I enjoyed taking pictures at the press conference when our new chancellor named Debbie Yow, the athletic director at the University of Maryland, as the new NCSU athletic director. I was always a big fan of all that Debbie’s sister, Kay, did on and off the court as women’s basketball coach until she died of breast cancer.

She left Maryland for all the right reasons: the desire to return home, the desire to make a difference at school to which she has had ties for years, and because of administrative challenges at Maryland including tension with other coaches and the retirement of University of Maryland President C.D. Mote. Just as NCSU’s chancellor made it one of his first duties to hire a new athletic director, the new president at Maryland might want to make the same change.

Although it appears she was not on the search committee’s top list of potential athletic directors, NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson insisted that Yow was on his list.

As much as I enjoyed taking pictures, I enjoyed even more working with the students who came to report and take pictures. Tim O’Brien always does an excellent job taking photos and you can certainly see more of his work on the Technician’s website and in the yearbook as the story evolves. He posted one with a short news story from the site.

Kathryn Glaser did a great job interviewing the student body president, Kelly Hook, and finding a student angle. She also got good stuff from the new AD including some thoughts about the role of students in athletics.

Brent Kitchen got to do some deadline writing with Tyler Dukes helping him out. Being critiqued in real time will help all writers out. Brent also got to get information from other high-profile coaches such as men’s basketball coach Sidney Lowe.

It’s fun seeing the students at work, finding student angles on big stories and looking beyond the surface. Job well done all around.

Washington Post article