Two years.
It has been just over two years since I sat in my very first journalism class as a sophomore, eager to finally give journalism a try as I had always thought about doing so since high school.
What would happen over the course of that semester would completely change my aspirations and, I believe, shape my plans and direction for what I wanted to do with my future.
But to truly understand that, I first wanted to give some brief background on myself. My name is Reese Setzer, and I am a senior who will graduate this December from Guilford College. I am the sports editor for The Guilfordian. I am majoring in sports management with a minor in communications, and I played football for four seasons here at Guilford.
Oh, and sports are my passion.
I would always tell people growing up if it involved somebody or someone winning, I would watch it, and that still holds true. But, while I will watch just about any sporting event that will come on television, the four sports I have always loved the most are football, basketball, baseball and golf.
Growing up, I always admired not only the game being played, but also the commentators that have their own voice in calling the game to the millions at home that were watching.
These commentators are voices that I grew up with on a weekly basis in my living room. There was Joe Buck doing the America’s Game of the Week on “NFL on Fox” as well as the World Series. There was Gus Johnson making one of his iconic March Madness and NFL calls on CBS, though Johnson now works for Fox. Then there’s the classic color commentary of guys like Jay Bilas, Bill Raftery making one of his legendary “Onions” calls or Dick Vitale describing something that was “awesome baby, with a capital ‘A.’”
Because of this, I asked another voice I grew up listening too, Gary Hahn, who is the voice of North Carolina State University athletics, to come and speak to my middle school class. I was so fortunate he took the time out of his day to do that for me.
It was these people that had made me to want to grow up and pursue sports broadcasting, and I had already decided that was the career for me when I entered college.
That changed after my first semester in professor of English Jeff Jeske’s journalism class.
In that first semester of journalism, journalism writers were required to write for each section a certain amount of times. I am sure it was apparent what section my main interest was, but I learned a lot by writing for each section of the paper.
Of course, fast forward to the next semester, to The Guilfordian practicum class, where I was eager to continue to grow as a writer and maybe someday to get the opportunity to apply to become the sports editor of “The Guilfordian.”
Well, that came quicker than I could have ever expected.
Little did I know that first day of practicum class that I would get asked to become the sports editor for the paper, and while I will admit I was extremely nervous to take the role, I was confident I could be successful at it.
And here we are now.
My goal for “The Guilfordian” sports section has always been to prioritize the sports on this campus first, cover local sports second and then to also cover the national sports headlines. I think we have done a great job of that, and I know this goal will be shared with future sports editors.
There are so many people to thank, including all of my former and current fellow staff members as well as all of the people that have picked up “The Guilfordian” and turned to the sports section. But I want to specifically thank Jeske, who has helped and guided me to becoming the writer and editor that I am today and also helped me to discover this passion I now have and plan to continue to pursue in sports journalism.
I also want to thank Cheryl Hatch, who took over as the adviser for “The Guilfordian” this year and has shared similar goals for this sports section that will help it to excel in the future.
And, most importantly, I want to thank my family who pushes me to do the very best in everything I do.
So, with that, it has been a pleasure to be the sports editor of your paper, Guilford College.
Signing off on this chapter,
Reese Setzer.
