest.

It's same song, different verse as far as waking up. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I keep setting my alarm for 6am, even though I haven't gotten up at that alarm for, oh, three weeks.
So, alarm sounds, and I go back to sleep.
My mom called me from work at 9:15am, and the phone woke me up. She asked me to e-mail her something from our computer downstairs.
Which required getting up. Boo, getting up.
I did my mom's favor, showered, got dressed, and laid down on my couch.
And fell asleep until 10am.
Man, I'm getting bad about this sleeping thing.
I needed to get up and go to work. So, I drove to work, once again not having to face traffic because all of the people who can get up on time were already there.
I got into the office a little before 10:30am and did a little bit of housekeeping: finishing up the little things on the capsules, determining where I was going to go today, and checking e-mails and blogs.
John O'Rourke e-mailed me to let me know of one small change in my Royse City story, but said that otherwise, it was pretty good. That's probably the first time that my cover story has not undergone a serious makeover, so kudos to me. Many many delicious Kudos.
At around noon, I decided to meander down to the Headliner Diner. I grabbed a roast beef and cheddar wrap with a fruit cup and chips. That's pretty healthy, right?
I ate my lunch at my desk, and read my usual blogs. It should be noted that I've recently added a couple more blogs to my usual rotation of LoneStarBall, Deadspin, Fire Joe Morgan, Every True Son and The 12th Manchild. Now, my daily blog routine includes Free Darko, The Gil Meche Experience, The Big Lead and Kissing Suzy Kolber.
So definitely check those out if you are a sportswriter like me who likes to spend his free time reading blogs.
After lunch, I printed off directions for what would become the first annual Tour d'East Zone, making my way to three different practices in one afternoon. I was going to these practices to get notes for my notebook, and to interview for next week's cover story.
At 1:30pm, I was off on my own little adventure. Except I had directions. And my job kind of depended on it. Outside of that, it was definitely an adventure.
My first stop was Garland Naaman Forest. The team is a little bit of a surprise to be 3-0, especially considering they won just three games all year. I pulled up to the school and walked behind the school to practice.
What was kind of interesting about Naaman's practice was that the field was 200 yards long. Yeah. As in twice the normal length. So, the defense had an entire field to work with, and the offense had an entire field to work with. That might not sound interesting to you, but it was the first time I had ever seen anything like that.
Oh, and the coaches ran the hell out of these kids. Five 200-yard sprints, 100 one way, 100 back. That's when it sucks to have that long of a field.
After hanging around practice, which ended at about 2:30pm, for thirty minutes, I got the interviews I needed and hopped back in the Baron.
Well, not before I was asked by one of the football players who I wrote for. I told him, and he looked totally shocked, mentioning to a friend that "They must be like, 'Naaman Forest has a football team?'" Needless to say, I don't think they're used to the publicity.
I hopped back in the Baron and drove a whole six miles to Garland ISD Williams Stadium, where Garland was practicing.
Garland is a team that was ranked as high as fifth in the SportsDay area poll, but is now 0-3. In their defense, their three losses were against teams in the top five in the area (Allen, Plano East, and a very VERY dangerous DeSoto team). But still, it's got to be disappointing to go from state-ranked to winless.
I sat down on the bleachers and watched practice for 20 minutes before it wrapped at 3:30pm. I have to admit, it is very cool to get paid to do all of this. I mean, think about it: I love football, and Dallas cares about football. So, I get paid to report to people who care about something I already like. And, in the end, I am getting paid to watch football. Pretty damn sweet, if you ask me.
I talked to the players I needed, and had a very candid conversation with coach Jeff Jordan, talking about how he keeps his players' heads up and so on. I'm going to call him tomorrow morning to do a phone interview.
Finally, it was time to head off to my third and final practice of the day, over at Mesquite Horn. It's a 25 minute drive over to Horn, but I wish it had taken longer.
When I got there, I was greeted by coach Don Payne, who I already knew from the Bruce Hatton story I wrote for my first cover story. Payne is an extraordinarily friendly guy who was genuinely glad that his team, currently 1-2 and playing a 4A powerhouse in Ennis this week, was getting a little bit of pub.
The reason that I wish the drive took longer is because practice didn't end until 5:30pm, and I got there at 4:30pm.
So I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I didn't wear a hat, and I don't own sunglasses. So, I was staring right into the sun the entire time.
Oh, and I was wearing jeans. I was hot.
With about five minutes left in practice, Bruce Hatton came over to get a drink, and recognized me.
"Hey, man, what are you doing out here again?"
I told him who I was covering, and told him that another story on him might saturate the market. I mentioned that his dad sent me an e-mail about the story, so if I ever find out something bad about him, I can just report it straight to his father. He got a kick out of that. But overall, it was good to see that the kid didn't hate me, which means he probably liked the story. Nice kid, that Bruce Hatton.
Practice wrapped about 5:45pm, and after conducting my interviews, I exhaustedly collapsed back in the Baron. I made the 40-minute drive home, made longer because of traffic, and got home at about 7pm.
And then I was right back out the door.
I had some running to do.
That's right. I went to the newsroom, visited three practices, and STILL ran. Don't tell me I'm not committed to this thing.
I jammed out my two miles (tougher than usual, which, I think, is understandable) and did my ab workout. Put it up on that odometer.
I came home, took an incredible shower, watched "The Biggest Loser" with my mom, ate leftover grilled chicken for dinner, talked to the most wonderful woman in the world for a while (she comes in nine days...nine freakin' days) and now I'm writing this blog.

Going to try to work from home tomorrow.
If anything, for the Baron's sake.

Rewarding

2007-09-17T20:13:00.000-05:00

Some days, there's no thanks for my job.
Today wasn't one of those days.

I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night, for the same reason that I didn't blog last night. Suffice to say that there was significant stress, and it prevented me from both wanting to blog and wanting to sleep.
But I used the time for good. Instead of just sitting in my bed, staring at the ceiling, I hopped on the laptop and tried to get some of my Royse City story written.
It's amazing, but writing can really release stress, at least for me. I found myself being more creative because I was stressed, and found that my stress was decreasing the more I wrote.
I made it through about 3/4ths of my story before I decided to turn in for the night. It was about 3:30am before I hit the hay.
And my alarm sounded at 6am. I hit snooze a couple times, but ended up getting up at about 7am and heading to the Y.
Sleeping on it still didn't make me feel any better, and I ran angry. It helped, though, because I pumped out my two miles like it was nothing. An ab workout later, I was out of there, back home at 7:45am.
I showered, shaved, changed and sat on my couch. Then I laid on my couch. Then I fell asleep on my couch.
I woke up at about 9:10am. It was ten minutes after I wanted to leave but it was really no problem. I hopped in the Baron and drove to work, plopping into my chair in the TepCube at around 9:40am.
I arrived then because we're supposed to shoot our videos at 10am, and I usually need about 20 minutes to prepare.
Instead, we shot our videos at 11am. So, I hustled for nothing. Nice.
I did, however, start my game capsules during that down time, and got a little bit of them done before I was herded into the conference room.
This week, it was David Hinojosa (The Pride of UT-Pan American) and I talking about Frisco Centennial vs. West Mesquite.
I think it went well, but you can judge for yourself:

I went back to my desk and tried to keep working on my game capsules. But, for some reason, I was in a very YouTubey mood today. I YouTubed everything from Mizzou highlights to clips from "The Colbert Report". Don't ask me why, but I did. So, imagine everything I do slowed down by 50%.
At about noon, it was time for our weekly high school writers meeting. On the menu today? Burgers. With a variety of cheeses and condiments. A healthy spread.
I munched as Cameron led us through the normal things: how many hits we had on the blog over the weekend (it was a huge number because of the Carroll-Miami Northwestern game), how the high school section looked, other business.
He usually gets about halfway through his business before he hands the floor to John O'Rourke, who gives us critiques on our game stories as well as the HS Gametime special section as a whole. He usually singles out one story that he felt was particularly good, praises it, why it was good, etc. etc. It's never me, so I don't really perk up whenever that time comes around.
Except this time, it was me.
John told everyone that my game story was especially good, that it told a good story, had good quotes, gave a good balance of insight and game story, and came full circle.
Whoa. I was not expecting that. Maybe it was just because I was an intern.
But I can honestly say that that is the first time since my phone interview with him that John O'Rourke has said something complimentary about my writing to me.
For my prize, I got to reveal the Gold/Silver/Bronze awards for whoever got their story in on time. And, sure enough, I got the silver medal, with only Keith Whitmire beating me to the punch.
Still, the best game story out of the bunch and a silver medal? Not bad.
After the meeting, I went back to my desk and tried finishing my story.
No luck. I got distracted once again, this time by a real live journalism thing.
I'm not going to explain the whole situation to you (as I did to Jen last night; she's such a trooper for sitting through my long-winded explanation), but if you read my blog entry about it, you'll pretty much understand what I spent an hour finding out.
Finally, after another hour of work, I finished my story. I think it's good, and very creative, the kind I want to put in my clip portfolio. But we'll see what John thinks.
At this point, it was 4:30pm. And part of me didn't want to go home. All my stress was at home, and I was afraid that when I got there, it would all come rushing back to me.
So I stayed. I worked on my game capsules and got them all done. I also planned out which notes I will do this week, and figured out what my next couple cover stories are going to be.
I also got an e-mail from Greg Riddle, who hands out assignments. I got two games this week: Southlake Carroll vs. Rockwall on Thursday night, and Keller Fossil Ridge vs. Flower Mound on Friday night. Should be an eventful week.
At 7pm, I needed to go home. So I drove home.
I came upstairs, trying not to think about my stress, and now I'm writing this blog.

So, in the end, I got some love today.
Pretty cool.

Mental Health Day

2007-09-16T22:23:00.000-05:00

I know this is my second off day in three days, but I need this one. Just please don't ask questions.

I got all of my responsibilities done, including Defensive Player of the Week.

That's all you need to know.

I'll blog at you tomorrow.

A Real Live Weekend

2007-09-15T23:22:00.000-05:00

Double blogging here today.
Two times the days, two times the blog.

Let's start with Friday, shall we?
I woke up at about 9:30am, and that was by design. I didn't want to sleep all day, and I had a few things I wanted to get accomplished.
Like playing Madden. Which is what I did for about two hours.
I had the house to myself all day; Jeff was at school, and TepMom and TepDad were at their respective places of business. So, needless to say, I rolled out of bed in my PJs, and stayed in them until about 11:30am.
After improving the Browns to 2-0 on the season (and after trading Charlie Frye and Jamal Lewis to Detroit for Cory Redding and Calvin Johnson), I decided to get a start to the day. A shower and change of clothes later, I was in the Baron.
Destination: Kohl's.
Say what you want, but I love Kohl's when it comes to shopping for clothes. It's reasonably priced, and it's good for stylish men's clothing.
Problem is, when I got to Kohl's, they didn't have, well, anything good.
In fact, they didn't have anything that looked any good. It was all a bunch of golf shirts designed by Jack Nicklaus and polos designed by Tony Hawk. Pass.
So I was a little stumped. I needed shirts (I've been recycling the same few all fall), but I didn't want to spend a whole hell of a lot at a place like Foley's or JCPenney's.
Solution: Target.
Yes, it's Target. It's not exactly the classiest place in the world, but you've got to do what you've got to do. Plus, my uncle Don had given me a $100 gift card to Target last Christmas, and I still had something like $92 on it.
So off to Target I was. Thirty minutes and $70 worth of Target card later, I had five shirts and the new Kanye West album.
And, for the record, the new Kanye West album is incredible. Absolutely unbelievable. Go buy it now.
Anyways, I drove home, ate a little lunch, and played more Madden.
No, I didn't run. And let's get it out of the way: I didn't run today, either. I know, I'm a slacker. But I am getting more and more difficult to motivate. Tomorrow, I've got to run. And I need your help: please, ridicule me into submission. Remind me that I need to do this. I've got 70 miles to go, and only 55 days to do it. It doesn't sound like a lot of miles, and it sounds like a lot of days, but I need to get on the ball.
Anyways, I got dressed at around 3pm, and left the house at about 3:30pm. After sitting in traffic getting downtown, I got to the newsroom at around 4:15pm.
Basically, it was same song, different dance. I couldn't find out if the Mesquite Memorial Stadium press box had Internet, so I had to find a wireless card and, barring that, find some wireless hotspots.
But here's the trick: this time, I found a wireless card.
Yeah, I know!
Turns out Gaby was just doing a round-up, similar to what I was doing last week, instead of doing a full game story, so he could just dictate his story. YES! This was going to work!
Gaby handed me his wireless card with a smile.
I accepted it with a frown.
Turns out that this particular type of card doesn't fit in my Apple Powerbook G4. So it was all for naught.
I frantically started searching for wireless hot spots. I found three free wireless hot spots, and printed out directions to and from there: one at Panera, one at Starbucks, and one of those DFW Freenet hotspots.
Two other exciting things happened at the newsroom. First, I got paid. Not only did I get my regular paycheck, but I also got my August expense check. And I drove over 400 miles for TDMN in August. And I get more than $0.25 per mile. So let that sink in.
The other exciting thing was that, for some reason, TDMN catered in cookies. Fresh, hot cookies. All different kinds. I had quite a few of them, and it made me love my job even more.
At 5:30pm, it was time to drive. Traffic was pretty lousy, and I made it over to Mesquite Memorial Stadium at 6pm.
I trudged up the stairs to the press box. I sat down at my chair (marked with a "Dallas Morning News" nameplate). I opened my computer.
And my computer asked me if I would like to join the wireless network "MISD Wireless".
Puzzled, I clicked "OK".
My e-mail popped up. So did my iChat. And my web browser.
Holy freakin' crap. I had Internet.
I HAD INTERNET!!!
I didn't know how to react. I started thanking people around the press box, who probably had no idea what I was talking about. I called Jen and ranted to her. I jumped up and down.
This. Was. Awesome.
The game got going at 7:30pm, and it was pretty good for the first half. West Mesquite took a 21-7 lead into halftime, thanks to a surprisingly good running game. I focused the story that I wrote at halftime on Kenny Davis, the West Mesquite RB who had 147 yards in the first half.
Well, there was a slight problem. You see, Kenny Davis didn't play running back in the second half.
Instead, they moved him to cornerback after one of West Mesquite's corners got hurt. Yep. That sucks.
I spent the entire second half rooting that West Mesquite would put Davis back at RB.
They didn't.
Instead, Davis intercepted two passes.
Man, was this my day or what?
The game ended just like it was at halftime; 21-7 West Mesquite. I ran down to get my quotes.
I had to track down Kenny, yelling at him as he was running into the locker room. He gave me a little bit to work with, but I made it stretch. I got a hold of coach Mike Overton, who is always good for a quote. He helped a lot.
I ran back up the one million and seven steps to the press box. I was out of breath. Even more reason to keep running.
Clock said 10:20pm. Earlier than expected.
The nice thing was, I just had to make a few changes to the story I already had written, add quotes and adjust the stat sheet.
Long story short, I sent it in at 10:35pm, ten minutes before deadline.
Man, I'm good.
I drove home, drank a couple vodka-cranberries, and now I'm writing this blog...

