Growth, Gratitude and The Game: The Sports Editor’s Reflection

The past three years with The Hilltop, two years as a sports writer and one year as the sports editor, have been an enriching and enjoyable experience that has molded me into the journalist I am today.

Freshman year, I attended a town hall where I was first introduced to The Hilltop. The newspaper intrigued me because of its legacy, and I knew it would be an opportunity to grow as a writer.

I was indecisive about applying to the newspaper for my sophomore or junior year. 

Thanks to the guidance from two upperclassmen and Kyle Fisher, who would be my editor for two years, I applied during the summer before my sophomore year and the rest was history.

When I was notified that I would be a part of the staff for the 2023-2024 school year, my whole world changed. I felt a plethora of emotions, including shock and excitement.

It meant the world to me that The Hilltop saw my passion and excitement to be a sports writer and allowed me to make a name for myself with the newspaper supporting me along the way. 

One of my favorite articles that I’ve written during my time, which also received a lot of recognition when it was published in my sophomore year, was about the men’s and women’s golf teams being centered in an eight-part docu-series, “Why Not Us: Howard Golf.”

The following school year, I honed my skills as a sports writer as I had more experience from the year prior.

I knew that when I became the sports editor in my senior year, I wanted my section to focus on frequently covering more than football and basketball, but also women’s sports and teams such as the tennis, swimming and diving and volleyball teams. 

As a woman in sports, I find it extremely important to highlight and celebrate the achievements of other women, especially Black women, in college athletics and the sports industry. 

I find it equally important to feature all sports teams at Howard University in the newspaper.

This year the sports section produced numerous articles across the different sports teams at Howard that including the football team beating Hampton University for the first time since 2014, and the team defeating Morgan State University in overtime at the 101st homecoming game, Ted White becoming the new head football coach, Black male athletes engagement bringing visibility to Black love, Howard’s athletics department requiring athletes to stand during the national anthem, the men’s and women’s basketball teams making history advancing to the NCAA tournament and the women’s swimming and diving team making history winning their first Northeast Conference (NEC) Championship.

Words cannot express how grateful I am to have been allowed to be a part of a publication as notorious as this one. Thank you to The Hilltop for helping me find my voice as a journalist and amplify the voices of others during the process. 

Sincerely,

Armani Durham

Copy edited by Daryl R. Thomas Jr.