by: Tyler Foulke

Background

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.– Growing up just outside of Atlanta, sports has always been a major aspect of Olivia Whitmire’s life. Immersed in a sports culture, Olivia instantly fell in love with not just watching, but playing them as well. She started playing volleyball at a young age and played all the way through high school. Despite being a lifetime Texas Longhorns fan, and her parents being alums of the University of Texas, Olivia ultimately decided to attend the University of Alabama and pursue a degree in telecommunications and film. After completing her degree and graduating in May of 2018, she landed her first news job at WHNT News 19 in Hunstville, Alabama, just two hours north of UA.

Professional Beginnings

Upon coming to WHNT in July of 2018, Olivia started off one-man-banding-it at the news desk. It wasn’t until the acting sports director asked for her help with Football Friday’s that she got her first chance to professionally report on sports. From there, she worked her way up to becoming a weekend sports anchor and WHNT’s sole sports reporter as of January 2019. So, for what initially began as just a launching point for her career, soon became a place where she had free reign to cover what she loves. When asked what she enjoys doing more, news or sports, it’s–

“sports by a landslide. I mean you’re asking me if I’d rather go to an Alabama football game or a Madison County Commission’s meeting. I know for other people who may not care about sports, they’d rather go to the Commission’s meeting and call it a day. But not for me, I’d rather do sports for sure.”

The Daily Routine

In the life of sports reporting, the day-to-day is hardly ever the same. Depending on what time of year it is, say baseball season, Olivia grabs her camera and goes to the University of Alabama Huntsville to get footage of the Chargers’ practice and key interviews. Then, when she feels confident with her recorded interviews and b-roll, she heads back to the station to piece together the story. This includes writing a script, editing the footage, producing a complete story, and then anchoring on-air if needed. On top of what you see on your television, Olivia writes stories for the WHNT website and helps manage their various social media accounts.

Typically, this daily routine takes about 8 to 9 hours, but every once in a while, a big ticket item will come along that calls for more. One of these occasions happens to be uniquely special for Olivia: the 2019 College Football National Championship in Santa Clara, California. Her Alabama Crimson Tide battled the Clemson Tigers at Levi’s Stadium, home to the San Francisco 49ers. It had been a long day and the had Tide lost by 28 points, but Olivia still had a story to produce.

“I was clocked in for 36 hours. We started working at 10 o’ clock in the morning and worked the entire day up until night time, and by the time we were done with all of our work for the morning show, and the next day’s show and that kind of stuff, it was time to head to the airport because our flight left at 5:55 in the morning the day after the national championship.”

Adjusting to the New Normal

“Our overwhelming sportscast every night is some story about how COVID-19 is impacting them.”

As we all know, life during COVID-19 can be unique and challenging, but it’s especially difficult when you hear the same heartbreaking story from high school athletes day in and day out: cleats being hung up early, seniors never getting to experience their final season, or tournament trips that will never come. When hearing these stories, positivity and creativity can be hard to come by. Olivia is able to manage this by not necessarily producing a more creative story, but by speaking to people who are a bit more outside of the box. One of these stories is Belle Buehrle, a junior figure skater at St. John Paul II Catholic High School, who was preparing for her first competition of the season before her season got cancelled.

Huntsville figure skater describes COVID-19 impact

It’s not all bad though, as business casual has been replaced by pajamas, and the office commute has been shortened to just walking to the kitchen table. Interviews can be conducted over Skype, Zoom, or a simple phone call. And lastly, Teams that may not normally get recognition during this time of year are now being featured on the 5 p.m. broadcast. When asked what she believes the biggest challenge to come from this is, in terms of sports, will be the overlap in scheduling when the day comes for sports to finally return.

“I mean am I going to be covering the NFL, MLB, college football, and high school sports all at the same time?”

Favorite Sports Reporting Memory

For someone who’s been to, and reported on, the CFB National Championship, Iron Bowl, and several other memorable events, this question wasn’t easy to answer. However, as someone who values and cherishes her community, her answer was very close to home. In March, the UAH men’s basketball team competed in the Gulf South Conference Championship after a suffering a bitter defeat in the very same game last year. The Chargers came out on top of the Valdosta State Blazers with a score of 91-82.

