News II: Feature Writing

Since I will be posting my story and ad ideas/drafts on this blog throughout the semester, I figured I'd give everyone a taste from what I did in my News II class a year and a half ago. While I have been most proud of this piece and a profile piece (which I will post as well), I am still open to any critiques/suggestions.


From Zero to Hero
The University of Cincinnati’s Varsity Village Provides New Future for Football
By: Kelly Martin

Some people may not remember the year 1954, but the University of Cincinnati’s (UC’s) football team can’t seem to forget it. It was during this year that the team won its first eight games of the season, marking the team’s best start in school history. It was also the first time that the Cincinnati Bearcat’s football team was ranked in the top 25. It may have taken over a half century for the Bearcats to re-live that year’s excitement of winning streaks and rankings, but they finally did. With winning their first six games of the 2007 season and being ranked as high as 15th in the AP poll, the Bearcats showed everyone that they had not, in fact, forgotten about the 1954 Bearcat’s team. They brought it back to life.

The University of Cincinnati’s Varsity Village wants to do just that – bring their sports to life. And not just football; they want to include all sports. Varsity Village, a project that was completed just last year, included extensive upgrades of all of UC’s athletic facilities and the construction of some new venues. The new venues include a baseball stadium, tennis center, and a swimming and diving team training home. The centerpiece of this project is the Richard E. Linder Center, serving as a home for all of the sports programs as well as centralized support services. UC’s quarterback star, Ben Mauk, has been part of the football team’s success this year after graduating from Wake Forrest.

It was about eight years ago when Mauk first stepped on UC’s campus in 1999. He was a sophomore at Kenton High School when he visited the campus with his mother. Mauk was visiting to decide if he would possibly want to attend UC in the future. Being an elite football player even in high school, Mauk wanted to go to a college that not only made him feel welcomed as a student, but also as an athlete. During the visit, however, his mother decided that she would not let him go to school there because of its unsafe feeling and how it looked. She thought it gave off an image of being run-down and dirty; it looked to her as if the university did not show that they cared for its students and student-athletes enough. And that was that – Mauk knew he would not be attending UC.

Two years later, Mauk decided to go to Wake Forrest where he did exceptionally well before suffering severe arm and shoulder injuries in his junior year. This inevitably ended the season for Mauk, who had to recover over his senior year as well. After graduating from Wake Forrest, he enrolled at UC to pursue a master’s degree. He was still able to play football because of an NCAA rule that allowed him to play without sitting out a year as a transfer.

“I may actually still have another year left with UC, since I was redshirted [sat out] as a Freshman at Wake Forest and got hurt in my junior year,” Mauk said.

Upon deciding to go to UC to pursue his master’s degree and play football for the Bearcats, Mauk noticed a tremendous difference in how the campus presented itself. It did not seem like the same campus he had seen as a sophomore in high school. One of the first things he noticed was Varsity Village, located in the heart of campus. Even though he already knew he was going to UC, Mauk’s decision to come was confirmed when seeing Varsity Village.

“It’s all close together and lets you know how the athletic department is ran and how all of the athletic programs are very supportive of each other,” Mauk said.

After practicing outside on the field, the football players would walk to the Richard E. Linder Center to go over the playbook or watch films to prepare for upcoming games. Being in the middle of campus, the center is easily accessible to both students and student-athletes. It has benefited Mauk in how he doesn’t have to walk a far distance from classes to get to Varsity Village.

“It gives you more time to prepare for games and I think that translates into more success for the season,” Mauk said.

When Mauk walks around UC’s campus, he knows that he is in the right atmosphere and mind-set when seeing the Varsity Village. Being his first year at UC, it has given him a great first impression of just what the school is about. It lets him know that the athletic department is dedicated to its student-athletes and it believes in them to do well, with having top-quality athletic facilities.

I think it may be safe to say that Mauk may now have more support from his mother in attending UC. And if not, at least Mauk can come home to show her and everyone the changes it has brought about in their football program.

Besides Mauk, UC’s current free-safety, Haruki Nakamura, was also a contributing factor to their team’s success.

In the spring of 2004, Nakamura, currently a senior, decided to go tour UC to see if he would be interested in attending for college. Construction was everywhere on campus which made it hard to get around and not so visually appealing. When he decided to attend UC and play on their football team, he noticed some obstacles for the team – the weight room was very small, their equipment was mediocre, and the team’s morale wasn’t the best.

It was during his sophomore year that Nakamura started to notice some changes taking place in athletic facilities. Nippert Stadium, their home football field, had their old field-turf replaced and additional seats were put in at one end-zone. Also, a catwalk was built, allowing fans to easily walk from one side of the stadium to the other. In his junior year, the Linder Center was finally complete, housing all of the athletics’ needs. Not only were structural changes evident on UC’s campus, but also the football teams’ overall performance.

“When we got our new weight room, you could actually see the difference in the quality of work that we were putting in week and week out,” Nakamura said. “I can definitely say that we benefited from not only the space but from the new equipment that we received.”

Throughout his years at UC, Nakamura has also noticed a complete change in his teammates’ attitudes. When he was a freshman, the team didn’t have the facilities that they have today, and certainly did not have a winning record. Most of the time, Nakamura and his teammates would want to win, but did not fully believe that they could. They would always second-guess themselves into thinking they might lose. In their minds, they had already lost. Now, however, Nakamura said the team actually believes in themselves and has formed stronger bonds with each other. He also said that having a bigger weight room and better facilities has definitely made the team feel more important and motivated them to prove themselves out on the field.
Nakamura thinks that not only has Varsity Village given more life to athletics, it also has given more life to the overall campus – an appealing aspect to recruits.

“It feels like Varsity Village has not only given UC more life, but it’s made it a lot more attractive,” Nakamura said. “When recruits come into our campus, they’re in the middle of everything – not many schools have a football stadium that is right in the middle of the university.”

The Varsity Village, which includes all varsity athletics, is actually part of a bigger plan - that of UC-21. UC-21 is the university’s strategic plan for charting its academic course for the 21st century, and has been implemented since 2001. Greg Hand, UC’s public relations coordinator, explained how UC-21 has six specific goals laid out for the road ahead, one of which is “establishing a sense of place.” With the addition of the Varsity Village, it is clear to him that a growing number of student-athletes, especially the football players, now feel connected with the campus more. Thus, Varsity Village was an integral part of establishing the sense of place for students, especially that of student-athletes. It also emphasizes the need to take their athletics to the next level.

“If we’re going to bring people to campus and if they’re going to have a good experience, we should have high quality athletics,” Hand said.

Since UC-21 is an umbrella plan for the university, covering many different aspects from developing research techniques to improving first year retention rates, it also has a specific plan involving athletics. This plan, called catapult, basically stands for “championships and athletics together.” Hand said one of the goals of catapult is to win a conference championship in every sport over next five years. While UC’s football program has done exceptionally well this season, it is a part of the catapult plan which encourages all sports to do well.

“Besides football, there has actually been a lot of success in UC’s swimming and track & field,” Hand said.

Together, Varsity Village and UC-21 have helped UC’s football team, along with other athletics, come back to life. With the football team’s bowl game against Southern Mississippi coming up on December 22, the team can only hope to cap off the season with the same enthusiasm they have already put into the season. Being Nakamura’s senior year, he realizes the importance of finishing the season strong.

"Going into this Bowl game is huge – we have to understand the meaning of this game and what it means going into next year; we haven’t won 10 games in a long time,” Nakamura said.

If the team happens to play with as much intensity as UC’s 1954 team, winning the bowl game should be the least of their worries.