Published 2012-01-25T10:10:00Z”/>
Allie Colosky
There won’t be a one-hour special on ESPN about my decision.
There won’t be a news conference to announce that I will not be turning pro and will instead return to my team to go after that national championship.
There might not even be a soul in Chico who will recognize the accomplishment I have secretly tucked under my belt.
I’m not the first female sports editor, or the first editor to return for more than one semester or even the first female sports editor to return for a second semester.
Gloria Nieto beat me to that honor in the inaugural year of The Orion.
Since returning to The Orion, I can add my name to the ranks of Nieto, Bill Meagher and Travis Souders, as holding the sports editor position for a second semester has only been done three other times in the newspaper’s 36-year history.
This is where I hold up the sign for applause, in case everyone missed that cue.
It might not be a grand feat to anyone besides myself and my parents – who brag about any article with my name under it, despite the quality – but considering the stigma that comes with the title of a female sports editor, I’ll take my momentum where I can get it.
It’s 2012 and people will hopefully stop playing 20 Questions to test my sports knowledge or wondering which male team I enjoy watching the most before the world ends in December.
Assuming I just like watching the “cute boys” run around is insulting and 20 Questions is a stupid game.
I can now use my extended time in the sports section as a weapon to ward off the ignorant.
Nieto beat me to the title of first female sports editor by a couple decades and Meagher and Souders can hold their multiple semesters of experience over my head.
But now when someone squints at me and measures me up as a sports editor, I know that my experience can now stand toe-to-toe with the big dogs.
I was thrown into The Orion around this time last year and with only one journalism class to reference, I was fresher than the dryer sheets with the teddy bear on the box.
There was plenty of trial and error, and after an interview with a soccer coach from the United States Men’s National Team and the time I spent waiting out the rain before watching Hailey Stockman knock in her ninth homerun to take a piece of Wildcat softball history, I became the sports editor.
If I’ve learned nothing else from my first semester, I do know that sports media requires thicker skin, even if it is 2012. I don’t know how Nieto did it in the ’70s.
If we have changed so much as a society, I can’t imagine the trials she went through then.
So I’ve decided to take my talents back to the Plumas Hall basement with my little piece of self-esteem.
Ding, ding. Round two.
<hr />
<strong>Allie Colosky can be reached at
</strong> <em>[email protected]</em>