UAH men’s basketball takes down Valdosta State to win GSC Championship

With the UAH campus being only 3.5 miles from the WHNT news station, both groups are very well acquainted with each other. Olivia can name every player on the roster and shares a personal connection with most of them. So, when your division II team clinches a spot in the coveted NCAA Tournament after a redemption win, you can believe it’s a special moment.

“Why do I feel like I should be getting hugged right now, I am emotionally invested in this team, like I feel like I’m part of this win.”

After first appearing in the Sugar Bowl in 1979, Big AL turns 40 years old this year! He shares his birthday celebration with UA Gymnastics on their senior night. There’s cake, fun activities, and lots of school spirit to check out!

TUSCALOOSA, Ala- Until 2011, NFL hopefuls solely had to focus on being their best at the NFL Combine. These six drills: the 40-yard dash, bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, 3 cone drill, and shuttle run, could make or break the beginning of your NFL career. That was until pro football teams began doing social media sweeps on all their potential draftees.

In a time when Facebook was still relevant, Twitter was just getting off the ground, Instagram had only been out for a year, and Snapchat didn’t even exist, how does social media become a seventh drill for athletes to worry about? Well, it all started with an intern.

According to ESPN’s James Walker, intern Aaron Fleiss wanted to get into football scouting. So, realizing that social media was a complete blind spot in the NFL scouting process, Fleiss did a character analysis of the Facebook profiles for the top-64 players in the 2011 NFL draft. He analyzed each prospect’s page, looking for anything that may raise a red flag for their future destination team. What he found was alarming. A potential first round pick had a photo of himself standing in front of what appeared to be a pile on cocaine on his main Facebook page. The complete summary of Fleiss’s Facebook sweep included posts, personal comments, and even the number of Facebook friends of the potential draftees. The report was sent to all 32 teams in the NFL. Fleiss was then hired by the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns for future internships for his groundbreaking work.

This started an avalanche of change all throughout the NFL. Teams started to implement software that can pull up anything anyone has ever posted on social media, deleted or not. So turns out your parents were right when they said, “Everything you post on the internet will be there forever,” huh? Other teams began to study prospect’s social media around their junior year of college. Lower-level front office members and interns were tasked with monitoring their social media, creating an endless supply of diligent investigators.

Social media is considered free speech, which is protected by the First Amendment, so at what point are teams going too far? Or, what if something is posted to the player’s social media without their knowledge or consent?

A prime example of this is happened just minutes before the 2016 NFL draft. University of Mississippi offensive lineman, Laremy Tunsil, watched his draft stock plummet in a matter of seconds when the unthinkable happened. While wearing a checkered tuxedo and gold chains at the NFL draft, Tunsil’s Twitter account was allegedly hacked. A video was posted to his account showing Tunsil wearing a gas mask with a bong taped to it, in which he appeared to be smoking marijuana, and then removing the mask, leaving no room for doubt as to who was in the video. On top of this, screenshots of texts between Tunsil and an assistant athletic director at Ole Miss surfaced showing Tunsil asking for a $305 payment to cover some of his mother’s bills. Both posts were taken down in under a minute, but not before accumulating a combined 500 thousand views on Twitter. Writer Terry Collins says this social media mishap cost Tunsil an estimated $10 million in potential salary, and dropped him from a top-5 pick all the way down to 13.

A simple way of going about monitoring social media for athletes and draft prospects may not necessarily be regulating it for them, but mentoring them. Al Golden, a former head coach for the University of Miami sees social media as a way to teach his players: “Rather than having systemic control, I would rather say to them, ‘Look guys, I know everyone in your age group does this. Just understand that you are a little bit different. People are going to be watching you.” The NBA, NFL, and soon the NHL, all have a policy that prohibits players from posting to social media sites 45 minutes before a game and until media has left the postgame locker room. This isn’t the worst idea as it protects the unity and chemistry of the team by keeping the outside world where it belongs: outside the locker room.

