My week in review: Jan. 1-7
Hello, 2020 (and those reading this post)! As part of the New Year, I’ve decided to document my 2020 through blog posts on my site (how millennial of me, I know). I want to be able to look back and see what I’ve done during the year. There’s a lot going on, so it’d be nice to have it documented somewhere. So, here goes nothing. This is what my first week of 2020 looked like:
Jan. 1: An unexpected Gopher Football win
I kicked off 2020 without working, which was a nice break. I got to spend some time with friends and watch the Outback Bowl, featuring the Gophers. The cynical Minnesota sports fan in me was assuming the worst that the Gophers would lose to Auburn. But, I was pleasantly surprised. After a rough start, Minnesota bounced back and came away with an impressive victory and an unreal catch by Tyler Johnson. Here’s a look at that catch:
Jan. 2: A Wolves win? A Wolves win!
It was back to work for me on the 2nd, like many other people. It was a fun day, however. Because I got to work with FSN at the production truck for the Timberwolves game at Target Center. It’s kind of a strange experience to explain. Basically, you sit in a truck inside the arena.
As the AD, your job is a few things. You work with the producer on coordinating with the crew on video packages for halftime and the postgame show. You also track music that’s running throughout the broadcast. With so many copyright laws and such, it’s important to know what music ran when and for how long. You also look for good things that would work well on FS North’s social media accounts. Usually, that’s big plays or fun features during the game.
I’m not sure if that makes sense, but it’s a really fun time. The crew is great and it helps when the home team wins. Here’s a quick highlight reel of the game if you’re interested:
Jan. 3: Feasting and hooping
Since I currently work multiple jobs in this season of life, there are often days where I’m wearing multiple hats. That was this day. I woke up bright and early to head over to the iHeart Media studios, where I work as part of the street team. Basically, we work events with the promotion staff for all of the different stations under that umbrella. It includes KDWB, KFAN, K102, Cities 97.1, KOOL 108, KTLK, Hot 102.5, Alt 93.3 and more.
This event was for KFAN. It was the Friday Football Feast. Basically, the station does a live broadcast of Paul Allen’s show from 9-noon each Friday before a Vikings game. Last week’s was special because of it being a playoff feast. It’s a really fun event that the fans flock to and get excited for the game. I enjoy working it, especially since we kind of have a group that works it every week (shoutout Feast Fam).
Once I was done at about 12:30 p.m. or so, it was off to another gig. I was covering a girls’ basketball game at 2 p.m. between Elk River and Roseville for the Star Tribune’s High School Hubs. For those of you who don’t know, I write articles for the Hubs, whether it’s game coverage or some weekly features. This was a classic game coverage situation. Elk River came in as the favorite and showed why as the Elks rolled. Here’s my story from the game:
https://www.mngirlsbasketballhub.com/news_article/show/1074496?referrer_id=248310
Jan. 4: Another off day
So, I will say this was a considerably slower week than normal with the holidays and such. So, I relaxed on this free day but also devoted time toward my lovely dachshund, Minny. If you haven’t met Minny, we should meet up soon. She’s a great dog who is turning one on the 21st of this month. We spent time at the pet store, dog park and more. A fun day with her, but I unfortunately did not get photos of that experience.
Jan. 5: All of the sports!
What a sports day this was. The NFL playoffs bring plenty of excitement, especially for me when the Vikings are in it. But to add to matters, I was working at FSN on that night’s Wolves game. As I was preparing video for the pregame show, I was beyond distracted by the Vikings-Saints playoff game. Pretty much everyone knows at this point the Vikings won in overtime on a controversial (Not to me, there was hand-fighting both ways. Also, why are the Saints putting a guy on Kyle Rudolph who is six inches shorter?) play. Here’s a highlight, so you can continue to celebrate like me:
Ah, it’s so beautiful. Once that was over, my focus was all in on the Timberwolves. I worked their road game against the Cavaliers. I was in Minneapolis. My role in this situation is to help run stuff for the pregame, halftime and postgame shows. That’s video clips and other stuff sent from the folks broadcasting the game in Cleveland. Though the Wolves almost blew it, they pulled it out in the end to make it a great day for yours truly.
Jan. 6: Prepping that hockey
Monday was a nice day to dedicate to writing. I wrote an article for PrepHockey Minnesota. It’s a new site that launched late in 2019 devoted to covering high school hockey and the players inside the state. The company has had success in other sports and asked me to help launch the hockey side of things. I gladly obliged. I enjoy the site’s mission and have contributed somewhat to the start. I hope to continue to be involved more in 2020. On this day, I started a weekly feature on the games to watch. You do have to pay for the site to access content. I do encourage you to pay for the content (it’s pretty good if I do say so myself).
Jan. 7: Ball is life (at least for me today)?
It was a basketball-filled Tuesday for me. It started with the release of a weekly feature I’ve been working on for the Star Tribune basketball hubs called the Top Performer. Basically, we choose five players who had standout performances during the prior week and I choose them and make an article out of it. It’s a fun feature I enjoy working on. Find the boys’ feature here and the girls’ feature here.
After that, my work for the Hubs continued as I covered girls’ basketball at Minneapolis Southwest High School. Southwest was taking on Minneapolis South, the heavy favorites. South prevailed easily as it used the aggressive defense strategy and rolled. Read more about the game below:
https://www.mngirlsbasketballhub.com/news_article/show/1076151?referrer_id=248310
Thanks again for reading this weekly feature. If you have any feedback let me know. Email me at rwilliamson29@gmail.com. You can find me on just about any social media platform as well!
