Rookie On The Beat

EDITOR'S NOTE: Madeline Lawson has joined the Gator Bait staff after a rookie sportswriter year on the beat covering Florida gymnastics and softball. Here is her recount of that first year on the beat and her first column for Gator Bait.

BY MADELINE LAWSON

GatorBaitMedia.com

I have never been flexible. I could never touch my toes or contort myself into some kind of human pretzel. Gymnastics was not the sport for me.

From age three to six, donning skin-tight leotards, itchy pink tutus and bows half the size of my head, my mother shuttled me to gymnastics classes in Vero Beach, Fla.. I learned how to do a forward roll by tucking my chin to my chest, and a back walkover by watching my hands reach the sky and follow to the floor, but I could never master the splits. The only thing I really remember getting out of doing gymnastics was a wedgie.

As I got older, I tried my hand at cheerleading, basketball and volleyball, but I fell in love with softball. I joined the Purple Butterflies when I was six, made the All-Stars team that same season, and never looked back. Coming from a Gator household, I always knew I wanted to be a Gator, it just happened a little differently than I planned.

I enrolled at the University of Florida in the spring of ‘21 pursuing a degree in public relations. It wasn’t until the fall that I enrolled in my first-ever reporting course, JOU3101, and it was a doozy. I had never pitched story ideas, interviewed someone or heard of AP Style. The first few weeks of the semester, I was failing.

I practically lived in my instructor Cindy Spence’s office hours and was doing everything I could think of to produce a good story. It wasn’t until I started writing stories that I cared about and was truly interested in that I started to see positive results in the grade book. Something clicked, I couldn’t stop typing and my grade skyrocketed.

At the end of the semester, Spence encouraged me to pursue writing in different areas. I found the Independent Florida Alligator and applied as a sportswriter an hour before applications were due. A few days later, I got a call from the Alligator informing me I’d been chosen to be the gym beat writer for the upcoming season. I didn’t fully understand what they meant by “gym.” Did they mean gym as in gymnasium or gymnastics? They meant gymnastics – Florida gymnastics.

With minimal reporting experience, I was going to cover a program with nine SEC championships and four National championships. I was speechless, but mostly because in my interview, nobody asked me about gymnastics. I learned a few tumbling tricks as a kid, but I had never even been to collegiate gymnastics meet before. I didn’t know how it was scored, how many athletes were in a rotation, who was on the roster and I certainly had no clue what a Yurchenko Arabian was.

I spent many late nights and early mornings watching old UF gymnastics meets, reading articles from previous seasons and ingraining the roster in my mind. I wanted to be as prepared as possible, but nothing could prepare me for how Gator Nation shows out for gymnastics in the O’Dome. The first home meet I covered was against SEC rival Arkansas and was the 16th annual Link to Pink meet to support the fight against breast cancer.

The arena was flooded in a sea of pink, every seat was filled, and the only thing I’ve experienced louder than UF gymnastics fans is the eruption after a touchdown is scored in the Swamp. Who knew we were a gymnastics school?

The Gators went on to beat the Razorbacks by recording two new team records on bars and beam and produced the nation’s highest team total at the time that night. Trinity Thomas and Leanne Wong also scored 10s. I was blown away by the environment UF competes in but quickly realized the athletes deserve every round of applause, chant for a perfect score and Gator chomp they receive. Florida gymnastics is a force to be reckoned with.

Just as I began to come down from the high of a dominant win and my first gymnastics meet, I had to pack up my things, follow the gaggle of other reporters and make my way to the post-meet press conference. There were about six rows to choose from where I could sit. I thought, “Do I sit in the back because this is my first time, and I don’t want to be in the way? Or, I could go somewhere in the middle and blend in?” Then this tall, white-haired geezer waltzed in and sat in the very front row and made himself at home. Then I thought, “Well if I want to be the best, I need to act like it.” I sat in the first row too, about three seats over from Franz Beard.

