Author: Kat (Page 2 of 89)

For the first time in over a decade, my office decided to add positions. We had acquired staff via mergers or reorganization, but we had not had the opportunity to add staff we sorely needed.

I was coming back from my second maternity leave as both positions were announced and posted. I shared the positions on my LinkedIn account, posting, “I get to be your assistant, so you should apply.”

Then someone messaged me asking a hard question: why wasn’t I applying for either job? I’ve been in the office nearly 13 years and have a Master’s degree in Educational Administration. One would think that I’m qualified.

I paused as I realized the really difficult answer.

“Because I’ve spent the last seven years chasing something else.”

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Since I was a teenager, I had wanted to be a sportswriter. I wanted to cover figure skating and gymnastics. After reading the Sports Illustrated coverage of Steve Young finally winning Super Bowl XXIX, I decided I also wanted to cover football. I originally went to college for sports journalism and ran into a professor freshman year who discouraged the three of us females in his class from pursuing it. I took that to heart and changed majors and transferred schools. But I continued blogging about sports, and then found myself picking up freelance gigs. First I wrote about lacrosse for the Examiner, then Inside Lacrosse, then the Newton Patch and things began to snowball from there. It took up some of my weekends, but wasn’t too intrusive.

Seven years ago, I got a surprise message from a Boston newspaper asking me to write about high school sports. I honestly thought it was a hoax, until I confirmed with a friend that the editor contacting me was indeed a real person. Holy smokes, a real newspaper in a major city — a city much larger than my home city of Rochester, NY — wanted me to write for them. How could I turn that down?

The schedule took some time to get used to, but soon enough, I was working 2-4 days a week. I would leave my day job at 5pm, and then go to the newspaper or to a game assignment. I worked at least one weekend day, if not both. I loved it. Some writers believe they are “better than” covering high school sports. Where I grew up, high school sports were everything, so to me, covering high school sports is as good of a beat as you can have.

I kept taking assignments, picking up shifts, and picking up freelance gigs, thinking, “I must be on the brink. If I work really hard at this, someone will hire me full-time, right?” It began to intrude on my day job and my marriage. My husband went days without seeing each other, with him traveling out to Western Massachusetts for work nearly every other day, and me finding myself either taking scores or covering a game every night. Our relationship was not in the best place. At my day job, I stopped being able to stay late and meet with students. I shrugged off networking events in my field and never went to conferences. I used my vacation time to cover sporting events, not take an actual vacation. I couldn’t work on Saturdays, something crucial to working with college students, because I was covering sports.

Soon I had kids, and I tried not to miss a beat. If I keep going, then soon I’ll be able to freelance full-time and take the kids out of daycare.

The bankruptcy of the newspaper didn’t stop me. Writers losing jobs around me didn’t stop me. This is going to work out, I swear. This is what I’m meant to do.

Until this month.

This month, I had to face the depressing realization that maybe sportswriting isn’t what I’m meant to do. I can’t keep juggling everything. I missed deadlines. I missed my kids. I found myself depressed, anxious, and angry at myself for not being able to make everything work.

When I say yes to a sports writing gig, it means I’m saying no to something else. My day job and my family have been receiving a whole bunch of nos. Someone close to me once asked if my writing was a hobby or a career. They thought I should look at it as a hobby, and maybe they are right. Maybe I’m just meant to write online here and there. If I earn some extra money from doing so, that’s great.

That is a really difficult thing to make terms with, and it won’t happen overnight. I had to prioritize my family and day job over covering my favorite high school sporting event of the year this weekend. I wanted to say yes to the assignment in the worst way. But I had to say no. It was a punch in the gut.

I am sharing this because I know many part-time sportswriters who have struggled with this same call. When do you call it quits? Should you ever call it quits, and just keep a toe in writing forever, holding out hope that something will work out? We’re told to find our passion and make that our career, but what if that just never pans out?

I don’t have the answers at all. It’s going to take me a long time to find them.

You’re getting ready for Super Bowl Sunday. You’re familiarizing yourself with the rosters of both the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. You see Greg Zuerlein, the Rams’ kicker, and head to YouTube to watch a few of his past field goals.

And instead of field goals, you find figure skating.

No, the Rams’ “Greg The Leg” didn’t have a past life as a figure skater. He just happens to share a name with a former World Junior Champion skater whose former partner is a two-time Olympian.

Greg Zuerlein was the 2009 World Junior Champion in ice dance with Madison Chock. If Chock’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she has represented the U.S. at both the 2014 and 2018 Olympics with current partner Evan Bates (a three-time Olympian in his own right.) Chock and Zuerlein competed from 2006-11, winning not only that World Junior title, but a National junior title, a bronze on the senior level at Nationals and a top ten finish at the World Championships.

