Larry Flynn is a Junior in the College of Liberal Arts. This Fall he will be taking on a highly coveted position at Sports Illustrated in New York City. The position is a part of the English department’s Co-Op with the sports publication. 

In addition to his upcoming Co-Op, Larry is known for his work at The Villanovan where he has been a Co-Editor of the sports section for over a year. 

I spoke to Flynn about his involvement at the University as well as about the Co-Op.

Joanna Carbone: What are some clubs or activities you are involved in on campus? 

Larry Flynn: Well, The Villanovan is one. I also cohost a sports talk show on WXVU with one of my friends, Jack McCarthy. I’m a tutor in the writing center. Oh, and in the winter, I was the campus correspondent for Sports Illustrated’s campusrush.com. I wrote  feature stories about Villanova basketball. I ended up publishing about five or six stories. I wrote one about Caroline Coyer on the women’s basketball team. I wrote one on Ochefu and another on my experience in Houston down at the Final Four about all the people I met and that whole  magical experience. 

JC: Explain your role at The Villanovan.

LF: I started writing for The Villanovan during the fall of my freshman year. I wrote for both Sports and Opinion and I got pretty close with some of the sports editors back in the day and they gave me some really cool opportunities. I interviewed Jalen Brunson when he committed to Villanova. They set up a really cool interview with him. I wrote Opinion and Sports for two-ish years and then I became the Sports editor the spring of my sophomore year. So this is my third term as the Sports editor. I’ve written a lot of really fun articles, one about the shot that Kris Jenkins made in the championship. 

I also wrote a feature this week about Jennifer Joyce. She’s a volunteer assistant coach for the softball team, and she’s also a teacher here. Overall I’ve really enjoyed writing articles that show the human side of sports. I think it’s pretty easy to analyze the game and some of the x’s and o’s, as they say. But it’s more interesting to show the human side, you know, the character of the people you see on the court, really putting a face to the name you hear on TV and you have grown so accustomed to. 

JC: What is your major?

LF: I’m an English major in the Honors college, and I’m also a creative writing minor with a writing and rhetoric concentration. I was pretty sold on English from the start, I had a brief thought of transferring to the business school, but I took a few English courses and ACS courses, and I knew that that was what I was put here to do. You know, to write. And I think I made a great decision. The English department here is terrific—they offer a lot of interesting courses, I just love writing of all types whether that be creative or sports writing, opinion writing, whatever that may be. 

I had a lot of teachers in high school that kind of pushed me that way. I learned a lot from some published authors in high school. I’ve always had a mentor who is a published author, Peggy Rambach, and she’s been an influence on me. Specifically, loving the craft of writing and making it something that is enjoyable. At Villanova, Dr. Berthold, I think, is terrific. He’s my advisor now. Mr. Silverman is my sports writing teacher, he has really pushed me to become a better sports writer. 

JC: What is your favorite thing to do at Villanova? About Villanova? What is your favorite interaction with the basketball team. 

LF: I’d be crazy not to say that my favorite thing about Villanova is the basketball. And that includes going to the games as a fan or covering the games or getting to know the players personally. 

Flynn, who has written countless articles for the men’s basketball team throughout his career at the Villanovan let me in on one of his most memorable experiences at the University. 

During an intramurals basketball playoff game, Flynn was on the court when the men’s basketball team walked through the sports annex. Recognizing Flynn, the team stopped to cheer on the man behind their weekly praise in the paper. 

Flynn shot an airball with the team in tow. His intramurals team went on to win the rest of the game. 

JC: This fall you are doing a co-op at Sports Illustrated, tell me a little bit about that. What made you apply?

LF: So in terms of what I will be doing on a day-to-day basis it is a lot of fact checking, but basically the goal of it is to get something published online and in the magazine. Only one internship/ Co-Op has gotten their name in the actual, tangible magazine in recent years. So that is what I’m going for—to get my name in the actual magazine. When it comes to sports writing, Sports Illustrated is the best. SI style fits the feature mold that I prefer and SI is a very cutting edge, and they’re doing a lot of stuff beyond their magazine, which I think is appealing. And at the end of the day everyone there is a quality writer so I hope to learn and improve my sports writing. 

JC: Was it a hard decision to apply?

LF: When I actually applied to Villanova, it was something I’d had on my radar since freshman year. I think I learned about it at Candidates’ Day and it was really appealing to me. You know, I still have interest in teaching and in other forms of writing, but I think my experiences with The Villanovan and the Villanova men’s basketball team has kind of pushed me to sports writing in general and I think this is a great step for me towards securing a job writing for someplace after graduation, whether that be a newspaper or magazine or some other publication. 

And as far as if it was hard or not to leave campus, you know the only thing will be not being on Villanova’s campus for a semester, but if there were any opportunity I would pursue, that would make me leave campus, this would be the opportunity I would pursue. 

JC: You write for Polis, can you tell me about that?

LF: Polis, that is the literary magazine. The Villanova student undergraduate literary magazine. I’ve written just a couple little things for them. I think a lot of people that know me think that I am a sports writer exclusively because that is what they read the most. But I really like all kinds of writing whether that is creative writing, memoirs whatever; it has been my life goal since I was nine or 10 to publish a novel. It could be a novel like fiction or about sports—there are a lot of great sports novels out there. But that is my goal. 

JC: What are you most excited to do at SI?

LF: I’d say meet some of the premier writers, premier sports writers in America and you know, hopefully get a chance to write a few reporting articles for them. 

Nelson Rice did the Co-Op a couple of years ago and he actually free-lances for SI now. So I’ve been talking to him recently a lot about life as a sports writer and about his experience with the Co-Op. There is also Greg Habeeb, and he did the Co-Op last fall, so I’ve talked to him about his experience there, and I’m sure I’ll talk to him more about it. 

There are some details that go into it, but also just words of wisdom and things like that. I haven’t actually spoken to them since I got the co-op, but I definitely plan on talking to them in the upcoming weeks.