2 origional Pitches: The Sucess of UNE Football and how a new Football team can change the culture of a college campus”
The sudden turn around from the dining in the forum
Early Draft:
The first thing that I did when picking which pitch was going to work the best. It was easy going from there I immediatly contacted my coaches that I needed to speak with for their interviews. I used previous knowledge that I new bout the programs history and fact checked it using the UNE athetics website. The firts part was laying things out and planning. Making sure proper word economy is in oorder is something that I am working on using better. Goiong over other pieces in class really helped because between writing and taking interviews really helped me ask better questions and know how to use my writers voice. Overall, the information was easy to obtain and everyone was easy going and very willing to contribute at a moments notice. Additionally I think that this is a great story of a football team with humble beginnings sheds its skin and assumes its role in the Commonwelth Coast Confrence. That Is why I decided to give this feature the tite of “Started from The Bottom, Now were Here.” I believe that it fits the story extremley well, and added a certian eye catching vibe.
Developing Draft: “Started from The bottom Now were Here”
Biddeford, ME, Until 2016 the concept of a football program at the University of New England was unheard of. Then the athletics committee at UNE decided that it was time for a change, and that is when they announced the commencement of the first ever UNE football team.
Since its inception in 2016 the football program at UNE, lead by head coach Mike Lichten ( he/him) has had a constant upward trend in their success. Their most recent success being their 6-4 record in the 2023 season.
Before they could even play a regulated game, MIke Lichten and newly hired defensive coordinator Kenny Trechitta had to field a team, get ahold of the proper facilities on campus, complete the hiring of the coaching staff, and finally play their first proper game.
Per NCAA rules, a newly formed sports team must complete 2 Junior varsity seasons. This means that this UNE team will be playing in conference teams against their opponents sub varsity roster, aka the players that are on the lower end of the depth chart. Since day 1 at UNE there has been an expectation of good effort and execution both on and off the field. With that being said the culture of football at UNE has been that of hard work because they have to work hard for everything that they have earned. However the culture on campus has changed.
“I think that having football on campus has played a major role in the change of culture on campus here, having football brings a lot more guys on campus with diverse backgrounds. Having football also brings a lot of campus out on Saturdays and it’s a great event to have on campus. ” says head coach Mike Lichten.
Former player and no current offensive line coach and head of recruiting Eric Ruest added that ” The energy has been the same since our first home game in 2017. The experience has only gotten better and the gameday environment has always been electric with people tailgating, a packed Blue Bolt Field, as well as having President Herbert there at every home game. It also plays into our recruiting process a lot, the gameday atmosphere as well as our facilities and culture on campus are great tools. In some cases the school sells itself.”
UNE and the football program here has changed campus culture for the betterment of the school. Through players and coaches from all backgrounds you find a family dedicated to the sport of football and constantly improving themselves. Whether it’s the phenomenal coaching or the dedication of the players in a combined effort to be great it’s so hard not to fall in love with the story that is still being written today.
workshop Draft: “Started from The bottom Now were Here: The story Of UNE Football”
Biddeford, ME, Since its inception in 2016 the football program at UNE, lead by head coach Mike Lichten ( he/him) has had a constant upward trend in their success. Their most recent success being their 6-4 record in the 2023 season.
Until 2016 the concept of a football program at the University of New England was unheard of. Then the athletics committee at UNE decided that it was time for a change, and that is when they announced the commencement of the first ever UNE football team. Once the decision was finalized, the athletics department began their search for a head coach. This is what led this committee to find an applicant in Mike Lichten, ECFC coach of the year in 2015 out of Becker College. Coach promised that if he was hired he would not only be helping these players be great athletes, but help them become better versions of themselves as they go into the real world.
Before they could even play a regulated game, MIke Lichten and newly hired defensive coordinator Kenny Trechitta had to field a team, get ahold of the proper facilities on campus, complete the hiring of the coaching staff, and finally play their first proper game.
Per NCAA rules, a newly formed sports team must complete 2 Junior varsity seasons. This means that this UNE team will be playing in conference teams against their opponents sub varsity roster, aka the players that are on the lower end of the depth chart. Since day 1 at UNE there has been an expectation of good effort and execution both on and off the field. With that being said the culture of football at UNE has been that of hard work because they have to work hard for everything that they have earned. However the culture on campus has changed.
