Almost There Sports Blog

Rutgers is Going Dancing

It is no secret that Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has been a complete and utter joke in the world of college sports for the past few years. Being on the wrong end of lopsided conference games usually lands the scarlet knights a spot on Sportscenter’s Not Top 10. Basketball, especially since Head Coach Steve Pikiell took over in 2016, has been a slight glimmer of hope for the university’s athletics program. After accumulating 20 wins on the season, with 18 of the wins coming at The RAC in Piscataway, Rutgers rolled their way to a bid in the 2020 NCAA Men’s Baasketball Tournament.

Joyful may be an understatement when you describe how Rutgers students and fans are feeling about the trip back to college basketball’s biggest stage. From being a laughing stock to being a possible 8-seed in the tournament, Rutgers basketball is trending up. Accomplishments like this give fans and students a reason to celebrate and proudly represent their team. To many, this may not be a reason to celebrate, but to fellow Scarlet Knights, it means the world.

Screencast

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has thrown our world into a complete panic. The virus is serious and people have a right to be concerned. This screencast details the popularity of the pandemic and how it’s impact has reached across borders of just medicine. The virus is impacting the sports world just as much as the rest of the world. Originally, I never thought the virus would spread so rapidly. The hysteria behind the virus has driven people somewhat crazy. But there’s a thin line between crazy and cautious in this case. I don’t think people truly understand how devastating it would be if a fan contracted the virus from a sporting event. On top of legal issues, health issues would be a concern for a very large population.

While many sports lovers will be sad that they cannot attend, it is important that decisions be made so that everyone can remain in good health, not just players. We often get caught up in the hype of a game, especially when we are physically in the atmosphere. Not having fans attend games to limit the spread of Coronavirus will definitely impact athletes in competition. But this may ultimately be a great decision.

Making this screencast was a bit challenging but very fun also. Once I took the time to examine the properties provided by screencastomatic, the task became much easier and fun. I decided to make a google slideshow and narrate the presentation, I felt like this would be effective because I see a lot of popular youtube videos with similar formats of picture slide shows and narration. I guess you could consider this a podcast of some sort, being that there is a wide variety of them. Overall, this project was fun and I felt like I had a chance to get really creative with this.

My Graphic

At first, this assignment kind of confused me because I got a bit too excited when I saw that we’d be doing some graphic design. Initially I felt overwhelmed because of my lack of experience with graphic design on web pages. I also feared that finding pictures within the Creative Commons would be an issue. I knew I would be able to find pictures related to sports for my graphic but I wasn’t sure if they’d fit the style I want to go for on this site.

It was hard finding images that I was allowed to use at first, but I stumbled upon Flickr and it helped me very much. I was able to navigate Flickr and find photos I actually wanted to use. It can be hard finding up to date, good photos that are under the creative commons. For example, I wanted to use a photo of NBA player LeBron James in my graphic but I couldn’t find any pictures of him on his current team that I could share and modify. I chose to use a picture of the late Kobe Bryant instead, to satisfy my NBA requirement.

Along with the photo of Kobe Bryant, I used photos of Lionel Messi, Usain Bolt and Tom Brady. Those are the only notable figures in my graphic. The other photos I chose to use were of baseballs, young women playing volleyball, and young boys playing soccer. My graphic is definitely not the most appealing graphic ever but I got something good out of this creative process. I learned how to use Pixlr and edit images now. I think this will help me very much in terms of editing my blog site.

About Me

My name is Chris Burch and I am a senior at Rutgers University where I major in Journalism. Born and raised in Lawnside, New Jersey, I grew fond of sports at a very young age. Playing and studying them so closely for so many years sculpted me into the avid sports fan I am today. One of the few things I enjoy as much as a great sporting event is a great sports article. Sports writing can paint pictures vivid enough for those not in attendance to feel like they sat front row at a big game. I hope to become a sports journalist in the future. I have written and freelanced for NJ Advance Media at NJ.com, covering high school sports. I can’t wait to really expand this website for you all to enjoy!

My First Blog Post

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.