The name “Greg Zuerlein” isn’t exactly like the name “John Smith.” What are the odds that two high-level athletes would share the exact same name? I don’t know if the two happen to be related, though I’m sure it would have come up in skating circles prior to Super Bowl Weekend if they were.

So you’re headed to Boston for the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. Welcome!

I am in the TD Garden five days a week. My commuter rail train to work comes through the lower level of the Garden (called North Station,) meaning I’m there at least once a day, usually twice. That makes me uniquely qualified to give you some tips and tricks for navigating the Championships and the area surrounding it. And trust me – you need them.

Warning: The TD Garden is a construction zone.  – The Garden is in the midst of a multi-million dollar project to build a retail, restaurant and hotel complex in front of it. Massive skeletons of buildings now block the view of the Garden itself, making it a little confusing to navigate the area if you are not familiar with it.

Therefore, follow the signage for the Garden and don’t necessarily look for a giant building that says “TD Garden.” Two of the three entrances to the building itself have wooden plank covered walkways that can get very crowded before an event or at rush hour.

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Leave some extra time to enter the arena. Some of the entrances to the arena itself (from the concourse) are closed due to the construction. Depending on the size of the crowd, they may open some doors in the stairways to facilitate quicker entrances. If they don’t, you will walk through the North Station concourse towards the ticket office in the middle. Right next to that will be an entrance to the arena itself. (Don’t worry – there are signs.)

Now, for the important stuff: food and coffee.

Coffee

Coffee status: excellent. – Do you like to drink coffee? Well, there might not be any better place in the country to hold this meet. (Except Seattle, of course.)

There are five coffee shops within steps of the arena, including two inside the North Station concourse (which you have to go into to enter the arena.) Okay, so four of them are Dunkin’ Donuts. Boston is obsessed with Dunkin’ Donuts, thus they are on every street corner. There are also Dunkin Donuts in the actual arena as well, bringing this count up to six.

The best Dunkin’ Donuts in the area is on Canal Street, so I recommend hitting up that location for your quality coffee needs. They also offer on-the-go ordering via the Dunkin’ Donuts app, which is key if you intend on getting your coffee in the early morning. Because that Dunkin’ is so good and well run, it often has long lines filled with construction workers ordering for their entire crew, making on-the-go ordering very helpful to those of us who just want to grab an iced coffee and run. That Dunkin’ closes at 6pm or 7pm every night, so that location will be able to carry you up through the evening sessions.

Don’t like Dunkin’? Don’t fret. One of my favorite independent coffee shops in all of Boston is also a stone’s throw from the Garden. Boston Common Coffee is expensive, but if you truly love coffee and good pastries, it is worth every single penny. They also have the BEST yogurt parfaits on the globe. It tastes like the most decadent dessert you’ve ever eaten, but it is actually good for you, with high quality Greek yogurt, house made granola and fruit. I think they run $5 a pop, but if you can splurge, I recommend it. They have a large seating area with wifi, so if your trip to the Championships has to be a working vacation, Boston Common Coffee will be your go-to. It was a favorite for many fans and skaters during the World Figure Skating Championships in 2016, and it will definitely gain a ton of fans during gymnastics as well.

Food & Drink

Bodega Canal (57 Canal Street) makes a heck of a margarita. The Mexican restaurant took the place of a favorite pre-game hangout of my friends, the Grand Canal, and really improved the interior, creating great seating areas for small and large groups. When it’s nice, they open the huge nearly floor-to-ceiling windows which creates such a cool scene on an otherwise dull part of Canal Street. I’ve heard amazing things about their food as well.

If you like beer, you have to at least try Boston Beer Works (112 Canal Street). It’s been a favorite of mine since I moved to Boston 14 years ago. It has multiple locations throughout the Boston area, and I think I may have tried them all except for Lowell at this point. They make all of their own beer, and can get very creative with flavors. During the summer, they sometimes have a Watermelon Beer that is one of my favorite beers of all time. It’s more tangy than sweet, and is really refreshing if the weather is hot. The standard Fenway Pale Ale is a solid choice. If you are a fan of French fries, as I am, their sour cream and chive fries are wonderful, amazing and addicting.

Need a slice of pizza? One of the most famous pizza places in all of Boston is Halftime Pizza, which is right on Causeway Street. It’s a no frills spot that will fill your pizza, pop and beer needs. Its hours vary and it’s not often open post-event, but for a quick bite pre-event or in-between sessions, you can’t go wrong.

Honorable mentions: The Fours, which has been posting some intriguing specials all summer – we’re talking nice dinner salads and some unique sandwich combos; Tasty Burger, which is brand new and adjacent to one of the Garden entrances (this is a perfect place if you have youngsters in tow) and Qdoba, not the best food in the world, but quick and (if you make the right choices) healthy-ish.