Farewell Column: Confessions of a former sports hater

I fought the pull of sports every chance I could. 

For at least 17 years, I groaned every time I walked into the living room and a game was on TV. I always turned around and jogged back upstairs. 

At age three, I couldn’t wipe the scowl off my face sitting in the stands of the Dean E. Smith Center in my Carolina Blue cheerleading outfit. There’s a picture in our dining room to prove it. Pout and all.

With crossed arms and an upturned nose, I resisted stubbornly every time my parents forced me to attend a Red Sox game in Boston on the Fourth of July. It didn’t matter that it was my birthday. Or that I thought baseball was boring. Or that it felt like it was 100 degrees outside. When we visited my dad’s family in Vermont, that meant tickets to Fenway Park were already purchased and a plan was being hatched to trap me there. 

No matter what, I couldn’t really escape sports. Not with a father who coached basketball. Not with a family that has three TV screens in our basement to watch as many games as possible simultaneously. And definitely not at a university where sports appeared everywhere I turned. 

I joined The Daily Tar Heel in my first semester. My dad suggested I apply for the Sports Desk. I said no. I thought I wanted to be a political journalist and someone who could change the world, so I joined City & State to get started. Turns out, I don’t like covering politics (sorry, Lucy). I burned out quickly. I questioned my journalism major and whether The DTH was the place for me. 

But I couldn’t stop showing up at UNC sporting events. Even when I had to go alone. Then, in 2022, the unthinkable happened: an underdog UNC men’s basketball team defeated Duke in head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s last home game and then, in the Final Four weeks later, officially sent him into retirement. I stood in line in the Pit to get my hands on The DTH’s special victory edition papers.

I obsessed over each page and each line of writing in the Wendy’s in the Student Union. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face or rid myself of the chills decorating my spine as I consumed every word. 

I watched both games with my parents. For the first one, we crowded around a TV in a hotel room. For the next, we drove all the way to New Orleans. 

But through The DTH’s coverage, I relived my favorite memories with my family. The prose was creative. The scene-setting took my breath away. I felt like I was watching the game all over again and recreating all of the emotions I had during it.

I couldn’t resist. I stopped fighting it.

I realized sports journalism changes the world, too. It changed mine.

I applied for Sports Desk the next year and gave The DTH one more chance. I haven’t looked back since. 

I called my dad when I got the job as Sports Desk editor last summer. He’s the first person I turn to every time I cover a game and the first eyes I seek when my stories are published. We talked for a long time about the accomplishment. He said he was proud of me. He vowed to take me out to dinner. 

All I wanted to do was come home and watch sports with my family. To thank them. 

I’ve stopped walking out of the living room. I don’t scowl in stadiums. I’m done being stubborn. 

It’s been four great years in this newsroom. Three amazing years of producing my own victory papers, covering women’s tennis, two national championships, UNC-Duke basketball games at the Smith Center and in Cameron Indoor Stadium, football, the hiring of Bill Belichick and so much more. It’s been one year as Sports editor, trying to help people fall in love with this job, like I did. I hope it worked. 

If you need me, I’ll be following sports to the next chapter. God knows I can’t get away from it.

@carolinewills03

@dthopinion | opinion@dailytarheel.com

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