“I'm heading to Dallas, but not just for the super bowl,” she tweeted earlier this evening. “I'm the newest sports journalist at KXAS NBC 5! My last UC game to cover, vs. WVU!”
The West Virginia grad came to Cincinnati in November of 2009, according to her bio page on FOX19.com.
OK, now that the “news” story is out of the way, let’s get to the story behind the straight news.
I’ve worked beside Rontina during my internship last year at FOX19. In fact, now that Rontina is leaving, I’ll (possibly) have a desk full-time at FOX19 when I re-start in March. She tweeted back at me after I congratulated her on the new gig.
“Thanks Adam, now you can have a desk for your internship,” she said.
Rontina and I connected from the first time she introduced herself. She worked for the West Virginia football team when she was at WVU, almost like I do with UC. Although she worked more in the office and not directly with the team like I do, we shared a passion for football. And, as I learned one evening, we share a passion for NASCAR as well.
Rontina was covering a story in Northern Kentucky about a 4th of July celebration where neighbors gather and donate food and clothing to the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The people throwing the party live right behind the house where my grandma, aunt and uncle all live.
We all gathered at my aunt’s house and I walked over to talk to Rontina about the Brickyard 400, which we both sent in credential requests for. Our long talk started with NASCAR and Rontina revealed to me that she was going to work more in sports at FOX19, and one of her dream jobs is to one day be either a football sideline reporter or a NASCAR pit reporter.
I told her to keep me in mind if she ever gets those jobs. I’d be more than glad to be the camera guy.
On Sunday at Indianapolis we met up in the media center after the race and worked on our post-race coverage for FOX19 and FOX19.com. After listening to Jamie McMurray in the press conference room, we walked out onto pit road and shot “standups” for one another.
I’m sure there are a million other Rontina stories I have, but I’m glad to see her move on to Dallas where she’ll have two opportunities to cover NASCAR races in her new home base.
If I could only get her to stop wearing West Virginia stuff. Well, at least for a few years she had to cover UC, that works for me.
Congratulations to Rontina and good luck in Dallas. We’ll certainly miss her at FOX19 (when I’m there).
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