Which continues now!
I woke up today at 11am, if only to watch college football.
And that's what I did. All day.
Watch college football.
Michigan-Notre Dame. Ohio State-Washington. Texas Tech-Rice. Auburn-Miss. State. Texas-UCF. Florida-Tennessee. Nebraska-USC. Colorado-Florida State.
Everything.
In between, I squeezed in taking my little brother to and from work, listening to Mizzou improve to 3-0 with a win over Western Michigan, listening to Southlake Carroll lose to Miami Northwestern, and drinking more V-Crans. Oh, and reading my game story from last night.
Now, I'm watching an old episode of Nip/Tuck and now I'm writing this blog.

Glad I saved yesterday for today.
I needed the filler.

Nah.

2007-09-15T00:21:00.001-05:00

Sorry, folks, but there will be no blog tonight. Two reasons:

1) I've got a vodka-cranberry in my hand, and it's not leaving.
2) Madden looks a lot more appetizing right now.
3) Tomorrow's going to be boring, so I need something to fill it with.

Sorry folks. But if you want to read my blogs from the press box tonight, you can click here, here, here, here and here.

Blog at you tomorrow.

TepBlog Podcast #4

2007-09-13T21:46:00.000-05:00

You can listen to the fourth edition of the TepBlog Podcast below:

To download the podcast, right-click here and select "Save Target As..."

Here are my clips from the latest issue of HS Gametime in The Dallas Morning News, plus my story on Mark Cuban's HDNet Fights:

Off-season boot camp brings out best in Garland Lakeview
Garland coach confident defense will recover
South Garland coach pleased with narrow win
Terrell coach downplays high fumble count
Two early losses don't deter Mesquite
Cuban announces HDNet Fights

The Billionaire Wears Sneakers

2007-09-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

Interviewed the owner of the Mavericks today.
Living the glamorous life.

My alarm sounded at 6am, but it wasn't until 7:30am that I rolled out of bed, got dressed, and drove to the YMCA.
Yeah, you better believe that I ran my two miles, like I said I would. And you know what? I'll probably do it again tomorrow just to get back on track. I'm very much committed to this 100 miles thing, and now I'm 28 down, 72 to go.
And the miles are getting easier. At the beginning, I was struh-uh-uggling to get through my required two miles. Now? I'm winded at the end of them, and I'm glad they're over, but they're not overly painful. I think my endurance is up. Who knew?
I did my ab workout and drove home at about 8:20am. I showered and drank a Slim Fast. During my breakfast, I read Eddie Sefko's story about Cuban and the mixed martial arts organization. This was important not only to get some background information, but to see what story angles Sefko had left for me to tackle.
At 9am, I hopped in the Baron and drove downtown. But instead of taking the usual Commerce Street W exit, I got off of I-35E two exits earlier at Victory Avenue.
I found a place to park in a parking lot adjacent to the American Airlines Center. The press conference was to take place at Victory Park, an area leading directly up to the American Airlines Center (home of the Mavericks and the Stars).
This is a really cool little part of town. Cuban, who first earned his money through selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo! for eleventy billion dollars, owns the Mavericks and half of the American Airlines Center. He has designed this little Victory Park in a very cool, high-tech, futuristic type way. There are towers on each side of the plaza, each with four enormous HD TVs on their sides. And get this: they move. The TVs are on the same kind of system that allows a stadium's retractable roof to move back and forth. It's pretty freakin' sweet.
In those towers on each side (by the way, opposite the AAC, on the "entrance" of Victory Park, is the tres chic W Hotel...it's a classy part of town), there are a variety of things. One side has a clothing shop, a steakhouse and an Italian restaurant; the other has Paciugo coffee shop and some studios for WFAA Channel 8, my partner in the grand Belo scheme. WFAA broadcasts their newscasts and Good Day Texas from Victory Park, and it adds a very cool, very personable feel to the station.
Oh, and there's also the single biggest HD TV I've ever seen mounted on the face of the AAC. It was currently showing Good Day Texas, broadcast from just feet behind me.
I arrived at about 9:30, and some crews were still setting up the stage. It was a stage with banners of "HDNet Fights" everywhere, chairs in front for the press, and a riser behind the chairs for television cameras.
And off to the right, there was a table with free Starbucks coffee, muffins and bagels. Score. I had a free cup of coffee.
A crowd of media soon arrived, with the final total being about, oh, 25 members of the press. There was Mike Taylor, a guy I know from my days as an intern at ESPN 103.3FM (who I'm sure does not remember me) and some guy from the local CW affiliate.
Anybody will tell you that waiting makes up about 40% of journalism. So I waited. Problem is, I get bored very easily.
I started watching Good Day Texas on the enormous HD TV on the face of the AAC. They were interviewing some chef, who was cooking. Their backs were to Victory Park.
If you don't see what's coming next, you clearly don't know me.
Me being bored, and me being a total loser, I decided that yes, I'd like to be on TV.
Casually, I began walking back towards the entrance of Victory Park. Right into the background of their shot.
I looked back up at the screen and, sure enough, there was a figure standing just over the chef's left shoulder. Black and white striped polo, jeans, and a gray bag over his shoulder.
Of course, how could I be totally sure that this was me?
I reached up and nonchalantly scratched my face. Three second later, the figure over the chef's right shoulder scratched his face.
Yeah, I know I'm a loser. But it's the little victories in life, isn't it?
I called John O'Rourke to ask him if there was anything specific he wanted me to ask Cuban. He mentioned some detailed questions.
Then, the man of the hour emerged from the Victory Park tower farthest from me. There was Cuban, walking with a guy that I would later find out is his PR guy for this whole HDNet Fights thing, Lester Bedford.
Black HDNet polo shirt, untucked. Jeans. And Skechers.
They might not have been Skechers. They might have been Adidias. Whatever brand they were, they were white with three black strips on the side.
To me, there is something very comforting in knowing that Mark Cuban, a guy who is responsible for the single largest e-commerce transaction in history ($40 million for his Gulfstream V private jet) wears sneakers.
He kind of wandered around the area for a little bit, shaking hands with people he knew, including legendary Dallas weatherman (now retired) Troy Dungan. He was smiling the whole time. He seemed pretty happy.
At about 10:05am (oh, by the way, 0.02% of press conferences start on time), the press conference started. Cuban joked about Dancing with the Stars and told everyone about HDNet fights. I took down some of the big details, some of the important information, in my notebook.
Cuban talked for probably a total of 20 minutes, introducing three of the fighters that will be on his new company's first card, on Oct. 13 at the AAC. He posed for pictures. He told jokes. He was very business-oriented, though. Vintage Mark Cuban.
After the press conference (there were no questions from the press), everyone got up on the stage to get a piece of the man and his fighters. A swarm of press descended on Cuban, yet he looked as comfortable as a Hindu cow. He's probably used to it.
I hung back. I wanted my own one-on-one time, and if that meant waiting, then that meant waiting.
That didn't stop me from listening in on the mass interview.
I looked to my left. Standing there, looking concerned, was Lester Bedford, the PR guy for this whole thing.
Jackpot.
I struck up a conversation, asking a few questions that I knew the answers to. His face softened from concern to a smile, and we chatted.
We introduced ourselves, and the conversation strayed to other topics.
"You know," Bedford said, "I was a sportswriter for the [Ft. Worth] Star-Telegram when I was about your age. How old are you? 25?"
Ha.
Eventually, I worked the conversation back around to Cuban. I asked him if I could get a one-on-one with him, and Bedford, now my friend, told me that he could make that happen.
It's not what you know. It's who you know.
I waited around for Cuban to do an interview with the guy from the CW and some sort of blogger. Then, everything kind of cleared out.
I walked up to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and the following conversation happened oveR the next seven or so minutes:

GT: Hey Mark.

MC: Hey, man.

GT: I’m Greg Tepper, I’m with The Dallas Morning News.

MC: Hey, Greg. (Shakes my hand) What’s up?

GT: I guess the most important question is, how’s your hip? (Cuban recently had his hip replaced)

MC: My hip? It’s still attached. It hurts, but…you know, that’s OK. Dancing isn’t for sissies.

GT: Why get involved with mixed martial arts and, really more importantly, why get involved with it now?

MC: Well, because I’ve been a fan. And why now, because I think there’s a great opportunity. I think UFC’s [Ultimate Fighting Championship] done a great job, but there’s plenty of room for more than one, and I think we’re taking a little bit of a different approach, where they’ve done a good job of producing spectacles with all the UFC fights. I think producing it more as a professional event where the focus is on the fighters, that there is an opportunity to have something a little different, for fans who are looking for that kind of entertainment.

GT: You mentioned that…that there is room for improvement, room for growth. Do you think there is room for competition, too?

MC: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of great fighters out there. You know, UFC kind of uses their feeder through their reality show, and that’s not necessarily the best fighters. They made the choice, and I’m not saying this as a knock on UFC, but having guys get drunk, beat up each other and spit up on each other on a TV show isn’t fair for all the other fighters. It doesn’t represent them the way they want to be represented.

GT: You mentioned that you want to treat the fighters as professional athletes. Can you expound on that a little…

MC: Well, they are professional athletes. Because they have to live hand to mouth, except for the top four or five guys, they have to live hand to mouth, and that’s not a desireable existence, especially if you have a family. If you’re 19 years old, and you’re living six guys in a three bedroom apartment, that’s not a big deal. But if you’ve got a wife and a couple kids, it’s a catch 22. We think that giving the top fighters an opportunity to quit their day jobs and work at this full time, have them covered with medical insurance, that we can create something unique for them.

GT: What is going to set HDNet fights apart from the UFC and the IFL…

MC: Well…UFC…put aside the IFL…In UFC, you’re carded to them and you don’t have a choice to fight anywhere else. We’re more into the unification business, where we’ll sign up fighters, we’ll partner with any and every promoter who adheres to our standards. We’ll even subsidize part of the cards if they are being broadcast on HDNet, and that creates a unique opportunity, where as once you go into the UFC, you’re in until they kick you out, and that’s kind of a tenuous position to be in unless you are a top four or five guy.

GT: You mentioned who is going to be on the first card. Other names that have been kind of floated out there, Alex Andrade…(Andrade is a Dallas-area fighter, and a fan favorite around the D/FW area)

MC: Right.

GT:…as well as Fedor…(Fedor Emelianenko, current PRIDE Fighting Championships heavyweight champion, considered to be a free agent)

MC: Right. We’re talking to everbody and anybody. I mean, we want the best. There are a lot more free agents out there than Guy or I anticipated, and the response to our discussing coming out into this business has been phenomenal. So, we’re talking to everybody. We’ll sign a few big names that can kind of act as our foundation for promotion and building upon, and we’ll sign a lot of young up and coming guys that we think we can develop into the stars of the future. I think we’ll do it a little bit differently. It won’t be about ‘are you reality TV capable’, it will be ‘are you the best possible fighter?’.

GT: So Guy Mezger is taking care of the…the general manager portion of this. What’s your role in all of this?

MC: Kind of the overall business. Trying to make sure all the pieces fit, funding it, making sure it integrates HDNet well, integrating all the different technology components we might use. I’m the one who’s going to come up with the idea of doing 3D live to theaters. I’m the guy who’s going to say, ‘OK, here’s what we’ve learned with the Mavericks in terms of scouting and developing international fighters and domestic fighters that, if applied to MMA, could make it a lot better. And, I’m in there saying, rather than nickel and diming, how you treat the fighters, putting them up at the Crescent instead of…you know, yada yada suites. Um, you know, giving them per diem instead of telling them they have to go to 7-11 to get something to eat. Those are the little things that I’ve learned from my experience with the Mavs that I think adds to what we’re doing.

