THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2011 | 11
THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE
ADAM LOBERSTEIN Coordinator, Media Relations & Broadcasting for the Oakland Athletics Aggie editor in chief 2009-10
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I couldn’t go to The Pavilion for its firstever, nationally-televised UC Davis basketball game on March 7 because I was away on a business trip. This business trip wasn’t your standard business trip. First, it felt like I was in Arizona for a month, most likely because I was. I spent a significant amount of each day around people you’d probably like to meet, particularly if you’re a sports fan. And I watched baseball every single day, a responsibility that’s actually written into my job description. That’s because I work for the Oakland Athletics. I’m in my fourth season with the A’s, my third as the team’s Coordinator of Media Relations & Broadcasting. My days typically consist of the following: Traveling with the team on various road trips throughout the season, staying in fancy hotels I couldn’t afford to go to otherwise, talking to players, talking to the media, re-
searching a bunch of statistics and subconsciously memorizing an embarrassingly high percentage of them, eating free food and working more hours at the ballpark than I care to admit. I’m 24 years old, doing the only job I’ve ever planned to do. Better yet, I’m doing it for the only baseball team I’ve ever been a fan of. Rarely a day goes by where I wish I was someplace else. March 7 was one of those days. That day, I wanted to be at Pavilion. I wanted to be there for that game, to be one of those 5,670 fans in the building. Instead, I sat and watched ESPN2 from the hotel bar, confusing everyone around me with how much I wanted to see a game featuring two teams no one else had heard of. The reality is I wouldn’t have been at that hotel bar, or been on the fast track to the Major Leagues, if I hadn’t got my start covering games at The Pavilion. And I wouldn’t have been covering games at The Pavilion without the newspaper you’re holding right now. If you’re a UC Davis student and you’re not working for The California Aggie,
HEATH DRUZIN
JOE JASZEWSKI
Reporter for Stars and Stripes Aggie campus news editor 2001-02
Photography editor at The Idaho Statesman Photography editor 2001-02
I arrived at The Aggie at a time of transition, not unlike what it's experiencing now. Our dark room had changed from the epicenter of the paper's photo staff to little more than a convenient spot for late-night dalliances. The glue and scissors had been tucked away in favor of QuarkXpress and it was no longer good enough to get a story to readers first thing in the morning (or afternoon, depending on your college drinking habits). But the paper retained something of an old school edge. Arguments were openly aired in the newsroom, papers occasionally tossed from the desk and profane jokes were the lingua franca of the staff. Editorial discussions were the most spirited. This was the language of dedication from a staff that relied on no one but themselves and had no one to shield them from the vitriolic criticism coming from the right and the left (we were, of course, both ardent communists and committed fascists, depending on who was waving the sign). We were proudly "the only daily broadsheet in the UC system" and more proud because we had no journalism program backing us, no funding from the university and the freedom to write critically about issues important to students. While my degree is in history and political science, my main education was putting together the paper each day and it served me well. I've worked as a reporter around the country and the world, covered two wars and written about everything from felonious strip club owners to taekwondo. The foundations of my reporting skills were honed at The Aggie, where I not only got experience with daily deadlines but plenty of tough criticism, too: "Heath, if you ever write the same lede again, I'm going to kick your ass," my first editor said of the boring, repetitive ledes I submitted as a freshman. I didn’t make that mistake again. I still get together regularly with friends from The Aggie and, 10 years (yikes) later, our conversations inevitably turn to those long ago days in the basement — fights with the administration, what beverage we had in our Camelbaks during Picnic Day, and the 2002 spoof edition, the funniest thing that ever got us in deep, deep shit.
