Over a five-day stretch during spring break, I and five other Edward R. Murrow College of Communication students, as well as our professor Wendy Raney, took to Arizona to cover MLB Spring Training as part of the second group to do so representing Murrow. 

Last year, Murrow sent a group of students to Arizona for the first time, a group including three Daily Evergreen staff members — Sam Taylor, Trevor Junt and Jake Hull — once again, this year’s trip had three Evergreen staff members — myself, Kedzie Moe and Nick Cox. 

We covered four different teams, starting with the Los Angeles Angels, then the Oakland Athletics, Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners over the subsequent days. With a little free time, we also sat in the stands to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers face the Cincinnati Reds (shoutout the rainout) and the Chicago Cubs play the Rockies at their respective home stadiums. 

Personally, I set out to write print stories but also brought my camera to take photos of behind-the-scenes for Murrow, as well as to capture images for my own stories and other print stories for the other students on the trip. 

Over the five days, I found several stories, including one featuring a local restaurant, equipment staff and mental skills coaches. 

On the photography side, I spent time in a photo well, capturing pictures of interviews and becoming the de-facto personal photographer of the other five members of the trip. 

All the professionals we had the opportunity to talk to gave us invaluable insight to the good, and especially the bad, of their jobs and day-to-day.

From Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times beat reporter of the Seattle Mariners, to Kyle Cooper, the Colorado Rockies team photographer, I engaged with all levels of my interests in sports media and it solidified my goals of working in sports for my career. 

The group of students that got chosen to participate on this trip could not have been better. We had a lot of fascinating stories to pursue, worked well together in maximizing our interview time with players by spreading out and had a lot of fun debriefing each night.

Being in Arizona was a ton of fun. I loved hanging in our Airbnb each night, eating Cane’s and working toward a common goal of making the most of the opportunity that Murrow presented us. 

It was the trip of a lifetime, as cliché as that is.