When I wrote my first inside column after taking over as the sports editor last March, I focused on embracing the unexpected. Not knowing the full outcome of a play, a game or a season is one of the best things about sports, and the best sports coverage captures and builds off of that element.
Over the past year, we as a sports department have operated in a time of change and new opportunities in the tri-campus community. Two of Notre Dame’s longest-tenured coaches, softball’s Deanna Gumpf and hockey’s Jeff Jackson, announced the end of their runs. The men’s swim team had its 2024-25 season suspended. Notre Dame football played 16 games for the first time in program history, reaching the national championship game.
Unanticipated happenings have also occurred in my own life, shifting the day-to-day flow of the department. Midway through my term, I began to travel full-time with the hockey team, which meant I missed football games and was often hundreds of miles away for Thursday production sessions. In response, a lot of people have stepped up within and beyond the sports department, and I want to use this piece to highlight and appreciate some of their best work from the past 11 months.
March is one of the craziest months for a new sports editor to take over, as the full extent of spring sports overlaps with winter sports and their postseasons. During spring break, hockey, men’s basketball and women’s basketball all competed in their conference tournaments, with the women’s team winning the ACC Championship. Outgoing sports editor Andrew McGuinness and sports writers Jake Miller and Henry Lytle were instrumental in getting the 2024-25 term off to a strong start with their coverage.
In the weeks and months that followed, we took on the challenge of the commencement edition of the paper, which for the sports department entailed interviewing coaches and writing season recaps for each and every Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross team. I was thrilled with the way it turned out and how we were able to celebrate both some of the greatest student-athletes in South Bend and our most dedicated senior sports writers.
On came the summer and the two monumental coaching changes I mentioned earlier. J.J. Post fittingly wrote his last Observer article (among hundreds) about Notre Dame softball, while Ryan Murphy did equally terrific work covering hockey’s approaching changing of the guard.
Then, there was football season. A season that only our tremendous football beat of assistant managing editor Madeline Ladd, soon-to-be sports editor Noah Cahill and seniors Annika Herko and Matthew Crow could do justice. Maddie and Noah told the story of success in College Station. Then Matthew and I tore it all down a week later after the Northern Illinois game.
Several young writers also made their football coverage debuts and processed what can be an overwhelming media environment at Notre Dame Stadium with great skill and professionalism. Henry covered the Miami (Ohio) and Florida State games, Ryan Eastland the Stanford game, Chris Dailey the Senior Day game against Virginia and Ben Hicks the first on-campus College Football Playoff game.
Our coverage continued all the way through the national championship in Atlanta. Although the game didn’t go the way the Irish faithful hoped it would, I can confidently speak for the entire sports department and paper that it was such an immensely special privilege to be around for that type of postseason run. Some of The Observer’s finest were there, including outgoing Editor-in-Chief Isa Sheikh and incoming EIC Liam Kelly, along with me and Henry.
Of course, the glory of tri-campus athletics runs so much deeper than football, and I take very seriously the chance to bring readers closer to any on-campus team they care about. Claire Watson has been a huge asset in our Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross coverage, writing close to 10 stories a week at times. Ben and Noah have also enhanced our coverage of Notre Dame basketball, a good thing to have going as the Irish women contend for a national championship. Those three writers have also led our Baraka and Bengal Bouts coverage, a staple Observer tradition.
I also want to shout out incoming managing editor Gray Nocjar, who spent my term as the photo editor. For those who don’t know, the presentational quality of the sports department depends significantly on the photo department. The more photos we have of relevant players and games from recent times, the more complete our content looks. Gray and his photographers have shot more games than we could ever need, and I’m extremely grateful for them.
Though I won’t be going anywhere, I’m two weeks away from my last as Sports Editor. With all of the sportscasting duties I’ve piled up, I’ll happily admit that the department deserves a leader who has more time to, you know, run the department. But you’ll still see my bylines, albeit at a much more reasonable frequency.