For the moment I’ll put aside how my four years at The Aggie launched me into a career that’s had everything you could ever want: fun, adventure, challenge, relevance, constant learning and the opportunity to make a difference in our world. Because the most important thing The Aggie did for me was give me the best friends I’ve ever known. The bonds that were forged in the Ivory Basement under the constant pressure of putting out a newspaper every single weekday have endured over a decade after we all filled out our first VDT slip. There was no moderator, or advisor, we could go to when shit got real at The Aggie in my day. We only had ourselves on which to rely. We may have now all scattered across the world, but that doesn’t mean I feel any less close to those incredibly talented, wickedly smart people. I think it’s because we had an “us against the world” mentality. The conservatives thought we were too liberal, the liberals thought we were too conservative, the faculty thought us too juvenile and the students just wanted their crossword. In a lot of ways, we were campus outcasts, and most of us liked it that way. The only group we enjoyed approval from was our own. The “Aggie Hubris” crew and I, we get together at least once a year for what we call a “Basement Reunion.” We recall the battles waged, the victories won, the ires drawn, the lawsuits dropped. I share a kinship with these people, whom some have dubbed The Aggie’s “Greatest Generation,” that will last forever. It might sound like I’m being overly sentimental here, like I’m some balding has-been pathetically recalling his youthful glory days, now living a mind-numbing life of garage door openers and gas fireplaces and gardening gloves. But I really think it was actually that great. If you don’t believe me, just ask any other Aggie alum.
you’re doing it wrong. You can walk into 25 Lower Freeborn with no work experience. You can walk out like I did four years later, as the editor in chief. This newspaper has sent writers onto major publications, including The New York Times. It’s sent people to Fortune 500 companies. In 2010, it sent me to a Major League Baseball team — six months before I graduated. Do yourself a favor: Be the next person on this list. Still unsure if this is the right place for you? Let’s talk in person. The next time Pavilion hosts an ESPN game, I won’t be hard to find. I’ll be down on press row, where this whole trip started for me.
MICHAEL GEHLKEN Chargers Beat Writer at U-T San Diego Aggie sports editor 2007-08 It has happened twice now. There was first the elevator at the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2006. I'd just met with a newspaper columnist to pick his brain about the industry, wanting his advice before entering it — the advice for this 19-year-old was “don't” — when I met a stranger on the descent to ground level. He asked what school I attended. I told him. “UC Davis!” said Pat Flynn, a former California Aggie sports editor, then a U-T editor. Two months ago, there was the elevator at a Super Bowl media hotel in New Orleans. A man held a bag of shirts, souvenirs for his wife back home in the Bay Area. He introduced himself as Dan Brown, sports writer at the San Jose Mercury News. I knew the name. “UC Davis!” I said to the 1991-1992 editor in chief. I spent thousands of dollars at the Memorial Union for books I didn't read. I still pay off loans for classes I rarely attended, a 1090-E tax form on this desk as hard proof. What made those investments worthwhile was the chance to invest my time at the California Aggie. I owe my career to it. So many others do, too. The Aggie's new transition from a daily to weekly format, while difficult to stomach given the paper's influence on the campus community and, on a personal level, my decision to attend the school, is about right. My time on staff between 2006 and 2009 saw the disappearance of color pages and writer pay; we previously earned $1 per inch, or just enough to pay our Coffee House sandwich bills. We feared a more drastic change to the Aggie's structure was inevitable. Now that it's arrived, I take solace in knowing what has proven most valuable — the chance to invest time at a college newspaper — remains. It's an important grind. For me, it was sitting at home on a Saturday, a laptop for company, writing about basketball at 11:50 p.m. as the music and drunkenness of a party pounded in the distance. It was a question in discussion section inquiring about our daily interpersonal communication tendencies. My answer was “97 percent workplace.” You keep grinding, keep grinding, keep honing the craft you love. Then, one day, an elevator randomly becomes an elevator no more. It's a fraternity. I look forward to the next ride.
Joe Jaszewski / Courtesy
LEFT: The Basement Reunion crew, all former California Aggie staffers (L-R) Andy Defino, Heath Druzin, Eleeza Agopian, Alison Williams Sremack, Andrew Whelan and Joe Jaszewski at Rehoboth Beach, DE during a Basement Reunion in 2010.