The other day a girl stopped me in class to ask if I had written the lacrosse article from that morning’s paper. Drawing on my previous mishaps with angry athletes tracking me down, I used all of my charm to formulate a brilliant lie.

Actually I stuttered out a pathetic, “Why?”

She quickly explained that early in the day she had seen a lacrosse player upset. And for once she wasn’t mad. The girl had been moved because of the way I recounted the team’s first victory as one of a Sysiphusian effort.

For the first time ever, I was proud, but it reminded me how a college newspaper should work. My whole career I have fought to report the news as it stands, from an objective perspective as if I had no attachments to the school. Now I realize, I do, and for the same reasons college athletes compete the way they do for no pay, I shouldn’t write as if I was writing for the New York Times, but rather for The Villanovan: the Villanova University newspaper.

I’m not reporting on overpaid teams, who often seem to lack passion and heart in ways the fans cannot understand. I’m not reporting on professionals, men and women paid to play a sport, whose sole responsibility is remaining a top tier athlete. I’m reporting on a group of twenty-somethings who go to the same classes, do the same homework and balance academics with a busy social life. All this AND they have to be top flight athletes. I don’t feel bad for them, because I would sell 10 years off my life to do what they do, I just want to try to understand.

So what if I show some bias. If a team is 1-11, I’ll make it seem like that one win was the Super Bowl. If a team gets shutout for three straight games, I’ll act like they were facing Randy Johnson with Eric Gagne coming in to close. When they win, I want them to feel like all they’ve worked for to earn the victory was worth it, not just to them but to every student who reads about it.

I’m tired of being a reporter, cold and emotionless. I’m going to be a student and fan, and use my medium to congratulate every single varsity athlete for all they accomplish.

They deserve it.