An example of this belongs to the high-profile receiver, Antonio Brown. Two seasons ago, when the Pittsburgh Steelers won over the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin gave a fired-up postgame speech in the locker room. Without Tomlin’s knowledge, Antonio Brown was recording on Facebook Live during what was supposed to be a private moment with the team. During his speech, Tomlin called the New England Patriots an expletive term in front of the Brown’s watching audience. This resulted in backlash and a $10 thousand fine towards Brown.

Multiple league insiders believe social media monitoring will only improve. And maybe they’re right. Upcoming athletes have Laremy Tunsil and Antonio Brown to look for examples of what not to do, and with all of the perks social media provides, surely they’ll be more careful with what they post. Athletes use social media to talk directly to fans, build followings, and secure brand deals if their following is large enough. As former Texas journalism professor Gil de Zuniga said, if you aren’t willing to yell something in the middle of a public square, you probably shouldn’t post it to Twitter.

Nick Toney/ SportTechie Writer/ linkedin.com/in/nicktoney/ Twitter: @nicktoneytweets

Terry Collins/ Staff Reporter/ Twitter: @terrycollins

James Walker/ ESPN Staff Writer/ Twitter: @JamesWalkerNFL

Al Golden/ Former Head Coach at the University of Miami/ Twitter: @GoldenAl

Gil de Zuniga/ University of Vienna, Faculty/ email: homero.gil.zuniga@univie.ac.at

Michael Auprince, 24, is a senior here at UA pursuing a degree in English. He’s played for the Crimson Tide’s Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team for four years.

Just SOME of his accomplishments include:

– Named MVP at the NIWBT National Championship

– Was the first to average 27.7 points in three games in the NIWBT Championships

– Ranked second in the NIWBT Championships with 14 boards per contest

– Scored 31 points in a comeback victory to win the 2018 season National Championship

– Averaged 10.5 blocks per game

– Selected to the NWBA All-American second team in 2018

– Won the gold in the 4×100 m freestyle relay for swimming at the 2012 London Summer Paralympics

– Won the bronze in the 4×100 m medley relay for swimming at the 2012 London Summer Paralympics

– Has a BA from Australia

DeQuel Robinson is a fifth-year graduate student pursuing a degree in Sports Management. He’s been a dominating defensive and scoring presence on the Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team for four years.

In the 2017-2018 season Robinson:

• Led the team in assists with 4.6 a game
• Second on team in scoring with 12.5 points a game
• Second on team in rebounding with 5.3 rebounds a game
• Shared Defensive Player of the Year with Ryan Morich as both “showed physical toughness and a true understanding of how team’s defensive strategies needed to be performed.”
• Helped lead the team to its second national championship

Attribution to Alabama Adapted Athletics

The opening of Stran-Hardin Arena marked an important milestone for the University of Alabama and set a precedent for colleges across the nation. On January 10th of 2018, UA became the only university to have an arena solely dedicated to adapted athletics on campus. The $10 million facility is two stories, a full length basketball court, and a custom weight room with adapted equipment geared towards disabled athletes.

Caitlin McDermott, a UA alumna who won the national championship with UA’s women’s wheelchair basketball team in 2015, said Stran-Hardin Arena addresses all of the needs of UA’s adapted athletes.

Photo and information attributed to UA News Center.

Classification is something unique to only adapted sports. Each player is placed in a category, or “classification”, based on how disabled they are. This scale consists of 8 classes: 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5. The lower the classification, the more severe the disability to the lower body. Classification matters because teams are only allowed to have 15 points on the court at any time. So, final minutes are counting down on the clock, what combination do you have on the court? A 4.5, 4.5, 3, 2, and 1? Or a 4, 4, 3, 3, and 1? I feel this brings a fun and strategic aspect to basketball because it keeps the field even and doesn’t allow for a super-team of higher classified players.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.– Ah yes, the joys of spring break–gathering your closest friends and splurging on a much-needed getaway to the nearest beach. However, not everyone goes to the beach. Some prefer to ski on the slopes of Northern California, or hike the woods of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Some are even crazy enough to go to Champaign, Illinois, to play for the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Championships at the University of Illinois. And that’s exactly where our men’s wheelchair basketball team was able to commit during their week off of school. This vacation was well earned for the team as they came into the tournament ranked second seed out of nine. Standing in the way of the National Championship trophy and huge bragging rights–for potentially being the best team in the country for the second year in a row–are three rounds of playing against the top teams in the country.