Head coach Jenny Rowland, Thomas and Wong sat in front of microphones, and I started recording. Questions began rattling off from other writers in the room and I scrambled to think of something to say. I could feel a frog in my throat and my palms sweaty because this all seemed so professional to me, and I was intimidated. Eventually, I asked something and got a response. I don’t remember what was said, I think I blacked out. It’s always scary to try something new and be a rookie. The number of years of journalism experience in that room was plenty more than the years I had even been alive.

Once I got past imposter syndrome, I became more knowledgeable about the sport and set up a chart to follow each rotation, covering the gymnastics beat didn’t feel like work but a privilege. I learned that being thrown into something I was unfamiliar with was a good problem to have. Before I knew it, UF went undefeated in the regular season, and the orange and blue had won another SEC championship. The Gators advanced to the NCAA Championships Team Final in Fort Worth, Texas, the biggest stage in collegiate gymnastics.

In my apartment on April 16, I sat on my cheap pink couch, turned on the TV and got my laptop set up. I had never been so invested in a sport, team or championship as I was that Saturday. I didn’t even know who Jenny Rowland was three months prior, but there I was sitting on the edge of my seat, wanting the best for Rowland’s team, looking for every toe point and stuck landing to hit. Florida went on to claim second place in the NCAA finals losing by a fraction of a point to top-ranked Oklahoma. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. Florida was my horse in the race, but that’s why you don’t bet at all when your job is to cover the team objectively.

I wrote my final gymnastics gamer about Florida's first loss of the season. After an entire season of nothing but winning, this was new to me. I described the series of unfortunate events that lead to the Gators coming up just short when it mattered most. However, the icon that is Trinity Thomas claimed the all-around title with a 39.862, equaling the second-highest score in NCAA finals history. The season didn’t end how anyone in Gator Nation had hoped, but there was plenty to be proud of.

As happy as I was for the Gators and their remarkable season, I was also proud of myself. I overcame a challenge and became good at something entirely new to me. I used every tool I learned from reporting class with Spence. I grew a network filled with amazing reporters and professionals that I continue to learn from. What they don’t tell you when you get assigned a beat is that you also join a niche group of writers that you spend the entire season with. I don’t think there’s any chance I could walk across the 4-inch-wide balance beam these days, but there’s a great chance I’ll want to cover Florida gymnastics next season.

As the gymnastics season came to an end, so did the semester. I decided I wasn’t done covering sports and writing stories. I joined ESPN Gainesville and remained with the Alligator assigned to the Gator softball beat. I had always wanted to play for head coach Tim Walton, so I was thrilled to get the chance to cover his team. Being in the press box and having a birds-eye view of one of the most beautiful fields was breathtaking but watching Florida play in the SEC Tournament and advance to the semifinals was unforgettable.

Going from watching Florida softball with my mom at home on TV as a kid to having the opportunity to forever record moments that define players, and their careers is a gift as a writer. Skylar Wallace committed robbery in the Gainesville Regional Championship stealing her 50th stolen base of the season, an incredible feat. Heading into the post-game presser, I wasn't nervous, I was excited. I wanted to talk to Wallace and I knew what I wanted to ask. The softball beat felt familiar to me, through my experience covering gymnastics and being a former softball player, I was excited to speak to the players and hear from Walton after each game.

I’m six months into sports writing and I finally feel like I’m getting my footing. Through writer's block, multiple late nights, weather delays, glorious Gator victories and heartbreaking defeats, I wouldn’t change any of it. My curiosity in sports writing was as if I opened a personalized Pandora's box with the curse of wanting to cover every game of every sport and write a feature on every player. This all may not be possible (in a single semester at least) but I am honored and delighted to keep writing, this time with GatorBait.

I may not have ever been able to touch my toes or make the cut on Walton’s roster, but I can write, and I’ll keep writing until the cows come home or until Lake Alice dries up.