GT: How often are these fights going to happen?

MC: Well, they’ll be something on HDNet Fights every week, and we’ll also have a show, Inside MMA, that will be on weekly. But whether or not we promote ourselves will depend on the relationships that we develop with promoters, and how well they do. If they do a great job, then we don’t have to put on another fight. We’ll sign the fighters and help put them on the right card. If the promoters don’t generate enough hype, then we’ll go out there with them.

GT: Are they all going to happen at the, uh, AAC?

MC: (Finishing my sentence for me) AAC? No, because different fighters have different draws in different places and we want to develop HDNet as a national network. So, we want to develop a fan base around the country.

GT: Uh, and then, you know the big knock on MMA has been that it is a brutal sport. You know, that it’s glamorized brutality. How would you respond to that?

MC: Oh that’s not true at all. I mean, boxing, they go until you’re out. In MMA, you can tap out, there’s a variety of ways, there’s so much strategy involved in MMA that the casual fan probably doesn’t understand or pay attention to. But all the different formats, really, with jiujitsu, standup, wrestling, it’s just…if you look at the guys themselves, the proof is in the pudding when you talk to the guys. You talk to guys who are PhDs in mathematics that came up through wrestling that didn’t have any expectations for a professional career, that they really worked in their studies. There are a lot of really smart guys in this business. So, the brutality…there can be blood, but you really haven’t seen the kinds of deaths and brutality that you see in boxing, in MMA. Plus, we’ll make a couple minor modifications. We’re not going to allow elbows to the head when you’re on the ground, because all that does is generate blood and make guys cover up as opposed to using strategy to getting out of holds. And so, we’ll tweak a couple things, but we’re not in it for the brutality, and we’re protecting against steroids. If a guy doesn’t adhere to the rules, we’re going to toss him.

GT: Uh…you’ve got the Mavericks, and you’ve been talking about the Cubs, and you’re still doing the Fallen Patriot Fund and you’re doing Dancing with the Stars and you just got your hip replaced. Is there a concern about spreading yourself too thin?

MC: No, because I hire good people. The key to success is knowing what oyu want ot do, and hiring the best people to do it. And with Donnie Nelson with the Mavs, Phil Garmin at HDNet, Guy Mezger here, I’ve got some really, really smart people that help me. My brother Brian is doing the Fallen Patriot Fund. Those guys, they e-mail me for guidance, but I’ve been working with them long enough now that I don’t have to tell Donnie Nelson…you know, he’ll run things by me, but he knows the way we like to do things, and we’ve kind of grown up together with the Mavs, and now Avery is a big part of that, and he knows how we like to do things. So once you get used to working with people, you just give them the freedom to do what they do.

GT: Mark, I really appreciate it.

MC: Yeah! No problem, Greg. (Shakes my hand)

GT: And good luck with everything.

MC: Hey, I appreciate it. And e-mail me whenever. Mark at HDNet dot com.

GT: Will do. Thanks again.

MC: No problem.

So there you go. My seven-minute interview with Mark Cuban.
I walked to the Baron and drove to TDMN. And you know what I felt?
Normal.
I felt like I was doing my job. Was it fun to interview him? Sure. Is it still cool to interview athletes and celebrities and billionaires? Absolutely.
At the same time, it is a job. You have to be able to put your professionalism above your awe at the fact that yes, you get paid to do this.
Still...you can't forget to tingle.
I walked into John O'Rourke's office and told him about the interview, highlighting some of the bigger parts. I walked back to my desk and started transcribing my recording.
At about 11:50am, I got a call from TepMom. She's been downtown for the past couple days as a part of her jury duty, but she got let out early today after reaching a verdict. She wanted to know if I wanted to go to lunch.
I sure do!
I met TepMom outside and, after hearing that TepDad was unable to join us for work reasons, we drove back to the area around McKinney and Lemmon, the same nice area I was at just yesterday with Jacques.
But, instead of a really nice Mexican restaurant, we went to Jake's Hamburgers, which is exactly what it sounds like: a restaurant that specilizes in hamburgers. And beer.
TepMom and I talked about a wide range of things as we ate (she had a burger, I had a "Flaming Rooster", a grilled chicken sandwich with hot mustard and Monterrey jack cheese, and we split some sweet potato fries). I don't think we have really had a chance to hang out, just her and I, since I've been home. It was very nice.
She dropped me off back at TDMN and I thanked her for the lunch break.
I sat back down at the cube and got to work.
There's not a whole lot to tell about the rest of my day. I transcribed the rest of the interview, considered my options on how to approach the story, decided on an approach, and wrote the story. It's only a 10-inch story (my cover stories for HS Gametime are 16 inches), but there was a ton of information to fit in.
I tried to use Jacques' advice from the day before, about only using quotes when they really add to the story. I think I did that.
I sent the story over to John O'Rourke at 3:30pm, and told him that I was going to take off. He thanked me for doing the story.
After saying bye to Gaby, the only other HS writer there at the time, I walked to the Baron and drove home. I got home at about 4pm, sat in the recliner, and passed out.
I awoke at 6:30pm, ate Boston Market with my family for dinner, watched the season finale of Rescue Me, talked to my beautiful girlfriend on the phone, and now I'm writing this blog.

An exciting day all around.
I can use tomorrow's day off.

My Job Rules

2007-09-11T21:59:00.000-05:00

I know, I waxed poetic about the hardships of the job yesterday.
Consider today my redemption.

Alarm sounded at 7am, but don't get your hopes up. I didn't get up.
Instead, I woke up when my phone received a text message at about 10:15am. It was from Jacques.
"Lunch? I'll swing by the newsroom at 12:20 if so."
Crap. I needed to get to the newsroom, because I wanted to get some stuff done before lunch.
So, no, I didn't run today. And yes, I'm aware that after today, I have just 49 days left in my internship, meaning that I have just 49 days to run the remaining 74 miles. Trust me, I'm running tomorrow.
I took a really quick shower, changed annd drove to work. The nice part is that at 10:45am, nobody's trying to get to work. Imagine that.
I got to the newsroom at about 11:15, and tried to get some work done. Really, I only had two things to do today:
-Write a notebook
-Interview one more person for my Royse City story
I checked my e-mail. Among them, I had one from Wendy, assistant to Bob Yates, the head guy in the sports department. She said that every full-time DMN employee got two tickets to the Texas State Fair for free.
It also said that any non-full-time employees (i.e. me) could e-mail her to request any excess tickets.
Jackpot. Jen comes to visit in late September, and I told her that I would take her to the state fair. Thus, I needed tickets.
About 20 minutes later, over came Wendy to hand me two tickets to the State Fair of Texas. This day was starting off alright.
I managed to get a hold of two coaches-- Garland's Jeff Jordan and South Garland's Mickey Moss-- before I got a call from Jacques. He was a couple minutes away, and I needed to meet him out by the back loading dock.
I grabbed the appropriate stuff, and met Jacques down by the back loading dock.
Understand this about Jacques: he's Mr. Superstar Columnist. He is one of the top writers at one of the top papers in the nation. He is, essentially, the man.
Needless to say, he wasn't driving a Geo.
Jacques told me that we were meeting a guy named Steve for lunch. Steve is Jacques' first editor at the Morning News. He's since gotten out of the game, but is still considered one of the top soccer writers in the nation.
After getting a little bit lost, we found our way to a place called the Taco Diner at the corner of McKinney and Lemmon. This is uptown Dallas, and it is very ooh-la-la, for lack of a better term. It's right by the Magnolia theater, there were shops like Ann Taylor Loft (one of Jen's favorites) and Gucci, and everyone was driving a BMW, Mercedes or Porsche. There were bars there, and I'm sure you couldn't get Natural Light.
We met up with Steve, a guy who is probably 45, but doesn't look it or act it. For the most part, it was Jacques talking with Steve, with me interjecting every once in a while. But I got some really good advice from both of them. Really practical advice, especially from Jacques. Things like not relying on quotes, but being a good enough storyteller to use quotes when you need them and when they will enhance the story.
But basically, the bottom line is that working hard is the best thing you can do to help your journalism career. I'm certainly not opposed to that.
Oh, and I had the best fish tacos I've ever tasted. And I didn't pay. This day was just getting better.
We drove back to the newsroom, and I thanked Jacques for lunch. Yep, that guy rules.
I sat down at my computer and checked my e-mail. I had one from TDMN Internal Communications.
"Congratulations! You get tickets to the Dallas Home and Garden Show!"
You see, I get probably five e-mails every week from TDMN Internal Communications, asking if people are interested in tickets to such-and-such event. One of them this week was the Dallas Home and Garden Show. They had a few tickets, and if you sent in an e-mail, you'd be entered in a drawing to win said tickets.
Well, somehow, I won a pair of tickets. I figured my mom would like to go, and considering I had nothing to lose, I sent in an e-mail. And voila. I'm a winner.
Man, could this day get any better?
Yes. Yes it could. Just wait.
I re-focused myself on the work at hand. I called a couple more coaches-- Terrell's Pete Gee and Mesquite's Steve Halpin-- and gave my Royse City source a call, only to leave a message. I wrote my notebook, and e-mailed it in by 3:30pm. Score! Weekly stuff done!
I was goofing around, half-waiting for a call back from my Royse City source, when John O'Rourke came by. I was on the phone at the moment that he came by, but he asked to see me when I had a moment.
Oh crap. What did I do? Had he finally had enough of me? Did I piss someone off? Am I fired?
I don't know why those are the things that I thought of as I trudged to John's office. I guess I knew that I had had such a great day that something horrendous was bound to happen. I was due.
I sat down in John's office, expecting for the worst.
He turned and delivered the horrible news.
"Can you go cover a press conference tomorrow?"
I'm sorry, John. I really am. It's just that I've been under a lot of stress and...
...wait, what was that?
"I need someone to go cover a press conference tomorrow."
I'm interested.
"You get to interview a billionaire."
Whoa. Who?
"Mark Cuban."
Yep, Mark Cuban. Owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Owner of HDNet. Former owner of Broadcast.com. Future "Dancing with the Stars" competitor.
Turns out he's starting a mixed martial arts league, and holding a press conference to announce it tomorrow at Victory Plaza, outside the American Airlines Center.
And I'll be there. And after he speaks to everyone, I'm going to track him down and have a one-on-one interview with him. Hopefully.
I drove home at about 4:45pm, and recapped my day:
-Tickets to the state fair
-Tickets to the Home and Garden Show
-Lunch
-Advice from one of the best in the biz
-Opportunity to interview the 407th richest man in the world
Yep, it was a good day.
I came home, told my family all about my day, ate rotisserie chicken for dinner, talked to my beautiful girlfriend on the phone, and now I'm writing this blog.

Today's going to be tough to top.
But tomorrow's got a chance.

Somebody's Got a Case of the Mondays

2007-09-10T22:20:00.000-05:00

A variety of things, all adding up to a long day.
So, this is work.

I woke up at 6am and ran 46 miles.
OK, that is clearly a lie. I woke up at 7am and ran two miles.
However, those two miles count towards the good ol' TepBlog Odometer. You know it!
And yes, I am very much aware that I didn't run yesterday. I'm sorry. I just plum forgot. Or I made a conscious decision not to go. Either way, it didn't happen. If I don't make it to 100 miles, you can point to yesterday as the reason why.
So, by 8:15am, I had already run and done my ab workout. Very, very happy about that.
What I wasn't happy about, however, was the fact that it was pouring rain outside. Anybody who keeps up with the TepBlog knows my car's fear of puddles. Well, rain doesn't help.
I ran to my car and drove home. I was soaked when I walked in my front door.
I showered and changed into jeans and my brown and white striped polo that Jen had given me. I drank a Slim Fast and, a little after 8:30 am, I was out the door bound for The Dallas Morning News.
Let me explain my route a little bit. I take a series of roads in Coppell in order to get to I-35E South. It's called I-35E South because the road goes north-south (it's the highway that goes from Mexico to Canada), but when it gets to Dallas, it splits. I-35E goes through Dallas, while I-35W goes through Ft. Worth. I don't tell you this for any real reason except to explain to you how weird the Dallas-area highway system is.
Anyways, I take I-35E South all the way downtown. But as a result of it being a major freakin' highway, it junctions with a variety of other highways, including by not limited to I-635, TX-121, the George Bush Turnpike, TX-183, TX-114, Dallas North Tollway and I-30.
The reason I tell you this is so you get a full appreciation for the congestion that I faced on this rainy commute. Everyone and their dog takes this highway at some point, and when everyone gets slowed down, it gets very congested, very quickly.
So, it took me about an hour to get to work. I sat down at the TepCube at 9:30am.
To be quite honest, I spent the first hour and a half doing a whole lot of nothing. I checked e-mail, read a few blogs, chatted with Gaby and Damon, tried to cheer up a distraught Kate Hairopolous, did a little bit of organizational work and read my latest Defensive Player of the Week story. I also pitched my cover story for not this week, and not next week, but the next week, to John. He accepted it. Now I'm in business.
At 11am, an hour later than usual, it was time to shoot videos. I was scheduled to talk about McKinney North vs. Forney with David Hinojosa, which I had prepared for.
But then I got a curveball: turns out Todd Wills hadn't made it to the office, so he needed a replacement to talk about Plano vs. Carter.
Hey, I just saw Plano! I can do it!
So I did about five minutes of preparation, and me and Damon Sayles cranked out this puppy:

Then, 10 minutes later, it was encore time with me and David Hinojosa:

Man, you know, for a guy who is avoiding television, I'm on an awful lot of video. But that's one of the coolest things about this internship: I'm getting such a wide range of opportunities, it can't do anything but help me in the long run.
Oh, and by the way, I am currently 0-2 in my predictions on video. I picked against Allen both times. Not smart, considering Allen might be the best team in the area. Yes, better than Southlake Carroll. Note to self: no more picking against Allen. But these are two picks that I can really stand behind.
Anyways, after the video shoot, I sat back at my desk and started writing my Garland Lakeview story. I got about a quarter of the way into it when it was time for our weekly high school writers meeting.
On the menu today: pasta and salad. Yum.
I didn't win any of the "fastest story in" awards this week, namely because I just did a round-up as opposed to a breakout story. But trust me: next week, that gold medal is mine. And yes, it's a completely arbitrary award, but I care. I really, really want it.
Anyways, the meeting centered heavily around how TDMN will attack the upcoming blockbuster matchup between national No. 1 Southlake Carroll and national No. 2 Miami Northwestern on Saturday. I have no part in the coverage, but will be happy to watch it on ESPN.
The meeting ended at about 1:45pm, and then it was time to really get down to business.
I started typing. I got distracted by the computer and the phone for a little bit, but I kept typing. I tried really hard to make this a great story, and I think I did that.
Well, I thought I did that.
I sent the story in to John O'Rourke, as usual. About 30 minutes later, while I was working on my game capsules, John called me into his office. This isn't unusual: he does this every week when I turn in my cover story.
He started tearing apart my story. Not literally, but in the editorial sense. Changing the lede, adjusting some dumb grammar mistakes, trimming, tightening, trimming some more. When it was done, it was still my story, only in a much different form.
I know he's my editor. I know that's what he's paid to do, and I know that it's nothing personal.
But I am really trying to impress everyone around TDMN. I'm surrounded by legions of very, very talented people. Damon Sayles can weave any story beautifully. Kate Hairopolous is in my top few for consistently greatest beat writer I've ever read (seriously, read her stuff on SMU; she makes a really bad team really interesting). The few things that I've read from Bobbi Roquemore and Gabriel Cabarrouy so far are very good. David Hinojosa, Randy Jennings and Todd Wills are seasoned professionals, and it shows in their work. Matt Wixon and Keith Whitmire find a way each week to tell a great story with their own personality attached.
And then there's me, a college senior intern who is getting his story ripped apart on a weekly basis. Excuse me if I'm a little...yes, I'll say it...a little intimidated.
This is The Dallas Morning News. There is a wall next to the conference room with literally dozens of awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors from every year dating back to the '80s, commending TDMN on a Top 10 Daily Section, Top 10 Sunday Section and Top 10 Special Section. This is one of the best damn papers in the entire world.
And I'm really trying to live up to that expectation. I'm really trying to be the intern that TDMN wanted and TDMN deserves. I've said for a long time that I want to be the best, and now I'm getting to prove it. I'm just realizing that it's going to take even more hard work than I anticipated.
I just really hope that everyone knows how hard I'm trying. And I know that's not any consolation, but I promised John O'Rourke that I would be the hardest working intern he had ever seen, and I hope I am living up to that promise.
Anyways, I sat back down at my desk and focused on my game capsules. More than last week, and I really tried to get some good, interesting information in those caps. I finished them at 6:15pm, with the exception of a couple state rankings, which don't come out until tomorrow.
I said goodbye to everyone left from the crowd I usually hang around with (only Cameron and Gaby were left) and walked to my car.
I sat in the seat, turned the rear-view mirror so that I could see myself, and spoke aloud.
"You can do this, Greg. You are a good writer. They wouldn't have hired you if you couldn't hack it. You can do this. Keep your head high, and keep working hard."
I drove home (much quicker than my drive to TDMN, because it had stopped raining) and sat on the couch. I watched Monday Night Football, switching over to watch the season finale of "Greek", talked to my beautiful girlfriend and now I'm writing this blog.

Keep your head high, and keep working hard.
I'm trying.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

2007-09-09T20:14:00.000-05:00

Another lazy day.
Thank God for football.

No alarm today, which is always nice. As a result, I woke up at noon. Because even though I am in the professional world, I am, after all, a college student. And college students love sleeping in.
I stumbled downstairs and talked about football with my dad. After all, one of the nice things about sleeping until noon is that football is on as soon as you wake up.
I checked some e-mail, talked to Jen, and just enjoyed the first NFL Sunday.
At about 1:30, after taking a shower and changing into some shorts and a decent shirt, I was off to the newsroom.
Driving downtown on Sunday, really, can be depressing. You're one of the few cars going downtown, and everyone around you feels the same way. Usually when you look at someone driving next to you, they're smiling, singing along to the radio, or talking on a cell phone.
On Sunday, it's the same, stern, "crap I have to work on Sunday" look on everyone.
At any rate, I got my desk (yes, it was my desk this week) at around 2pm. I checked my e-mail.
Great news, folks. I had 15 nominations when I got there. That makes my job very easy.
I got to work, throwing together my honorable mentions. Eventually, I got an e-mail forwarded to me by Jason Zimmerman, the proverbial man in charge on Sunday afternoon (who was also wearing a Chiefs shirt...bonus points for Zim). It nominated a Waxahachie outside linebacker named Gary Mason, Jr.
He had 11 tackles, two sacks, an interception and a fumble recovery.
Sounds like a winner to me.
I called his coach, only to find out that he was in a meeting. An assistant coach answered and, when I told him exactly who I was and exactly what I was doing, he pulled the coach out of the meeting.
Yep, I have that kind of pull. Or, he just wanted to get the award. One of the two.
I talked to him for a couple minutes, getting the important things done, including getting Mason's cell phone number and a mug shot e-mailed to me.
Then, I called Mason. This was kind of an adventure.
You could tell that Mason was a nice guy. He thanked me for the award, and called me "sir" throughout our entire conversation.
But trying to get this guy to say something beyond "yes" was tough. He was very short-spoken, and didn't offer much. My questions weren't tough: things like, "How'd you do it?" and "What kind of zone were you in to have this kind of game?". But he wasn't offering much.
But I got enough to use, and finished his little bio box. By 4:30pm, I was done. I e-mailed it in and got in my car.
Traffic sucked on the way home, because I have to drive by Irving on my way to Coppell. And there was a 7:15pm Cowboys game. That sucked.
But I got home, enjoyed a couple Shiners, ate fish and crab cakes with my parents, and now I' watching the Cowboys (who, by the way, can't defend the pass any better than Coppell Middle School North) and now I'm writing this blog.

Told you there wasn't much to tell today.
Tomorrow, though, should be eventful.

Double Blog Madness!

2007-09-08T23:57:00.000-05:00

Gonna be a long one tonight.
Strap in.

Before I get to blogging, I've got to start by talking a little college football, so let's play a little bit of "Overrated/Underrated".
OVERRATED: Texas A&M
So, let me get this straight: You need three overtimes to beat a bad team from the WAC at what is supposedly the toughest place to play in the nation? Aggie fans have to admit one of two things: either this year's Aggie squad isn't very good, or the legend of Kyle Field is dead. Your choice.
UNDERRATED: Oregon
How about that Quack Attack? I know, Michigan is...well, they suck. But still, you've got to give some love to Dennis Dixon (who I said in the podcast would have a huge game), who put up 292 yards passing and three scores, plus ran for another. In all, a ridiculous 630-yard effort for the Ugly Jersies.
OVERRATED: TCU
Memo to Horned Frogs: shut up. Forever. Stop telling us how underrated you are, and how you never get your due. You had your shot today, and you straight up blew it. You can no longer talk about how disrespected you are for, let's say, ten years. Minimum.
UNDERRATED: Oklahoma
Holy freakin' crap. Scoring 79 on North Texas was impressive. Hanging 51 on The U is transcendent. We get it: you can score. Please don't hurt us.
OVERRATED: Nebraska
Uh...hey. Listen. I know all of Husker Nation wants to get excited about this Husker team. But...uh...you barely beat Wake Forest. A Wake Forest team without their starting QB. A Wake Forest team that is, ultimately, an also-ran in the ACC. If Nebraska plays like this against USC next week, they'll lose by four touchdowns. At least.
UNDERRATED: LSU
48-7. Against the "best defense in the nation". I am legitimately scared of LSU.
OVERRATED: Notre Dame
Jimmy Clausen can't save you now, and neither can Touchdown Jesus. Good news: someone has to win the Michigan-ND game next week, which has gone from a primetime matchup of two undefeated teams, to essentially Rice vs. Cal Poly.
UNDERRATED: Western Kentucky
I don't care who you are. If you hang 87 unanswered on a team, including 49 in the first quarter, you're a team to beat.
ALSO OVERRATED: Boise State (losing not allowed), Iowa State (N. Iowa? Really?), North Texas (Hey, Todd Dodge, it's OK to lose to OU; it's NOT OK to lose to SMU)
ALSO UNDERRATED: Michigan State (could surprise), Georgia Tech (two straight impressive wins), Missouri (America's Team is 2-0!)
My Top 10
1) LSU
2) USC
3) Oklahoma
4) West Virginia
5) Wisconsin
6) Florida
7) Louisville
8) Texas
9) Cal
10) UCLA
OK, let's get blogging.

Yesterday, I was supposed to go to lunch with Jacques Taylor. He said that he was going to call me at around 11:30am and, since he was going to be over by Valley Ranch (which is where the Cowboys headquarters is, and is pretty close to my hometown of Coppell), we would meet for lunch around then.
So, I woke up at 11. And, while I was showering, I got a text from Jacques.
Turns out that he was stuck at his house in DeSoto (south of Dallas). Why? He had to wait for a guy to come fix his home entertainment system. He was supposed to come that morning, and didn't.
So, we rescheduled lunch (again) for Tuesday. We'll go to lunch one of these days.
I spent the next couple of hours discovering something that had been in my house for a few weeks, but I had never gotten around to:
Madden.
Madden 2008, to be exact. And even though it's on my little brother's GameCube (whose controllers are very bizarre), it's still awesome. Totally awesome.
By 3:30pm, it was time to go to work. I needed to swing by the office for just an hour or so to do some preliminary work before I headed out to the Rowlett-Plano game.
I arrived at the office at about 4pm and, after going to the conference room to eat some cake for all of SportsDay's August birthdays, I did what I needed to do.
I e-mailed myself the two coaches interviews for the two stories that I am currently working on. I wrote an e-mail to all of the writers, reminding them to send me nominations for Defensive Player of the Week.
And, I continued the struggle against Internet.
Nobody could confirm for me that Tom Kimbrough Stadium, where the game was being played, had wireless internet. You know what that means?
MORE CONTINGENCY PLANS!
I started surfing the web for listings of hotspots around town. The best site I found for this was jiwire.com, which lists a bunch of different hotspots, listed by price and proximity to a point.
In the end, I had two different options, should Kimbrough not have Internet:
1) Starbucks, right down the road.
2) DFWFreeNet.
I know you're asking yourself, "What the hell is that?"
Well, it's a movement, spawned by an organization called DFWFreeNet, to spread a wireless Internet network across the DFW area. A free community Internet network.
There are a few big wireless nodes, set up by the organization, in various spots across DFW. But, to extend the network and essentially make it what it wants to be, people can purchase their own adapters and put them in their windows. That makes them their own wireless node, and means that people around those windows can use the free internet.
Does that make any sense? I hope so.
Anyways, it turns out that there is a DFWFreeNet node in some guy's window just six miles from the stadium. So that's option 2.
I printed off a ton of directions: TDMN to Kimbrough, Kimbrough to Starbucks, Kimbrough to DFWFreeNet Node, Kimbrough to Home, Starbucks to Home, DFWFreeNet Node to Home.
At 5:15pm, I was off. Time to get to work.
Well, actually, it was time to sit in traffic. It took me about an hour to get to Plano, which is about 25 miles away.
I got to the stadium around 6:15. It was, like most other Texas high school football stadiums, huge. And the press box was very nice, very classy, with a seperate room for the press. They were even serving spaghetti tonight.
But excuse me if I have to complain because, well, there was no freakin' Internet.
And people say contingency plans are for dorks.
So, I parked my stuff and got back in the Baron. I drove down the road and discovered that the Starbucks was really, really close. That's good to know.
Then, I drove to the DFWFreeNet hotspot, at the corner of Berry Trail and Fireside Drive.
Little did I know that this was, really, in the middle of a neighborhood. I had invaded suburbia.
Everyone in this neighborhood must have thought I was really creepy, as I sat there in front of the house with the wireless adapter in their window. I pulled out my computer and tried to connect to the internet.
And it worked.
Score.
I drove back to Kimbrough, got some spaghetti, and settled in for the game. I had covered Rowlett's upset last week of Keller Fossil Ridge, so I knew what this team, really, was all about. I didn't think they were particularly good, but they were good enough to beat a good team if they let them hang around.
This one started off like that. Plano, a much better team than Rowlett, let them hang around for the first half. I feared the same story, and how I would write it differently, even though I wasn't writing a game story (just a roundup/brief).
After dictating a blog entry to Cameron back at the office, I watched the second half. Plano, thankfully, ran away with the game. This was good for two reasons:
1) I didn't have to write the same thing
2) I could write my stuff before the game was over
The game ended at about 10:15. I had my stuff written by 10:20. I had the e-mail written, ready to send when I had Internet access, at 10:22.
I was in the Baron at 10:25.
And then...
...traffic.
Lots of it. Getting out of Kimbrough Stadium was like being part of a mass evacuation. And it was slow. Very, very slow.
I tried to be patient, reminding myself as the clock hit 10:30 and I hadn't gone anywhere that I still had 15 minutes.
Then, I started driving aggressively.
I cut two people off.
I sped.
I forgot to signal.
I decided to forgo the very close Starbucks and try to save some bucks by going to the free hotspot.
I assaulted the streets of suburbia. I really think that if anything--ball, cat, child-- had darted into the street, I would have drilled it.
I got to the house.
10:44.
I had internet access.
SEND! SEND! SEND! SEND! SEND!
It sent.
10:44. A minute before deadline.
I called my editor for the evening, Dan, who confirmed that he had it.
I called John O'Rourke, who confirmed that he had it. And when I celebrated, he tried to bring me down, telling me that it was "just a roundup" and that I "don't get bonus points for this".
Whatever. I'm on Cloud Nine. Tepper 1, Deadline 0.
I drove home, talked to my mom, talked to Jen, threw up a lame excuse for a blog entry, and now I'm writing this blog.
Which brings us to today...

