Of course you read that paragraph thinking, ‘Where’s he going with this?’ and I don’t blame you. One of my courses of action after I graduate is to get into covering local sports with one of the TV stations I have interned with. So why not take a look at 2010 in local sports?
I enjoy every level of sports in Cincinnati, from high school to college to professional sports, but I obviously keep more of an eye on certain sports than others. My apologies to those teams that I seem to not care as much about. Better step up my game if I want a job in this city I guess.
Yesterday Cincinnati-area radio personality Mo Egger posted on his blog about the year in local sports. His thoughts were pretty good, and might I add that I have enjoyed four years of sitting behind Mo on flights to out of town games. He’s always a fun guy to listen to, and enjoys joking around on flights. He’s also a guy who really tells it like it is about his local teams.
Here’s Mo’s blog if you haven’t seen it yet: http://www.1530homer.com/pages/mo.html?an=2010-HAPPENED
So, with some memories of my own, here was the 2010 year in local sports.
The Moeller basketball team made a run at their fourth state title since 1999. Their state final four game and state title game was the first thing I got to cover in my spring internship with FOX19. Moeller won the state semi-final game against Cleveland-area Mentor High School, but fell, and fell hard in the state finals to Jackson High School. The Polar Bears beat Moeller 57-34.
I also thoroughly enjoyed watching the Cincinnati Cyclones win the 2010 Kelly Cup, their second title in three years. Both as a fan and as a guy who got to cover the Cyclones, it was a fun run. The Clones may be Cincinnati’s best kept secret, and the marketing they’ve employed over the past few years have made their games more exciting than they used to be. Dollar beer nights and other fun giveaways have made the Cyclones a fun night out with friends.
Of course I love to tell people about the biggest news that only I seem to care about in this city: NASCAR is coming to town (kind of). With the summertime announcement that Bruton Smith was finally making every Cincinnati-area NASCAR fans’ dream come true—bringing the big boys of the Cup Series to Kentucky—I was more excited than I thought I’d be. There’s 50 plus days until the Daytona 500, and a little over seven months until the Sprint Cup Series goes under the lights in the Bluegrass State.
My money is on Joey Logano, and I have three years of experience to back me up on that. Logano completed the three-peat at Kentucky by winning the pole and the Nationwide (nee Busch, hey, old habits die hard) Series race in Sparta. Anyone want to bet against me on that?
Reds fans—who were used to having nothing much to root for after August—saw their Reds make a run at the playoffs, and one player win the MVP. Although the Reds fell apart after they won the NL Central, the way they clinched was nothing short of awesome.
A homerun by Jay Bruce to centerfield was one of the coolest moments I had seen in quite some time, and although I’m not a Reds fan, I was thrilled to see the hometown team in the playoffs, even though they fell short.
After the summer swelter goes away, Cincinnati area sports fans start thinking this is the year the Bengals make that elusive Super Bowl run. Even with the city in Reds fever, the Bengals found a way to make headlines of their own. This year, with the addition of superstar wideout Terrell Owens, most Bengals fans thought their team would be unstoppable. Not so much.
The Bengals turned into the “Bungals” as the season rolled along, and fans have become disgruntled once again. I honestly don’t follow much NFL ball, but it’s so entertaining to open the Cincinnati Enquirer every day and read the angry letters to the editor about the Bengals. Kinda makes me wish I was more of a fan of some NFL team. It would make this more fun.
The biggest surprise of this sports season locally was the absolute failure of the UC Bearcat football team to repeat as Big East champions for a third year. Sure, not a whole lot of “experts” (real or perceived) expected UC to win the Big East, but no one, no one, expected to see this much of a failure by the Bearcats.
Next year is a new year, and that’s how UC football fans should look at it. Plus, Mick Cronin has the basketball team playing well, so that’s a plus for Bearcat fans.
Without reading Mo’s blog I would have completely forgot what Mo called “The Worst TV Sports Move” of the year, even though it happened right in front of my eyes. Egger said FOX19 letting go of Zach Wells was the aforementioned “Worst Move.”
In my six or so months of hanging out at FOX19, I got to know Zach, and learned a lot from him. I’m glad he got to stay in the city (he’s now working at WKRC, Channel 12) and so we all get to hear from one of the most fun guys I’ve worked with in my two internships in as many years.
One of my favorite Zach Wells memories wasn’t of the advice he gave me (and Zach was willing to give me advice, and lots of useful advice to boot) but of the day I walked in to the station and he looks at me and says, “You know what we need to do to get fired up this evening?” I gave him a quizzical look, and said, “What?” He made a few clicks on his computer and within seconds was blaring Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On a Prayer” from his speakers, complete with Zach playing the air guitar.
We had fun that night, and I would enjoy working with Zach Wells in the future if I had the chance to do so. After all, it’d let me cover local sports, kind of like this blog post attempted to do.
To borrow a line from Zach Wells, “It’s time to turn out the lights on another edition” of the local sports blog here. Join me tomorrow for a final look at the year, and possibly a little look ahead to 2011.
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