Indiana poster becomes Indiana graduate

Well, that’s it.

Three years of Archieball, one year of the Woodson Era and the hope that ensued.

A women’s basketball program that rose to prominence.

A football team that that nearly reached #9Windiana glory, had one of the best seasons in program history and promptly went through one of the worst.

A swimming program that did what’s it’s been doing.

Countless assignments, game stories, features, analysis and networking opportunities in the Memorial Stadium press box or the Assembly Hall media room (or just the court).

All of these things happened during my three years at Indiana University, having spent the first year at IU Southeast (shout-out to New Albany and the city of Louisville). And now that time is coming to an end.

Your friendly neighborhood site manager has earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

When I first got to IU as a sophomore, I knew very little about the media landscape, both at IU and in general. Didn’t know who was good, who was bad and who was somewhere in between.

There’s the papers, the Herald-Times and the IndyStar.

Both have been staffed with tremendous people during my time here. Jon Blau is one of the best storytellers in the business, Dustin Dopirak has been a tremendous resource for advice and Zach Osterman is always open to helping out students.

Mike Miller, of previous renown at the HT and former CQ site manager, was the one who got me to love this career through his sportswriting course at IU. And for that I am eternally grateful.

There’s the student outlets that I later joined (My peers do tremendous work, by the way, they’ll continue to do so, so I encourage you to keep track of the IDS)

And then there was Crimson Quarry, something entirely different from the others. That was the appeal. You go to the papers for storytelling, the blogs for recruiting analysis and television/multimedia for a visual component.

But you went to CQ to laugh. The blog had a tremendous team back then, and they were all exceptionally good at what they did. It was coverage with some humor mixed in. Did this lead to some hard feelings from the athletic department? Totally, but they made it work.

That’s why taking over back in February was such a tall task, I couldn’t possibly live up to that. I didn’t wanna base CQ off of what it had been, it’d be nothing more than a cheap imitation of what it was.

I reached out to Kyle for advice, and he was incredibly gracious in his reply, encouraging me to express my own voice while also making sure to use the blog to do some good when I could.

I didn’t build this site into what it is today, I merely inherited the audience that my predecessors worked to bring in over time.

That’s what I tried to do, make CQ my own. Hope I gave you a few laughs over the latter half of the men’s and women’s basketball seasons.

And that brings us to my next point, women’s basketball.

The team doesn’t receive the coverage it deserves. It’s an incredible program reaching new heights, but it doesn’t feel like its being given the proper attention by some media outlets. Some do a great job! Others do not.

Women’s sports have never been given a fair chance by those in charge of them or (much of) the media covering them. If you have the ability to cover women’s basketball and simply choose not to, I firmly believe that you’re part of the problem.

The program isn’t second fiddle to the men’s program, I do not care which team has more historical success. They should be treated as equals, not some sideshow for a recruiting site to write a handful of feel-good articles about during the season while not really covering recruiting despite that being the very purpose of the website.

My predecessor as site manager, Colin (eternally grateful for bringing me aboard), understood this. He brought Miles aboard so we could have coverage of the team. Miles tackled that role like a champ and killed it.

Having typed all of this, it probably sounds like I’m done and leaving, but I’m not! The time will eventually come for me to leave CQ behind and venture off into the world, but today is not that day.

I have some plans on the horizon, and I’m looking forward to sharing when the time is right.

If you’d like to follow me, now and in my future endeavors, feel free to do so on Twitter @ByLCNorton