I was awoken much earlier than I wanted to be, at 10am, by my mom calling my cell phone. She needed directions to Rowlett, where my little brother's cross-country meet was being held. She figured that since it was my neck of the woods, I would know where to go.
I did. And I told her.
After that, I couldn't fall back asleep. Which is OK, considering today was Saturday, which means college football.
The rest of my day consisted of:
-Madden
-Michigan-Oregon
-West Virginia-Marshall
-Texas A&M-Fresno State
-Listening to Mizzou-Ole Miss on Internet radio
-Texas-TCU
-Going to the Rangers game with TepMom
-Getting updates on the Mizzou game from Ross Taylor
-Biting my fingernails until Mizzou won
-Watching Hank Blalock homer
-Eating at Joe's Crab Shack with my mom
-Watching SportsCenter twice
-Updating my blog's various features
-Relaxing
So now, I'm sitting on my loveseat, after just talking to my beautiful girlfriend (who is at my fraternity house right now...kind of funny, huh?), and now I'm writing this blog.

Told you it was a long one.
Here's to a shorter one tomorrow.

Night Off

2007-09-08T00:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry, TepBlog fans. It's 12:40am, and I'm tired. So, I'm passing on the blog tonight. However, here's some Cliff's Notes from today:

-Ran my two miles
-Got my lunch with Jacques rescheduled for a third time
-Covered another game without internet access
-Blogged about the game here and here
-Sent in my story at 10:44pm, one minute before deadline

I've updated the clips, TepBlog Odometer, TepBlog media, and Teams of the TepBlog, for your viewing pleasure.
Tomorrow, I'll be watching college football, including Mizzou-Ole Miss on the 'net, and then enjoying a nightcap of Rangers-A's.
But trust me, I'll still hit you with the double-dose of TepBlog tomorrow night.
Until tomorrow, g'night.

TepBlog Podcast #3, Clips, and MU-ILL Photos

2007-09-06T18:02:00.000-05:00

You can listen to the third edition of the TepBlog Podcast right here:

To download TepBlog Podcast #3, right-click here and select "Save Target As..."
Here are my clips from the second week of HS Gametime in The Dallas Morning News:

Rockwall-Heath has strength in numbers

Forney will get another dose of passing offense

Rowlett takes little time to celebrate opening win Injury ends season for North Mesquite player

Inexperience a factor for Mesquite Poteet

Rockwall at Allen

And now, my pictures from the Mizzou-Illinois game in St. Louis last weekend:

Odd Questions, Random Fans, and the Rangers

2007-09-06T00:39:00.000-05:00

Quite an array of topics today.
That's why we blog, people.

You better believe that my alarm went off at 6am, and I hit snooze.
I really don't know why I set my alarm for 6am anymore. The only day that I really need to get up and work out at exactly 6am is Monday. Thus, I am pushing my workout time for Tuesday and Wednesday to 7am, and my workout time for Friday and Sunday to 10am. Fair? Everybody write that down? Can we move on? Good.
I went to the YMCA, and did my usual. I've upped my speed on the ol' treadmill lately. Now, it's 9 minute miles. Yes, I know that's still pathetic, but give me a break. I'm really trying.
I did my ab workout, signaling the end of another successful workout, meaning that I could blog tonight without fear of people calling me out as a "fair-weather workerouter".
But a funny thing happened on the way out of the YMCA. I was walking out to the Baron when a woman, walking into the YMCA, started talking to me.
I took out my earbud headphones to listen to her, and she repeated her question.
"Do you want a breakfast burrito?"
Sure enough, she had extended a Wendy's breakfast burrito towards me. Wrapped up, as if it hadn't been touched.
Um.
"No, but thanks."
Um.
I walked to my car, sat down, closed the door, flipped down the visor and looked in the mirror. I talked to myself, aloud.
"What the hell was that?"
Comedian Lewis Black has a great bit about whenever you hear the dumbest thing you've ever heard, how it gets into your head and eventually gives you an aneurysm. I didn't get one of those, but I definitely thought about it for the rest of the day. I also thought that I would definitely have to blog about that.
I came home, showered, and got dressed. After drinking my Slim Fast (proud sponsor of the TepBlog...OK, not really), I drove downtown at about 10:15am, arriving at the TepCube at 10:45am.
After yesterday's cover story drama, I had my work cut out for me. Not only did I want to wrap up the Royse City interviews by calling the coach, but I needed to complete all three interviews for next week's cover story, dealing with Lakeview Centennial.
I called Royse City coach Rodney Webb on his cell phone, and we chatted for a good 15 minutes. It's always nice to talk to coaches who don't get a whole lot of publicity, because they are always, always willing to talk. At length. And there's no such thing as an interview with a subject who talks too much.
Same thing goes with Lakeview Centennial coach Don Willis, who I called after my interview with Webb. The Lakeview program has struggled for a long time (23-58 since 1998, nine straight losses), so he was happy to talk to me and tell me pretty much whatever I wanted to know. Maybe that's why I like writing about losing programs and under-recognized programs so much.
Now, it was lunch time. I moseyed down to the Headliner Diner and decided to be good to myself.
I had a tuna salad croissant and mandarin oranges, with water. Don't tell me I'm not committed to this whole getting in shape thing. I passed up a bacon cheeseburger.
I ate at my desk, and tried to keep myself entertained. There were a few little things that I had to do, like a sentence that I had forgotten for my spotlight capsule and two photo requests, but outside of that, I didn't have anything to do until I went to Lakeview's practice, which ended at 5:15pm.
So, I checked my e-mail a hundred times. Checked hits on the blog. Checked other blogs. Read a few columns. Talked to Damon Sayles. Set up lunch with Jacques Taylor on Friday. Watched YouTube videos of old Mike Tyson fights. Watched YouTube videos featuring CBS announcer Gus Johnson. Watched YouTube videos of old Mizzou football games. Checked my e-mail some more. Got even more hyperorganized. Found out how to adjust the ring volume on my phone at the TepCube. Talked to Ross Taylor.
You know, a normal day.
At 4:15pm, I took off. It's a 25-minute drive to Garland Lakeview Centennial High School (say that five times, fast), and it is...well, it's a fine school.
That said, it's a little on the shabby side. But who am I to judge? It's closer than Royse City, and that makes it alright in my book.
I had to wait around for the end of practice to get my interviews, but they were all very nice. Again, when your team isn't good, reporters coming around is a rarity.
So rare, in fact, that the trainers stare at you.
No lie: a group of about five trainers took turns eying me while I took down little notes in my notebook. This went on for about ten minutes, until one of them very inconspicuously walked past me, angling his head so that it was clear that he was trying to get a look at my DMN badge clipped to my belt.
Then, he turned back to to his group of friends, now 30 feet away from him, and signaled that he couldn't tell what my badge said. Obviously, he did this with the utmost stealth, considering I know exactly what he was doing.
It finally took another one of the kids coming over and asking me to set it straight.
Now, let's play a new game I like to call "What Greg Wanted to Say/What Greg Said." The rules are simple: I'll dictate an actual conversation that I had, follow their comments with an italicized response that I didn't actually say, and then follow that with my actual response. Got it? Away we go!
Trainer: "You a reporter?"
No. I'm at a football practice in 100-degree heat scribbling in a hand-held notebook because I'm sketching the middle linebacker. You're an idiot.
Me (not looking up from my book): "Yes."
Trainer: "With who?"
Why does it matter? You're a trainer, and I'm certainly not writing about you. I could be from the New York Freakin' Times for all you know, and it wouldn't change the fact that, uh, it doesn't concern you.
Me (still not looking up from my book): "The Dallas Morning News."
Trainer: "Oh. (Turns to his friends) He's with The Dallas Morning News!"
Thanks, dumbass. Just what I want: you and your friends staring at me while I'm trying to work in peace. You're swell.
Me (still not looking up from my book): "Yep."
Stupid people make me mad.
Anyways, I finished my two interviews lickety-split (that's a medical term) and hopped back in the Baron. By 6:05pm, I was home, changing for the Rangers game and checking my e-mail for the gajillionth time today.
But I had a new e-mail, informing me that I had a Facebook message.
From a "Kat Thompson".
Hm. I don't think I know a Kat Thompson. Probably some spam thing.
So, I went to my Facebook page and, sure enough, I had a message from one Kat Thompson. I won't transcribe the whole thing, but here's the gist of it:
-Kat Thompson went to Coppell High, but we never met.
-She stumbled across the TepBlog Facebook group a week or so ago.
This part, I will quote (I edited a little grammar; sorry, Kat):
"...And now I shamelessly read the blog every day at work. Just wanted to say it's pretty awesome, and I really enjoy it."
I was stunned. Not only was somebody other than my mom, my girlfriend, and my girlfriend's mom (Hi, Mrs. O!) reading my blog...but they were enjoying it.
I sat down on my bed and gathered my thoughts. You're telling me that I have an unsolicited fan?
I HAVE AN UNSOLICITED FAN! YYYYES!
Congratulations to Kat Thompson of somewhere in California, the Official Unsolicited Fan of the TepBlog!
(I am, of course, taking other nominations, so if you are an unsolicited fan, feel free to contact me. But it should be noted that Kat is the first and, for all I know, only one.)
Thanks for reading, Kat, and thanks for the note! Welcome aboard! Tell all your co-workers!
After the buzz of knowing that this blog is read by somebody other than my older brother's friend from high school (Hi, Hujo!) faded, it was time for some baseball.
And really, there's no greater exhibition of baseball prowess than a real slobberknocker between the Texas Rangers (last place in the AL West) and the Kansas City Royals (4th place in the AL Central).
It was my brother Jeff, TepDad and myself. And what could make this night any better than it already was, considering we got free tickets?
It was Dollar Hot Dog Night.
If you listen carefully, you can hear angels in heaven singing "Alleluia."
Yep, it was good ol' DHDN, which might be my favorite kind of Hot Dog Night. During the game, I managed to scarf down three hot dogs. I'd do the math for you, but seriously: your computer has a calculator function.
Here's the amazing/sad thing: for the price of one adult beverage (and, for the record, I had two), I could have had six hot dogs. If that's not America, I don't know what is.
The game, overall, was very good. Vincente Padilla pitched a strong game for the Rangers, going six scoreless. Hank Blalock drove in two of the three Ranger runs, and your Texas Rangers prevailed, 3-2.
Other highlights included having a brief conversation with Rangers closer C.J. Wilson (and by brief, I mean that I told him that I forced my girlfriend to choose a favorite Ranger and she chose him, and he turned and smiled at me) and purchasing a Jarrod Saltalamacchia jersey shirt (or jirt) for $16.50. That comes out to roughly $1.18 per letter on the back of the jersey, and I think that's well worth it.
We drove home after the game, stopping at a grocery store to pick up milk for TepMom and Wendy's for some Frosties, and I told TepMom about the game. I talked to my wonderful girlfriend on the phone (to whom I sent a very cute "I Miss You" e-card today) and now I'm writing this blog.

Breakfast burritos, unsolicited admirers and baseball.
You've got to love the TepBlog.

PS- Remember: tomorrow is Thursday, which means Podcast #3, my stories from the week, and a photo gallery from my weekend in St. Louis. Be there!

No Rest For The Weary

2007-09-05T00:11:00.002-05:00

Once again, I busted my rear at work today.
I guess that's why they are paying me.

