Kyle Dorau / The Recorder

The end of a season is always a funny thing in sports. It captures your attention and won’t let go for months, then suddenly the season ends and that enthusiasm is rerouted into other avenues, not to be heard from again until next year.

Take it from me – the same thing happens in college. This whole semester has not felt different at all.

It has been full of the same stresses and issues that every one before it contained. It has yet to dawn on me that I’m actually going to graduate this semester.

I leave behind all the sports I enjoyed watching at Central. I had the best seat in the house at center court in Detrick Gym for basketball. Yet there was always a part of me that wanted to be up in the stands, heckling the opposition and cheering on the Blue Devils.

Having the opportunity to cover CCSU football for the first time this year, I saw the passion for the game that head coach Jeff McInerney has. It noticeably impacts his players on and off the field, making Central one of the best I-AA programs in the entire Northeast.

Central ice hockey is far more than a club. While they are not under the watch of the Athletic Department, these guys are still student-athletes in every sense of the word. Covering games from the penalty box while scorekeeping and PA Announcing was a highlight of each winter weekend.

This position took me places in the middle of nowhere such as Burrillville, R.I. for Friday night hockey against Bryant all the way up to NCAA Tournament Soccer and men’s basketball at Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on the campus of Boston College. There’s something inherently special about those experiences. Each road trip is unique.

As I look directly above my computer typing this in my room, I see the dozens of media credentials I’ve acquired over the course of my time working in sports. Each one tells a story, and that’s what I’ve attempted to do here with this weekly column.

Being at The Recorder itself is an inherently unique experience. Sadly, the paper’s reputation often precedes the individual who writes for it.

So many people have come and gone, just as I’m going right now. The staff is almost completely different from when the offending content was published, and it will be even more different come fall. If I can make one point clear upon my departure, this is YOUR student paper.

Any student is welcome to write for it. You control the content a lot more than you think. Don’t like it? Come to a meeting and volunteer to write what is important to you as a CCSU student.

While some may continue to have a negative view of The Recorder, I pose that it has been nothing but a positive experience for me. Putting aside my meeting and extracurricular activity attendance, I’ve made a lot of friends in that office. I know the rest of the staff will give me hell for that, but I’ll just threaten to kick them in the head like I always do.

Watching Assistant Sports Editor Chris Boulay become the only Recorder staff member to strike out in slow pitch softball intramurals on Sunday, I saw the smiles on the faces of our team, including him. 

While the Pabst Blue RBIs didn’t win a game, we all had fun, even while we got our brains beat in. There hasn’t been such positive attitude in that office for a long time.

Continuing my unintelligible,  rambling goodbye note, I have to thank the Sports Information Department, for their coordination of all the events on and off campus in which they helped me. They allowed me to become the voice of CCSU baseball, resulting in broadcasting the NEC Tournament in 2007, and hopefully again in 2009, pending the results of this weekend.

This isn’t the most sports-centric column ever. In fact, journalistically, this is probably the most insignificant drivel I’ve ever written. But it comes from the heart, which is all that matters as I reflect on a delightfully mediocre six-year college career.  

I’m happy to bleed blue. I’m happy to be able to do a pretty spot-on impression of Howie Dickenman’s voice. But most of all, I’m happy my time as a reporter is over and I can go back to being a fan again. I’m proud to be a Blue Devil.

The semester and sports both see seasons winding down at this juncture, and it’s a shame to see them go. But in the end, the same thing always happens. We move on. Just like a fireworks display, it is months of explosions and color and amazement, and after a big finish, it’s over in a matter of seconds. It fizzles away.

Go Blue Devils.