Not too many people realize just how much time and hard work go into making a champion at the college level.

Slim minorities get the chance to smell the aroma of hard work as the football team heads toward the locker room or hear the motivation of Nsync as the basketball team lifts weights. Not so many people understand that the Kohl Center has the best coffee on campus, or that it’s especially good when you’re covering a game the night before you have an 8:50 midterm.

The world of a sports writer at the University of Wisconsin is one oftentimes filled with all the glamour that comes with being the guy who hands in the teacher evals. It starts off as a journey to tennis practice and the spring regatta. You do realize some things very quickly, however. Your lifelong idea about college women quickly goes to the wayside when you’re waiting outside of women’s hockey practice for an interview. It turns out all athletes smell, and any woman in the world of sports at UW can likely flex you if she so chose.

Not too many people really see the deadline pressure that comes with covering a 7 p.m. basketball game for the next day’s issue. While your friends are off drinking the night away, you’re left in your cozy little dorm room, typing away until your fingers fall off.

You arrive at your first writers’ meeting as an intimidated first-year student, and before you know it, you’ve volunteered for more stories than your schedule allows. You come to enjoy covering the sports world so much that school has taken a back seat. Seeing your work in the paper is all the joy you need. It has to be that way, though, because even though the guy next to you is reading your stuff, he has no idea who you are.

You begin to write every day, and you begin to notice improvement. It’s never really about working; it’s about enjoying what you do.

While everyone else pays their way into games, you walk by the gates with ease as you flash your credentials. While sometimes you’re treated to ribs and brownies before the game, at other events you must face the facts that all you’re getting is a cup of lemonade. It’s no worry, though; luckily the games go on no matter what the conditions. Athletes perform, and you sit emotionless whether Lee Evans is scoring a 99-yard touchdown or Minnesota is kicking a game-winning field goal.

The life of a sports writer sends you on 5 a.m. journeys all over the country. It picks you up in Madison and flies you to Washington, D.C., then you wake up and you’re in Chicago. You drive through the mountains of the East and the cornfields of the Midwest with nothing but Krispy Kreme donuts, 7-11 coffee and a Rolling Stones CD to keep you going. You realize you haven’t seen your friends in weeks, because you’re gone every weekend, and you’re in the office all week.

It’s hard to make sense how as a sports editor you’re pulling in a robust $2.34 an hour and working until 1:30 a.m. on a regular basis. The time wouldn’t be bad except for the fact that you arrived just after class at 4 p.m. and you’ll be back again tomorrow.

Why do we do it then?

We do it because we love providing the best sports coverage in the city. It’s a tradition of late nights and great writers. You have to realize that although Stacy is only 5-foot-1, she can give a wicked neck rub and can teach you all you need to know. There’s no doubt that as I’ve lived out my term as editor I’ve had to back up my buddy Drew, and have counted on him to have my back as well.

Criticism comes with the territory; even when you’re doing what you love, you can never be perfect. No matter what someone’s opinion is of your work, the fact that they’ve voiced their opinion may be your biggest testament. If you can’t elicit a response with your opinion, then one of two things has occurred. Either everyone agrees with you, or no one reads your writing. I’d much rather be in the first boat as insults are hurled my way, than be in the second one sinking toward the bottom of obscurity.

In my time at UW, I’ve discovered that sports writing is a lot like life in that there are times when nothing seems to go as planned. But it’s when you’re waiting for a taxi outside the office at 2:30 a.m. that you realize you really do love your work.

So now I come full circle in saying that the sports world is grand, but there is inevitably something bigger about life that I was never meant to understand. For that reason it wouldn’t be fit for me to end my time here without showing love for my family, my girlfriend, my friends and especially Denny, who I’ll never forget.