At 6am, as usual, my alarm sounded. And, as usual, I got dressed, walked downstairs, and laid on the couch.
I'm not real sure why I do this. Maybe it's because I like to tempt fate.
At any rate, I fell asleep. Shocker, I know. I awoke again at 9:30am, and I no longer had time to go to the YMCA. How very productive of me.
I showered, changed into comfortable clothes, and drove to work at about 10:15am.
The entire way there, I thought about Jen. I think I've done a good job of keeping busy enough to keep from missing her at extreme levels, but for some reason, it all came crashing down on me today.
Maybe it was the fact that I got to be with her for such a short time this weekend, and I craved being with her more. Maybe it was the fact that every day, I'm falling more and more in love with her, and I can't be there to show her that. Maybe it was the fact that I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I get to be with her, and the unluckiest guy in the world because I can't be there with her.
Whatever the case, my heart hurt on the way to work today. I'm in love, and can't be with the only girl I want to be with. I miss her.
I got to work at around 10:40 and sat down in the cube. I had a number of things to do today, and the first one was to do my game capsules.
The essence of doing game capsules is research. You just have to find out the three most important things that the reader needs to know about each team, and you can't make every game capsule sound the same. Generally, you need to tell them how the team did in their last game. It's also good to highlight a particular player who played particularly well (figure that sentence out).
The third fact, really, is up for grabs. It can be about defense. It can be about stats. It can be about returning starters. It can be about coaches. Whatever the case, it needs to add something to the capsule as a whole. If you have three offensive stats, you're kind of telling the reader, "Well, this team may or may not have 11 defensive players." That's not what you want to do.
So, I spent about an hour and a half doing my game capsules. For some reason, I didn't have a whole lot of them to do this week. Weird.
At about 12:30, my stomach started rumbling. One of the consequences of not running was not eating breakfast. Once again, a real brilliant move on my part this morning.
I didn't particularly feel like going back over to Subway today, so I instead decided to wander down to the vending machines to get a snack.
That's when I saw it: the cafeteria.
I'd passed it before, but never really gave it much attention. But today, it had my name plastered all over it.
I entered and stood in line. It was a pretty nice little spread, with your choice of something off of the grill or some hot entrees (today, it was grilled chicken and mashed potatoes) and a salad bar, plus some soup.
I ordered a bacon cheeseburger and fries, because if I'm going to miss running, I might as well eat like a fat ass, too.
I went back to my desk and, after eating and surfing the web, got to work on my notebook.
The nice thing is, Keith Whitmire, the lead high school columnist, e-mailed me to let me know of a gruesome injury in the North Mesquite-North Garland game.
Make a note: big injuries can always be a note.
I called the coach over at North Mesquite, Mike Robinson, and asked him about the player. He was short and to the point, and its obvious he didn't like talking about it, but I managed to get him to say enough to make the story.
Then it hit me:
HEY! THIS IS BLOGWORTHY!
I got hooked up on the DMN high schools blog last Friday, and I've been itching to start blogging. I guess I'm just drawn to that kind of stuff. Who knew?
So, after running it by Cameron, I made my debut on the DMN high schools blog with this post.
I know, it's not the hard hitting blogging that you can expect here on the TepBlog, but give me a break. It's my first try.
After another hour and a half, it was 2pm and I had my notebook done. Score.
Now, it was time to start going on next week's cover story. But before I can explain the controversy here, I need to explain a little bit of my responsibilities.
I am the East Zone high schools beat writer, meaning that I cover all of the Garland schools (Garland, North Garland, South Garland, Sachse, Naaman Forest, Lakeview Centennial and Rowlett), Mesquite schools (Mesquite, North Mesquite, West Mesquite, Poteet, Horn) and Rockwall schools (Rockwall and Rockwall-Heath), as well as Royse City, Forney and Terrell.
Garland is about 20 minutes east of downtown. Same with Mesquite. Rockwall is about 15 minutes farther east. Royse City, Forney and Terrell are way out in the boondocks.
My thought process was, give everybody as equal coverage as possible. I grouped the Garland schools together, the Mesquite schools together, the Rockwall schools together, and the Royse City/Forney/Terrell trifecta together, and decided that they all deserved equal coverage.
My first cover story was about Mesquite Horn. My next cover story (coming out Thursday) is about Rockwall-Heath.
So, to me, that meant that I could write about a Garland school or a RC/F/T school. I decided to write about Royse City.
I had e-mailed John O'Rourke earlier in the week to run the story idea by him, and he didn't seem to have any objections. But I needed to get final approval before pulling the trigger on the story.
I went into John's office and told him that I was planning on doing the Royse City story. He expressed concern that I wasn't doing a story about a Garland school, and I tried to explain my theory of equal coverage to him.
John countered with a theory of his own: TDMN has much more readership in Mesquite and Garland than in Rockwall and RC/F/T, and the readers deserve to read about their home schools.
I felt really dumb, honestly. I shuffled out of his office, vowing to fix the situation.
After studying the schools and the schedules, I decided that it probably was wise to hold off on the Royse City story. In two weeks (Sept 21ish), there are a lot of bye weeks for my schools. Royse City is not one of the bye weeks, meaning that I can run that cover story then.
Now, I just needed a new cover story.
I found a very interesting story at South Garland, and pitched it to John. He seemed to like it, so I decided to run with that. He gave me the number of one of the players who would be instrumental in the story idea.
Except, I had already told Royse City coach Rodney Webb that I would come out to practice.
So, at 4:30pm, I got into the Baron and took off for Royse City.
RC is, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. Go to Rockwall, which is pretty far itself. Then go about 15 miles further. That's RC.
After getting lost in "downtown Royse City", which is nothing more than a group of old stores, I was directed by a fine RC resident to the new high school, three more miles down the highway.
I showed up at practice at about 5:45pm. I'm not going to give away my story, but let's put it this way: Royse City is good.
I conducted two very entertaining interviews, including one from a linebacker who gave me excellent quotes, and I got back in the Baron at 7:00pm.
It took a full hour to drive from RC back to Coppell. An hour. All highways. Ugh.
When I got home, I sat down to eat spaghetti and meatballs when...
...I got up.
And I walked away from the food.
And I got dressed, and went to the YMCA.
That's right, I went to the Coppell Family YMCA at 8:15pm to keep the 100-mile dream alive. I knocked out two HUGE miles and did an ab workout. COUNT IT!
I came home and remembered: aw crap, you need to call that kid from South Garland.
I called him. No answer.
I walked downstairs to eat with a funny feeling. For the first time in a long time, I wasn't in love with a story idea.
Not to give too much away, but this story has to do with a sick kid. My thought is, I don't know if this sick kid wants to be put on a pedestal. Not getting a hold of the kid seemed like a good way out.
I already had another story idea in mind, and I e-mailed my thoughts to John. I haven't received a reply, so we'll have to see how that goes.
I ate spaghetti and meatballs with my dad, watched the Rangers win, reminded my beautiful girlfriend on the phone that she is my perfect, and now I am writing this blog.

Tough day today.
And they're not getting any easier.

Up Yours, Labor Day

2007-09-03T21:38:00.000-05:00

Yes, today was Labor Day.
Yes, I went to work.

Before I start with my day, we need to do a little housekeeping.
-As you have probably noticed by now, the poll on the right, which would determine my NFL rooting interest this year, has expired. And it expired in a tie between two teams: Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs.
So what am I going to do?
I'm going to pick one of them. Thank you to everyone who voted for narrowing down my choices, but ultimately, it should be my choice between the two, right? Isn't that fair, considering I'm the one who is going to be rooting for them?
That, and I really, really don't want to do a tiebreaker.
So, in the 2007-2008 NFL, the official NFL team of the TepBlog will be...
...
...Drumroll please...
...
The Kansas City Chiefs.
Now why I did I pick the Chiefs over the Lions? Two reasons:
1) They're local, for me at least. As a student at Mizzou, you have two NFL rooting options: Rams or Chiefs. And frankly, I don't think I could look at myself in the mirror if I rooted for the Rams. That's Jen's team, anyways. We've got to diversify.
2) On a much more important level, the Kansas City Chiefs were my grandpa's team. So there.
There you have it, folks. Thanks for voting, and go Chiefs.
-Trust me, I'm getting back on that running train after a bad week. As a matter of fact, I ran two miles today and did an ab workout. So chalk it up on the TepBlog odometer, baby.
-TepMom brought it to my attention that I never formally introduced the "Friends of the TepBlog" on the right side. How rude of me
The DMN HS Blog is exactly what you think it is: the Dallas Morning News' high school sports blog. I'm going to start posting on there soon, and I'll let you know when I do.
Every True Son is the Mizzou blog run by my good buddy Ross Taylor. He's an incredibly talented freshman who was TDMN's summer high school intern.
Lone Star Ball is probably the best Rangers blog on the planet, run by Adam J. Morris. Check it out if you ever want to see what I aspire my blog to be like. I am a very frequent visitor to LSB, and you should be, too.
The 12th Manchild is an outstanding Texas A&M blog run by my good buddy Brad Honer. Brad has College Station covered from top to bottom, period.
So there we go. Now, let's get bloggin'!

I already told you that I worked out, so let's skip all that.
At 8:45am, I hopped in the Baron and drove to TDMN. And it only took me 20 minutes, probably because it was just me and about six other cars on I-35. Honestly, who works on Labor Day?
Anyways, I was in my cube at 9:10am, and I did exactly what I do on every Monday morning before I record my video:
Nothing.
I checked my e-mail and read my newest clip, this week's Defensive Player of the Week. You can also read my game story from Rowlett's win over Fossil Ridge.
At about 10am, I headed to the conference room, because it was showtime.
This week, my assignment was to talk about Rockwall for their upcoming game against powerhouse Allen. I did some research last night, and knew what I was going to say.
I think it turned out pretty well, but you can judge for yourself by watching it here.
After the video shoot, I went back to the cube and started working on my story. It's supposed to be ready at 3pm. Better get going.
The toughest part of any story, I think, is getting started. Sometimes, you have everything you need in front of you-- quotes, background information, et al-- and you know exactly what you want to say in the story...except you can't start it. It's a weird feeling.
I had a rough outline of everything when I went to the noon meeting. But when I got to the meeting, after loading my plate with free barbecue, I got a real shock.
Apparently, John O'Rourke likes to give out a Gold, Silver and Bronze award for every week. It's a little bit of an arbitrary award given to those who get their stories in the quickest.
And guess who got the bronze?
Yeah, the guy who had to drive 60 mph down Centerville Road to the Starbucks so he could frantically e-mail his story.
I was the third story in.
Arbitrary, schmarbitrary, this award is freakin' awesome!
Anyways, the meeting went about an hour and pretty uneventfully, and I was back at my desk at around 1:30pm.
Now it was time to work.
I just sat down and wrote, trying my best to fend off the evil Writer's Block. That bitch.
Long story short, after web surfing, banging my head against my desk, talking to Damon and Gabby about JJ Barea, and swearing to myself, the story was done at 4:30pm.
I sent it to John O'Rourke, and left at 4:45pm.
I really could have stayed and done my game capsules, which are due tomorrow. But I figured I would do them at home. For some reason, there was something that kept me from wanting to be at the newsroom on Labor Day.
Again, it was so easy driving home. I wish people would stay home from work every day.
I came home, watched the end of the Texas Tech-SMU game, ate burgers and brats with my family, watched the Rangers lose, talked to my beautiful girlfriend, and now I'm writing this blog.

Back to the working world today.
On the day meant to be spent away from work.

Back In Action

2007-09-02T20:52:00.000-05:00

I'm back after a one-day hiatus.
Don't act like you didn't miss me.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I was in St. Louis (or, The Lou) this weekend for the Arch Rivalry game between the Illinois Fighting Offensive Mascots and America's Team, The Missouri Tigers.
If you didn't hear, Mizzou won, 40-34. So hooray for that.
I have a lot of thoughts on the game, and the season as a whole, but I'm going to save those for Thursday's podcast. However, if you're looking for some analysis right now, allow me to recommend Ross Taylor's Every True Son blog, which breaks the game down very well.
I got to see my wonderful girlfriend Jen last night as well. TepDad and I met up with Jen and her family at Stan Musial's restaurant, Lester's. It was a pretty sweet place, with flat screens all over the place and tons of baseball memorabilia. So, I got to eat, watch football, watch baseball, look at my girlfriend, and look at baseball stuff. Not a bad deal.
Afterwards, TepDad headed back to the hotel while I went with Jen and her folks back to their place. Jen and I rented a movie and relaxed, finally getting a chance to say "Hey! You're my significant other! Nice to see you again!"
I got back to the hotel at 1:45am, with the TepDad already snoring. I soon joined him.
(Note: I'll post pictures from the weekend on Thursday as well. So you get a podcast, some articles, and a photo album on Thursday. You're welcome.)
Anyways, I woke up at around 9:30am and showered. TepDad and I checked out of the hotel, caught the shuttle over to Lambert Airport, and hopped on the 12pm flight back to the Big D.
And, consequently, back to the real world.
After a wonderful 1 hour, 35-minute flight back to the D, I got in the Baron and drove immediately to TDMN. Remember: Sunday is no Funday for me.
I walked into the newsroom and sat down at...
...wait, who's sitting at my cube?
There was some woman sitting in my cube. And I didn't know her.
Turns out, Sunday is stat day in the high school department of TDMN, and all of the stat people descend upon the newsroom to pester coaches for their own version of the stats. That's because TDMN prides itself on accuracy, and frankly, there's a lot that a reporter could miss during a game when it comes to stats.
So, I took a seat at an open computer (there were a lot of them) and checked my e-mail. It was about 2:15pm, and my responsibility today: Defensive Player of the Week.
The nice thing is that all of my colleagues helped me out. On Friday, I sent out an e-mail to all of the football writers, asking them for nominations. That's because I have to have one POTW and twenty (that's 2-0) honorable mentions.
However, as much of a pain in the rear that it would be to collect all of them, the writers, editors, and stat people (or statties, according to me) sent me a total of 15 nominations. Nice.
Over the next two hours, I got most of the rest that I needed, resorting to reading the game stories and finding mentions of defensive players for the last two. In the end, I had a few choices for who to crown Defensive Player of the Week.
My only criterion that could eliminate some nominees from the award is that their team has to win. Call me crazy, but unless you have just an unbelievably otherworldly game in a losing effort, I need to crown a winner.
My two choices:
-A kid who had 15 tackles, 3 sacks, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble
-A kid who blocked two punts
To me, those were the most extraordinary players on winning teams. That's not to say that the others weren't impressive: it's just that these two stood out the most.
In the end, I chose the first kid, Keldrick Hall of Molina High School.
I called his coach and talked to him. The coach got me in contact with Keldrick, who was very polite and clearly honored by the award.
See, that's what's nice about the job: making people happy.
I finished my stuff at about 5:30pm and, after casting my ballot for the SportsDay area polls, took off. Three hours of work, and I was done. Maybe Sunday will be a Funday.
I came home, talked with my parents and brothers, ate a steak dinner, watched the Rangers hold on for an 8-7 lead thanks a grand slam in the first game back for the greatest baseball player ever to grace this earth, and now I'm writing this blog.