Quarterfinals-Alabama versus Southwest Minnesota State University. Alabama cruises to a 77-65 win. Oh, and Auburn loses to University of Nebraska-Omaha by two points, thus being eliminated from the tournament (roll tide). A team to watch out for, the number one ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, blows out their opponent by 39 points…while breaking the 100-point barrier. For reference, the second highest score of the round was 77.

Semifinals-Alabama versus the University of Texas-Arlington. Alabama easily comes out on top with a 75-59 win. And again, the Warhawks of UW-Whitewater easily dominates their opponent with a 31-point lead and final score of 97-66.

Final-The second-ranked Alabama square off with the first-ranked juggernauts of UW-Whitewater. Alabama perseveres and keeps UW-Whitewater’s offense to a mere 73 points while scoring a tournament high of 79 points. Their 3-0 record in the tournament makes Alabama the National Champions of intercollegiate wheelchair basketball for the second year in a row. This is incredible and something to be proud of, but based on my survey, hardly anyone on campus knows about this accomplishment.

On a clear and breezy Tuesday afternoon, where the weather was just warm enough to enjoy doing homework outside with an iced coffee, I stand at the heart of campus with a whiteboard. On this whiteboard in bold black letters writes “Give me 10 seconds of your time.” I even put red and blue squiggles around the “10” to put emphasis on how little time I would take out of their day, because students here have been conditioned to ignore people exactly like me who seek to disrupt their afternoon commutes. I’m wearing a light blue button up with an assortment of little white pigs all over it to show that I’m professional but don’t take myself too seriously. I’m also wearing some khaki shorts and gray low-top vans that have a hole worn in the side from skateboarding. I take a good minute to assess where exactly I should stand in the courtyard of the Ferguson Student Center and decide that across from the Starbucks and Supe Store has the best chance of catching the most eyes. So, I move aside two garbage cans, because honestly no one is winning by standing between two garbage cans no matter how nice the weather is and pull a handheld speaker out of my backpack.

I have anxiety about playing music for other people, whether it’s in the car with a friend or at a party, because your music taste is intimate to you and says a lot about who you are as a person. But luckily, Spotify has preset playlists available to everyone. I settled on the clean playlist “All Out 10’s” (10’s as in 2010’s greatest hits, creative play on words I know), and turned the volume all the way up to max, which surprisingly turned heads from even the far side of the courtyard. As soon as “Wildest Dreams” by Taylor Swift started blasting, I saw and felt every head turn to me. I put on a smirk and thrust the whiteboard high above my head, because if you’re going to have everyone’s attention you might as well be confident about it, right?

I could see the squint in people’s eyes as they focused on the words on my whiteboard. I stood for only about two minutes before a girl named Molly got up from her homework and coffee and walked across the courtyard to me.

“Okay I’m curious, what is it?”

“I only have two questions for you,” I said.

“Alright go ahead.”

“Okay, have you ever attended a wheelchair basketball game here at UA,” I chose not to be specific about men or women’s because that’s not really the point.

“No,” she answered with a slight hesitation.

“Alright, and did you know that the men’s team won the National Championship last year and this year?”

“No, actually I didn’t. Are you serious?” Her eyes got wide and she cracked a smiled with the realization that we have more than one championship caliber team.

