Following the departure (and graduation) of my predecessor and friend Brody Keiser, I am fortunate enough to take on the role of the Torch’s sports editor.
My name is Dylan Rider. I was formerly the opinions editor and have been reporting for sports for two years. Now, I run the sports section. I’m a junior majoring in sports communication with minors in multimedia journalism and history.
Under Keiser, the sports section flourished into what it is now. To me, the sports sections represents a machine consistently pumping out some of the best stories the Torch has to offer.
However, what’s a machine without a few upgrades and repairs? Our sports section is good, but it can most definitely be taken to another level. That’s what I am striving to do with my team next year.
Eliminating game recaps: One trap our section can and has fallen into is recapping the events we cover. This is not what we should be about. Sports is such a narrative-driven subject. We intend to strive to find the importance in the story while letting you know all the details.
Finding the right people to write the best stories: Our section has lost most of our longtime stalwarts (Joe Nagy and Brandon Wirth, thank you for your contributions through the years). On the bright side, this allows the section to be injected with new blood. Alongside this, I’d like our sports section to be less of a boys club. We’re pushing to find more female writers for the section.
Expanding our athletics coverage while streamlining it: We want to give everyone their shot at making it in the paper. This can be difficult. The plan for this is simple. I intend on eliminating our scorecard that we feature at the bottom of the page while turning it into a smaller, more streamlined section for quick highlights for athletics that don’t take center stage for us.
I hope you’re as excited as I am for this upcoming year. I only think our section can improve and that’s what we intend to do.