Two states, a flight, and a workday.
I'm tired.

Wi-Fi? Wi-Not?

2007-09-01T07:25:00.000-05:00

This is quite a tale.
Brace yourselves.

*TepBlogger's note: Had a lot of trouble with the Internet here at the house last night, so I'm not posting this until 7:26am. Sorry. However, it was written last night after my experience, so it's still pretty good. In fact, it's awesome.
And now, I'm out the door, headed for Mizzou-lllinois in St. Louis and my wonderful girlfriend. Enjoy the awesome story below, blog at you Sunday, and GO TIGERS!*

I’m really proud of this story. I think it’s one of the best that I’ve ever told on the TepBlog. We all know that there have been countless of my miscues that have found their way onto the TepBlog, but for once, this one has a happy ending.

It started like most awesome stories start: with me waking up at 10:30am.
And the only reason I got out of bed then was because, well, I needed to go work out.
I admit: I didn’t go to the Y on Wednesday, and I took my usual day off on Thursday. So that was two full days that I had gone without working out.
That just couldn’t stand. It just couldn’t.
So, at 11am, I was off to the good ol’ Coppell Family YMCA. But this time, there was a little twist.
Instead of heading to the treadmills upstairs, I made a detour to the left, sending me into the gym.
The basketball gym.
Now, it’s well documented that I am the worst basketball player alive, despite my spot in history as a member of the now-infamous 1999 Coppell Middle School North B Team. But I was feeling like tempting fate, so I made my way into the gym.
It wasn’t long until a gentleman that I know from his many, many years of playing pick-up ball at the Y showed up. I honestly don’t remember his name, but he likes me. He shook my hand, asked me how I was doing, and the like, and I avoided anything that could lead to me having to say his name, which I don’t know.
Anyways, he asked me if I wanted to play a quick 1-on-1 before he takes on his pick-up game, and I run off to the sissy treadmill.
Sure, why not?
Ten minutes later, I was keeled over, gasping for air, and shaking his hand after a 15-3 drubbing.
And yes, he did the drubbing.
I’m counting that as a half a mile. So there.
I went upstairs, still out of breath, and pounded out a mile and a half. Coupled with an ab workout, it was a good day. Except for the whole being embarrassed on the court thing.
Little did I know that I would get my own workout later. More on that in a bit.
I came home, showered, talked to Jen, ate a lunch of a grilled hamburger patty, yogurt and Slim Fast, and watched (no lie) Maury Povich with my brother, making snide comments at all the people on that show.
Direct quotes from my brother and I during that 20 minutes:
“I do what I want! I’ll kill a baby seal with my bare hands! I do what I want!”
“Things have really gone downhill for me. Hence, I’m on Maury.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go have sex with my wife, television’s own Connie Chung.”
“Holy crap! She’s got a bat!”
Gotta love Maury.
Anyways, I took off for TDMN at…
Wait, hold on: I have to mention that I got a very nice e-mail from Bruce Hatton yesterday. Bruce Hatton, Sr., that is. The father of the kid that I wrote the story about. He was very nice, thanking me for the “great” story and encouraging me to keep up the good work. OK, my shameless self-praise is over. For now.
Anyways, I took off for TDMN at 1:30pm, and pulled into a parking spot at Reunion Arena at about 2:15pm.
I came in and did a little research for my job tonight. I clarified exactly what stats I would be taking, and got a handy spreadsheet that made the job a whole lot easier. I researched the teams (Keller Fossil Ridge, the No. 3 team in the area, and Rowlett). I printed off directions to Homer B. Johnson Stadium.
And, I called the Rowlett athletic department, because there was a major question that needed resolution:
Does the Homer B. Johnson Stadium press box have Internet access?
This was very important, because I need to e-mail my story and stats in by 10:45pm. It’s a must. Like, I don’t have an option. I can’t run it back to TDMN after the game and throw it at them in a big pile of papers. I just can’t.
The woman told me no, HBJ Stadium did not have Internet access.
Great. This was going to be a fun night.
Now, I had to find somewhere nearby with Wi-Fi, so that I could use their Internet to send the story in.
I ended up finding out that there was a Starbucks about three miles away that provided Internet for, of course, a nominal fee.
So there it was. I would have to finish my story, drive to Starbucks, log onto their Internet for a nominal fee, e-mail the story and stats, and pay the Internet fee. All by 10:45pm. Fantastic.
I could wax poetic on what happened the rest of the time at the newsroom, but it would just be talking about surfing the Internet and talking to my new buddy Gabby across my cubicle from me. So let’s just fast forward.
As I was driving over to Garland for the game, at about 6pm, something funny happened.
I got nervous.
Now, people who have been reading my blog since my Tulsa days know that I worked on deadline a lot at the World. It’s no big deal to me anymore.
But maybe it was that I was at the 15th biggest paper in the nation. Maybe it’s that people would really, really care about my story. Or maybe it’s that I hadn’t worked on deadline in over a year.
For whatever reason, I got butterflies in my stomach. I got very nervous. I called Jen and she calmed me down. A little.
When I arrived, I was actually a little taken aback. I had expected a press box with no Internet to…well…suck.
This thing was freakin’ awesome. As a matter of fact, it had two flat-screen plasma TVs. TWO OF ‘EM!
You’re telling me that you can have two TVs that are worth thousands of dollars, and you can’t spring $200 to set up wireless internet? Lame.
Anyways, I set up the ol’ PowerBook and, after confirming that there wasn’t any Internet, I got back in the Baron.
Destination: Latte-ville.
I drove the three miles down Centerville Road to Starbucks. It’s a 40mph road, with about eight stoplights in between the stadium and the coffee shop. Remember that for later.
I walked into Starbucks and shook hands with the manager, Jason. If he was 18, he just turned it yesterday. This kid was young.
I explained the situation. I needed Internet at 10:45pm.
He told me that they close at 10:45pm. He had to lock the door at 10:45pm. Company policy.
Crap.
However, Jason said that he would set out a table and chair for me if I wanted, so that I could use the Internet (which I could still get out there), I could.
Sweet. Way to be, Jason.
Internet situation under control, I drove over to the other end of the strip mall to Subway.
I like Subway. I really do. Way better than Quizno’s, if you ask me. But this is a Subway horror story.
I walk in and realize that I’m about 8th in line. No problem. It’s only 6:30pm, and kickoff is at 7:30. No worries.
Problem is, there is a group of, oh, six high school freshman girls at the front of the line, flirting with the pimple-faced boy who is putting on the vegetables and dressing, wrapping up the sandwiches and ringing them up.
How did I know that they were high school freshman girls? Three common symptoms:
1) Four of them were fat and ugly.
2) They all ordered kids meals, a total freshman move.
3) They would not shut the hell up.
They would not stop talking to this guy, who was slow enough as it is. Take into account that Shamu and her orca friends were babbling in his ear, and he became molasses. In January.
20 (!!!) minutes later, I’ve gotten to the cash register. My sandwich is wrapped, sitting to pimple-faced boy’s right. The blimp exhibit (group of girls) have inhaled their sandwiches and are now babbling to each other about how they think guys who dress like douchebags are hot. Or something like that. I wasn’t really listening.
Point is, I’m a single transaction away from walking out of this Subway, free and clear, and putting all of this behind me.
And what does pimple-face do?
He answers his cell phone, and proceeds to talk to someone.
I’ll let that sink in.
…
…
Got a good grasp on it? ‘Kay.
At this point, I’m seething. There’s only one thing I want to say.
“HEY, ASSHOLE, RING UP MY DAMN SANDWICH! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? HANG UP THE PHONE AND DO YOUR JOB! YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL! YOU WORK AT SUBWAY! AND IT’S PROBABLY YOUR MOM ON THE PHONE ANYWAYS, TELLING YOU TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU GIVE THAT NICE WOOLY MAMMOTH-ISH GIRL THAT JUST ORDERED THE KID’S MEAL A COOKIE SO SHE WON’T TEAR UP THE STORE AGAIN LIKE SHE DID THE LAST TIME THAT SHE DIDN’T WALK AWAY COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH HER DINING EXPERIENCE! GET! OFF! THE! PHONE!”
But I didn’t.
Instead, I stood there for another three minutes, waiting for this guy to finish his no-doubt-very-important phone call.
I paid, took my sandwich, and walked out.
I told you it was a Subway horror story.
Anyways, I go back to the stadium and sit down. After obtaining a roster and getting set up (next to a very nice lady from the Star-Telegram who would later refuse to let me use her wireless Internet that she has because of her broadband card; read: a bitch), it’s game time.
National anthem, whoop de doo…what’s this?
Someone is walking into the press box, which probably has 25 people in it (3/4ths of them coaches who are scouting future opponents), with about 30 pizzas in hand.
Cici’s Pizzas.
My favorite.
And here I am, with my Subway sandwich that I just bought, not just with money, but with blood pressure.
You have to laugh to keep from crying.
Anyways, the game gets going. I was hoping for a blowout, so that I could write 90% of the story before the final gun sounded.
It was 7-0 Fossil Ridge at halftime. A real shootout.
I called in after every quarter and every score so that TDMN could keep the Web site updated. By the way, stats were no problem, either, especially with the spreadsheet.
During halftime, I wrote about half of my story, focusing on how the Fossil Ridge defense stymied the Rowlett offense.
Yep. Then Rowlett scored 28 points. On a 30-yard run, a 72-yard pass, a 32-yard pass and a 96-yard run.
So…scratch that story idea. Final score: 28-14, Rowlett.
Look at the clock in the top right hand part of your computer.
10:15pm.
I call John O’Rourke. I’ll get the story to you, I promise.
10:17pm.
I sprint down the press box stairs, and bound down the now-emptying bleachers. I need to interview the coach, the QB, and the RB who scored the 96-yard TD.
I find the coach. I find the QB. I find the RB.
I approach the QB when…
…the Rowlett alma mater starts playing.
I pace during the song.
Glance at the cell phone clock.
10:20pm.
The song’s over. Where’s the QB?
There he is…
…in the team huddle, where the coach is talking to them.
I pace during the speech.
Glance at the cell phone clock.
10:22pm.
The speech’s over. Where’s the QB?
There he is…
…being led in a chant with his teammates.
I pace during the chant.
Glance at the cell phone clock.
10:23pm.
Seconds become days. From this exact moment, I have 22 minutes to get interviews, write my story, drive to Starbucks, log onto the Internet, and e-mail the stuff.
I interview the QB. I interview the coach. I interview the RB. I have enough quotes.
Glance at the cell phone clock.
10:29pm.
Sprint back to the bleachers. Sprint up the stairs. Nevermind the fact that everybody is looking at you like you’re the Subway Shamu.
Sit down at your computer back in the press box.
Look at the clock in the top right hand part of your computer.
10:30pm. 15 minutes to go.
Type. Furiously. Stop using caps lock. String together a good story. You need 10 inches, or 350 words.
Fingers fly. There’s no time to think about how badly your fingers hurt. Because that clock says 10:35, and you’re only halfway through a story.
Type. Don’t think. Write. Be a journalist. Feel the story. This is what you’re trained to do.
Feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins. This is what you live for.
Type. Write. Get down your thoughts. Be a writer. Be a storyteller. Be wary of grammar.
It’s done. Check the word count:
365.
Check the clock.
10:39pm.
There’s no time to congratulate yourself on the fact that you just put together a well-written, coherent 350-word story in less than 10 minutes. You’ve got to drive.
I grabbed all of my stuff—computer, power cord, program, rosters—and threw it in my man purse. I ran down the stairs of the press box, and sprint to the Baron past five Rowlett kids drinking beer in the back of a pickup truck.
I start the car and check the clock.
10:40pm.
Let’s fly, Baron.
Remember the speed limit on Centerville Road? No chance.
I fly down Centerville Road, with “Breath” by Breaking Benjamin blaring, at probably 60 mph. I only hit one red light along the way, but that doesn’t stop me from screaming at it.
I park the Baron in front of Starbucks, grab my computer, and sprint into the store.
There’s Jason, who has just finished setting up a table and chair for me outside. Just like he said he would.
I sit down and start logging onto the Internet. Jason asks me if I want anything to drink. He’s as excited as I am.
I ask for, and receive, a glass of water.
I check the clock.
10:44pm.
YES! And I have full bars on my wireless internet! Yes! YES!
Just log onto the…what?
What’s this?
Do I have an account with T-Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot?
Hell no I don’t, and I don’t have time to create one!
But I have to.
After all of the sprinting, all of the typing, all of the speeding…T-Mobile wants me to sign up for an account to use their wireless.
Three Web pages worth of registration.
My fingers fly over the keyboard, and I’m yelling at my computer. Because I don’t have time for this.
It’s 10:46pm.
I have to pull out my credit card, punch in the numbers, fill in all the information…why do I have to do this? I’ll pay, I promise!
Finally, at 10:48pm, I can get into the actual Internet.
Belo Extranet. Web mail. Log in. Create new mail.
I’ve got to get this in. I was hired because they think I’m the best. I was hired because they wanted the best. I will be damned if I’m going to prove them wrong.
Story in e-mail? Check.
Stats in e-mail? Check.
Phone number in e-mail? Check.
HIT SEND.
Sent.
Check the clock.
10:52pm.
Seven minutes after deadline, but quite literally the best I could do. But is it OK?
I call John O’Rourke. He confirms that he received it, and thanks me.
But what about the deadline?
No problem.
Really?
Yes, really. No problem. You’re all set.
I hang up. And pump my fist.
I did it.
Let me repeat that.
I DID IT!

