Deuces✌️
Tribune-Star Indiana State beat writer signs off
For nearly a decade, I’ve toiled in the journalism game and maintained a “’til death” adherence to the craft.
It's time to pivot.
As far as a full-time reporter in the profession, consider this my official divorce from a vocation that really never loved/appreciated me as much as I did.
My time on the Indiana State University beat lasted almost 16 months.
There’s a lot to unpack as I write this farewell note…let’s keep this pushing.
There have been junctures in my career where I burned the candle at both ends.
I departed this full-time hustle in sports journalism six years ago and went into sports sales.
I continued to mature as a freelance prep writer with Pioneer Press in the suburbs of Chicago.
Then, came my second wind and ensuing hankering to make another dent in journalism, albeit with a new medium.
It was as a full-time digital independent writer/producer covering private high schools throughout the Chicago-area.
I developed chops in personal uncharted aspects of media that were fruitful.
Today, I sit here touching up my resume and jogging my memory about some of the programs I’ve dabbled in beyond social media and Microsoft Office.
They included InDesign, iMovie, Blox, Photoshop, YouTube, Audacity, PreSonus, WordPress, Squarespace, Canva, Kindle Direct Publishing and SoundCloud.
I got a Podcast popping with the help of friends and, of course, an instructor called YouTube.
These skills helped me get a buzz in the Windy City.
I made money by activating my sales skills to sell local partnerships that were mutually beneficial on the northwest side of the city.
This all tumbled to the deck during the COVID-19 pandemic like 3giant Jenga logs bring a sharp tumbling split-second sound when they collapse at a restaurant/bar.
I aborted ship and crossed Hoosier State lines.
Within two and a half years I went from covering high school sports in Perry County to Dubois County while getting a raise and another promotion in title only.
There were moments of burnout after two years in Indiana and uncertainty about staying in the field.
My career mentality took a backseat on a special day and months leading up to it.
I got hitched on May 7, 2022, to a woman who holds me down — Annie Elizabeth Mason.
Her warmth, patience and kindness are constants.
Then came my coveted jump to Division I athletics in January 2023.
Like every new position, the first year was laden with unbridled enthusiasm.
I knew the tail end of Year One and beyond were going to tell me a lot about where my life was going.
I was right.
My son, Malachi Sinatra Tickel, came to God’s green Earth on Jan. 12.
The rigors of the previous winter and now voyaging to most of Indiana State’s home and away football and basketball games with occasional Friday Night Lights from August to April.
I arrived at the notion I wasn’t built to be the perpetual road guy.
As my mentor once told me, in journalism the flow is striving to be a beat reporter and then turning around after some time, seeking the role of a columnist.
This gets you back off the highway and airplanes.
The lonely stays in hotels compounded and exasperated when Malachi joined the household.
I took a light vacation when he was born.
I worked nearly 16 months at the Tribune-Star until I resigned, that was the only vacation time I took, largely because I had to accrue it in my first year.
My final three months knotted to journalism concluded with a litany of bangs.
ISU hoops scorched.
I was blessed to cover the best basketball team I’ve ever written about.
It’s kind of poetic injustice how close to the cut line Indiana State hoops got to its ceiling. It was closer to a Sweet 16 run than a first-round NIT departure.
If the Sycamores had ousted Drake in St. Louis at Arch Madness they would have danced for the first time since 2011.
Then, an unprecedented five bids were stolen ahead of Selection Sunday for another close miss that kept ISU from the Field of 68.
One was North Carolina State, which later slayed four teams to streak to the Final Four.
The Sycamores nearly reached a consolation tourney crescendo.
We almost had a Jimmy Chitwood/Bobby Plump reenactment at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the scene of the championship of “Hoosiers.”
The case of deja vu nearly came to pass on April 4 on a deep, left-wing desperation heave by Ryan Conwell in a 79-77 loss to Seton Hall in the NIT championship.
Promptly after the storybook year was cemented as a one-off. Former ISU coach Josh Schertz took a gig with Saint Louis University and then all five starters from the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship squad hit the transfer portal.
As of Friday afternoon, Julian Larry and Jayson Kent committed to Texas of the Big 12.
Ryan Conwell will play at Xavier in Cincinnati in the Big East.
I witnessed ISU rise and contend for Valley basketball tourney titles in back-to-back Arch Madness postseasons.
It was an instant leap for a rebuilding program and a regime that lasted three years.
This crew's highs from my lens were the team and Conwell rallying around him while grieving his loved one, Kent's glee talking about being baptized during the season; Larry saying my left-hand handle needed work, sharing dad thoughts with Schertz; talking Chicago rappers with Robbie Avila at UIC; Xavier Bledson talking about the jump from Division II and Isaiah Swope's late-game barrages in two title games, the MVC and NIT, on a bum knee.
On the diamond, the Sycamores baseball club finished in the Top 16 in the country last year. I was blessed with more than my fair share of winning programs at ISU.
During my time, I painted some sterling human-interest features. I know I made non-malicious mistakes along the way.
Max Jones, editor, and Mark Bennett, sports editor, taught me immense wisdom about the journalism field.
There were some stellar photography shots dished out by the Tribune-Star photographer Joe Garza, at home games, that livened up my articles.
ISU Athletics was great to work with throughout.
They all gave me the benefit of the doubt when I was grumpy, at times, after lots of wear and tear out of town with limited food and sleep.
Every hour I treated this beat with the care and concern of a writer with a responsibility to deliver news quickly, concisely and accurately.
Thanks to all my readers for coming along for my observations.
No comment on my future endeavors.
I do know that my faith and family life will remain prioritized over everything else. My faith is in my Lord and Savior — Jesus Christ.
Scripture here is applicable, Matthew 9:37, "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few." I get to be a dad and husband “’til death.”