Many more interactions like this would ensue in the next hour. Of the 30 people that approached me, only 2 had ever been to a wheelchair basketball game here at UA, and 12 people had heard the news of the big win over spring break. If you were to scale that to the total number of students here at the University, roughly about 40,000, then only 2,666 would have attended a game and 16,000 would have heard the news. These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt as scaling results is typically never accurate, but this is gives you an idea of how little exposure our adapted athletics teams receive.

These players put in just as much work, if not more, than any other team on campus, and according to the assistant coach, Adam Kramer, the team practices four times a day during the regular season. Also, Ryan Jansen, a player on the team, stated that the team is given only a two week break after being crowned national champions before they must return to workouts. This lack of deserved attention is noticed by the players, too. While I was doing my man-on-the-street investigation, the four-year veteran of the team, DeQuel Robinson was passing by. He was wearing a crisp white button up complimented with glistening gold earrings and a fresh haircut. I recognized him and asked him to come over. I explained I was asking people about their experience and knowledge of the wheelchair basketball team and his face lit up with happiness. His smile was so big in face that I couldn’t help but laugh and smile myself. He asked my name, shook my hand, and said something that’s stuck with me before carrying on with his day:

“Thank you, we need it.”

In that moment, I understood how the team feels. The University of Alabama is a football school, and no one can really dispute that. However, we have so many gifted athletes across every program that equally deserve a slice of the limelight. But it just so happens that there’s not enough to go around and some sports get left in the dark. I’d like to say that each sport will get their turn eventually, but with how much of a dominating force that the football program is, you just can’t make promises like that. However, spreading the word of the adapted athletics program’s success is a good place to start. After hearing about the team, many people seemed genuinely interested in attending a game and even asked when the next season starts or how they could get involved. After all, the University of Alabama is a school of winners, and you’ll find some in unexpected places.

What does a collegiate wheelchair basketball practice look like? Well, it involves a lot of upper body strength and specially adapted wheelchairs that allow players to ram into each other without breaking any bones or wheels. These chairs are the most important piece of gear a player can have, and they’re the most expensive by far. Typically, the chairs are made of lightweight and durable metals such as aluminum or titanium and can run anywhere from $1,500 to upward of $5,000. On top of being made from some the best materials on earth, these chairs are fully customizable. Many players suffer from disabilities so a “one size fits all” option is just not realistic. Because of this, every piece of the wheelchair is measured and custom fitted for the player. Perhaps the most important part of the chair is the pair of wheels that take most of the abuse on the court. These are angled inward at about a thirty-degree angle which allows the players to make contact with each other without squishing their hands or losing their balance. A cool little fact about these wheels is that they can swapped out pretty quick, in about as much time as a time-out during a game.

Now, what does a wheelchair basketball game sound like? The sounds of squeaking basketball shoes and pounding of steps on the court are absent, yet present. The soles of basketball shoes have been replaced by the tread of wheels, which tend to squeak the same. And instead of the pounding sound on the court that comes from running and jumping, you hear the metal on metal of wheelchairs constantly colliding. These collisions do take their toll on players and their chairs, as the rims of some of their wheels have been bent beyond repair. Sometimes, these hits are so hard that a player falls over. Don’t worry though, as these guys are strong enough to roll themselves over and push themselves off the ground to get up on their own.

Okay, now you understand the atmosphere, but what about the actual activities and exercises that take place in a practice? To be honest, the only difference between a standard basketball practice and an adapted basketball practice is the stretching. The players emphasize importance on adequately stretching everything in the upper body, everything from the neck, to the core, and even the wrists. Then, the twelve players and two coaches gather in a huddle in center court to discuss what the focus of today’s practice will be. For example, today’s emphasis was on ball control and agility. To practice this, the players lined up at the baselines and sped across the court while dribbling, but then had to stop on a dime when the coach blew his whistle. This continued for several repetitions and then the team moved on to standard lay-up drills that could be seen in even a high school basketball practice. I guess it’s still all about the fundamentals, right? They then moved on to several timed scrimmages to fill the rest of duration of the two-hour practice. The practice then wrapped up as any other practice would, with a pep talk from the coach and a “Team on three!” #RollTide