I thanked Jason, the guy at Starbucks. That guy rules. Straight up: he rules.
I got in the car and drove home. I talked to Jen on the way home, and thanked her for the vote of confidence.
I arrived home, cracked open a Shiner Bock and told my mom about the wildest night of my journalism career.
And now I’m writing this blog.

So that’s it.
Told you it was a great story.

TepBlog Podcast #2

2007-08-31T01:31:00.000-05:00

Finally getting this thing up. Everybody try to remember that I need to use Audacity, then Switch, and then SpinXpress next time I do that. Just remember that for me, and we'll get this done a lot quicker next time.

Anyways, you can listen to it below:

Or, you can download it by right-clicking here and selecting "Save Target As..."

Also, here are my latest articles that you can read:

Mesquite Horn back aiming for new heights

Sachse offense adjusts after 2006 leader transfers

Garland Lakeview rolls out new look on defense

Senior prepared to take over as Rockwall's No. 1 back

West Mesquite converts linebacker to tight end

Enjoy it all, folks! I'll blog at you one more time (late Friday night, after my game coverage) before I'm off to St. Louis, my girlfriend, and America's Missouri Tigers.

Blogless

2007-08-29T22:33:00.000-05:00

Alright, folks. There's not going to be a TepBlog entry tonight.
Suffice to say that today was a very, very bad day that I have no real interest in recounting. So there.
Tomorrow, I'll toss the second edition of the TepBlog Podcast at you fine folks, as well as links to my various pieces that will be published tomorrow.
Until then, take it easy.

It's Official: I'm an Internet Fad

2007-08-28T22:36:00.001-05:00

Another busy day, with a surprise at the end.
What could it be? Stay tuned...

I'll let you guess what time my alarm sounded.
And I'll let you guess what I did when it did sound.
That's right, it rang at 6am, and I went downstairs and fell asleep on the couch.
Typical, I know.
Anyways, I woke back up at around 7:55, and figured I should get off my butt and go to the Y. So I did.
There's comedy, there's high comedy, and there's the line of traffic leading to the high school, and knowing that you don't have to be in it.
I chugged through my two miles (a little easier than normal, actually) and did my ab workout. Exhausted, I drove home and showered.
And yes, I know that almost every one of my blog entries starts this way, with me waking at 6am and running. And yeah, I could just cut to the chase. But it's important in the fact that this blog is holding me accountable for running all 100 of my miles. So, 14 down, 86 to go.
It was about 9:15am. I had already decided that I would work from home for at least part of the day, so that's what I did.
In a span of two hours, I did all of the following:
-Watch "The Price is Right"
-Write 3/4ths of my game capsules
-Eat Cracklin' Oat Bran
-Drink a bottle of water
-Read my daily assortment of blog, including Fire Joe Morgan, Lone Star Ball, Deadspin, Matt Wixon's DMN Humor Blog, DMN's high school sports blog, and TepBlog friends The 12th Manchild and Every True Son
By 11:15, I decided that I needed to go into the office. I knew I had to make a couple phone calls and get some stuff done, so I hopped in the car (with my badge in hand) and drove to work, arriving at my cube at noon.
I immediately got to work on a variety of things: fixing my cover story (it just needed to be trimmed and slightly reworked), finishing up my capsules and writing my notes.
The good news was that by 2pm, all of that was done.
The bad news was that by 2pm, I was out of stuff to do. I talked to Gabriel and Bobbi, the two newest members of the team (Gabriel came over from Al Dia, the DMN's Spanish language publication; Bobbi came over from Milwaukee after she had written about UW-Milwaukee for a few years). I surfed the net. I killed time. But then I realized that I needed to, uh, do something.
I had a few options. I could go home and relax, or I could decide that today, I would go out to Rockwall-Heath to start on my second cover story.
I'll give you a hint: I started printing directions.
So, at about 3:30pm, I hopped back in the Baron and drove back out to my favorite place in the world: Rockwall, TX.
That's not to knock Rockwall. It's a fine town. The problem is that it's way out in the middle of nowhere, next to exactly nothing. This is what I get for being assigned the East Zone.
I went out to practice and met with coach Tam Hollingshead. I watched the last hour or so of practice.
I forgot to mention this, but I looked good today. Brown shirt that my wonderful girlfriend gave me, jeans and brown sandals. I looked sharp.
However, I made the biggest mistake ever: wearing long pants to a football practice. I was baking.
At any rate, practice ended at about 5pm. I grabbed the three players I needed to talk to, and actually got a ride back to my car on coach Hollingshead's golf cart.
If you don't think he's trying to milk some good publicity out of me, you're nuts. But still, a very nice guy.
I hopped back in the Baron and rushed home. I changed quickly and hopped back into a vehicle, this time my Dad's Explorer.
Tonight was boy's night at the ballgame.
Yep, my two brothers, my dad and I all went to the Rangers-White Sox game tonight, which was a lot of fun. One thing I should note is that my family, as they have for about 15 years, shares season tickets on the front row down the third base line at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Needless to say, they're nice seats.
I enjoyed a few adult beverages and a smoked turkey leg for dinner. But in the third inning, I got a strange text message from Jen:
"Oh my goodness just watched you on dmn, i loved it! I love you!"
Holy crap. I'm on the Internet.
So, when I got home, I hopped back on the DMN Web site.
And, sure enough, there it was: my first video.
As far as a critique goes...I think it's alright. I stuttered a little too much, but I think I did a relatively good job for it being my first time in front of the camera, well, ever. And I didn't make a complete ass of myself, which is always a plus.
So, there you go. My first video. Enjoy it, and I'll put a box on the right side of the blog to store links to all of my videos, past and present.
So, I talked to my mom, came upstairs to my room, talked to my wonderful girlfriend on the phone (she's a Kindergarten teacher, by the way, and a damn good one) and now I'm writing this blog.

The blog's gone multimedia.
Scary.

The Baron and I Get A Workout

2007-08-27T20:59:00.001-05:00

Long, long, long day today.
I guess I deserve it.

I'm blogging especially early tonight because I am straight beat. I mean, I don't know the last time I was this tired.
I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that I only got about four hours of sleep last night.
At any rate, my alarm clock blared in my ear at 6am, as it usually does. And, as I usually do, I got dressed and drove to the Y. And, as I usually do, I chugged through two miles on the treadmill and did my ab workout. A dozen miles down, dozens more to go.
I came home, took an absolutely transcendent shower, and ate some yogurt for breakfast.
At 8:30am, I got in the Baron and drove downtown. I actually made pretty decent time, considering the usual traffic. I put $25 worth of gas in the Baron. I'd need that.
I parked and...
AH CRAP. I FORGOT MY BADGE.
Yep. I knew that the morning was going too smoothly, so I had to have forgotten something. And in this case, it was very important.
You see, when you walk into TDMN, you are almost immediately greeted by Gladys, a woman whose job it is to let only the people who are supposed to go in, go in. Without it, I had to convince Gladys that I was actually a TDMN employee, and not just some bum who wants to run through the sports department screaming "STEROIDS STEROIDS STEROIDS STEROIDS STEROIDS!"
Luckily, because I'm a big loser, I always try to be nice to those people. Especially nice. So Gladys knows me as that strangely sweet kid from sports. So, she printed me out a temporary badge and let me through.
Oh, Gladys. You're so cool.
It was about 9:30am when I finally logged into my computer in the TepCube. I generally just caught up on e-mail for the first 30 minutes. But then, at 10am, it was...
...
...showtime.
I followed a number of my colleagues up to the third floor newsroom. It's nice up there: they even had a TV with The Price is Right on it, and a rack of comic books (including fake comic books like Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen and The Simpsons' Radioactive Man!)
And yes, I saw where Tim Cowlishaw tapes his appearances on "Around The Horn". It's really just a pane of glass with "DallasNews.com" written on it in a pattern. And it's a pane of glass in the middle of the room. It's not even it's own room. It's really funny when you actually see it.
My job was to talk with Todd Wills about Saturday's HUGE game between Allen and Garland. Allen is ranked #8 in the state, Garland #9. And they're playing at Texas Stadium. It's going to be a super sweet game.
I had done my research, and I knew exactly who I wanted to talk about and why. I even practiced in the mirror before I came to work.
And damnit, I was looking sharp, too. Grey slacks and my green shirt, freshly pressed. I'm ready for my closeup.
Matt Wixon and Randy Jennings went first, talking about the Colleyville Heritage/Cedar Hill game. Cedar Hill is going to stomp Heritage, so it must not have even been fun to talk about.
But now, it was me and Todd Wills' turn. Of course, first, I had to meet Todd Wills.
I met him 90 seconds before we went on the air. Nice enough guy.
We stepped up in front of the camera. I smiled. Todd did the intro. I started talking and...
...I blew it.
Well, I blew it, but let me explain. I was attempting to say that a player to watch out for in this game is (get this) Chancey Aghayere. I don't know what I actually said during the take, but it certainly wasn't ah-gah-yair-ee, as it's supposed to be pronounced.
Yeah, I blew it. And everyone laughed at me.
Red-faced, I gave it another go. This time, I made it all the way through with only slight stutters. Good enough, but not my best.
It's really funny how different recording a commentary is when the venue changes.
Anyways, I walked back upstairs and kinda sorta got to work.
Kinda.
Sorta.
You see, at this point, it was 10:30am, and I knew what I had to work on:
Notebook
Game Capsules
Problem was, we had a meeting at 11:30am, and I really didn't want to get into too much, when I'd only have to stop when the meeting came to pass.
So, I sorta toyed with the stuff, not really making any real progress, until 11:30 rolled around.
What's nice about our Monday meetings is that lunch is provided. Today, it was pizza. Not exactly healthy, but it was free. Who am I to turn down free pizza?
The meeting was exceedingly long. It went from 11:30am-2pm, nonstop. We talked about everything that you could possibly imagine, but the biggest thing to come out of it (at least for me) was the deadlines.
They are as follows:

HS GameTime Cover Story: 3pm, Monday
Game Capsules: 3pm, Tuesday
Notebook: Noon, Wednesday
Game coverage/any live event: 10:45pm on that night

This was invaluable information to me, as it let me set my weekly schedule. The cover story was already done, and I already have my cover story for next week in mind, so that's not a priority. And the game capsules, especially for the beginning of the year, are pretty easy.
As a result, I went back to my desk and started figuring out who I was going to get notes from.
I got an e-mail across the wires from John O'Rourke, telling me that a player from Sachse had transferred. He's also the team's top returning rusher. There's one note. Now, just three more.
I decided that I would actually do some hands-on journalism. As much as I would like to sit in my cube and make phone calls that coaches won't return, I wanted to take matters into my own hands.
So, after a conversation with Jacques in which we re-scheduled lunch for Friday, I printed off MapQuest directions and, at 4:15pm, was off....
...to West Mesquite High School.
Now, look. I think Mesquite is a fine, fine town. Very pretty, and a lot of open spaces, which I liked.
Except that is the most confusing damn town in America.
I got lost. Twice. I got lost after getting lost. I ended up stopping at a hardware store to ask for directions.
When you pull up to West Mesquite, you notice one thing and one thing only: just past the south end zone, maybe another 200 feet, there is a HUGE radio tower. Like, enormous. Right there, rubbing up next to the stadium. It's really bizarre, but pretty darn cool.
Anyways, I watched practice until 5:30, talking to coach Mike Overton and one of his players, before hopping back in the car and booking it to Rockwall High.
But when I got there...I was alone.
There was nobody there.
Now, at this point, I'm still in my slacks and dress shirt, and it's only six gajillion degrees outside (estimated). I'm in no mood.
So I start hunting down Scott Smith. I marched through those halls, looking for any sign of football life.
I ended up talking to a volleyball player, who informed me that the team practices at the stadium up the road.
D'oh.
However, their practice was supposed to wrap up at 6:30 and, considering it was 6:25 at that point, they would be back soon.
So I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, at 6:55, Smith arrived back at his office. We talked for a couple minutes, and I left wondering if it was really worth staying all that time for two mediocre quotes.
Whatever. It was done, and I wanted to go home.
So, I drove home and, upon my arrival, immediately cracked open a beer. I had driven 80 miles in the past few hours, and all I wanted was a cold Shiner.
I ate chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner, found my ID badge after a 30-minute frantic search, talked to Jen, and now I'm writing this blog.

I now understand why people hate Mondays.
But tomorrow should be better.