“I think that having football on campus has played a major role in the change of culture on campus here, having football brings a lot more guys on campus with diverse backgrounds. Having football also brings a lot of campus out on Saturdays and it’s a great event to have on campus. ” says head coach Mike Lichten.
Former player and no current offensive line coach and head of recruiting Eric Ruest added that ” The energy has been the same since our first home game in 2017. The experience has only gotten better and the gameday environment has always been electric with people tailgating, a packed Blue Bolt Field, as well as having President Herbert there at every home game. It also plays into our recruiting process a lot, the gameday atmosphere as well as our facilities and culture on campus are great tools. In some cases the school sells itself.”
I then asked coach Ruest what the staff and himself looks for in an athlete, he said ” We want a guy who can do the things that don’t require talent, we look for people who are going to commit to all aspects of being a student athlete on campus. We want athletes who are good people as good players, it took us a bit but I feel that we are evaluating the right guys and believe that they will fit with our current group.”
What UNE has done in the past few years is nothing short of remarkable, the team experienced its first season with a winning record in program history. In addition to this they also had many other accolades in the form of all academic conference players and in players being named in the first and second team All CCC. All conference and winning seasons aside the program and coaches have done so much for the campus community.
Senior Trenton “Tj” Jackson ( he/him) says “being a part of UNE football has shown me how to speak up for people and my beliefs. Being on this team and sharing the same values that the other players and coaches share, has given me a chance to speak up and voice my opinion. Football is a roller coaster is a roller coaster and through all the ups and downs, this team has taught me to stand up and keep on fighting no matter the circumstances.”
UNE and the football program here has changed campus culture for the betterment of the school. Through players and coaches from all backgrounds you find a family dedicated to the sport of football and constantly improving themselves. Whether it’s the phenomenal coaching or the dedication of the players in a combined effort to be great it’s so hard not to fall in love with the story that is still being written today.
Workshop Review:
The things that I took away from my in class workshop were fixing gramatical mistakes, some misplacment of sentences, and I got some great feedback in regards to my storytelling. It was a quicker discussion than the others but the feedback that I got was great. I think that I am putting the right message and everyone is being represented properly. I enjoyed hearing all of the thoughts of people who read something that I wrote and liked it. The things that are goig in my revisions are the fixing of the gramatical errors, using the new techniques for condensing paragraphs, and fill in the blanks on come things like “All CCC.” I will also guide my story to fit more of the culture aspect of this feature.
Final:
“Started from The bottom Now were Here”
“The story Of UNE Football”
Biddeford, ME,Until 2016 the concept of a football program at the University of New England was unheard of. Then the athletics committee at UNE decided that it was time for a change, they announced the commencement of the first ever UNE football team. Until 2016 the concept of a football program at the University of New England was unheard of.
Since its inception in 2016 the football program at UNE, lead by head coach Mike Lichten has had a constant upward trend in their success. Their recent success being their 6-4 record in the 2023 season.
The athletics committee at UNE decided that it was time for a change, and that is when they announced the commencement of the first ever UNE football team. Once the decision was finalized, the athletics department began their search for a head coach. This is what led this committee to find an applicant in Mike Lichten, ECFC coach of the year in 2015 out of Becker College. Coach promised that if he was hired he would not only be helping these players be great athletes, but help them become better versions of themselves as they go into the real world.
Before they could play a varsity game, MIke Lichten had to field a team, get ahold of the proper facilities on campus, complete the hiring of the coaching staff, and finally play their first proper game.
Per NCAA rules, a newly formed sports team must complete 2 Junior varsity seasons. This means that this UNE team will be playing in conference teams against their opponents sub varsity roster, aka the players that are lower on the depth chart. Since day 1 at UNE there has been an expectation of good effort and execution both on and off the field. The culture of football at UNE has been that of hard work because they have to work hard for everything that they have earned. However the culture on campus has changed.
“I think that having football on campus has played a major role in the change of culture on campus here, having football brings a lot more guys on campus with diverse backgrounds. Having football also brings a lot of campus out on Saturdays and it’s a great event to have on campus. ” says head coach Mike Lichten.
Former player and no current offensive line coach and head of recruiting Eric Ruest added that ” The energy has been the same since the home game in 2017. The experience has only gotten better and the gameday environment has always been electric with people tailgating, a packed Blue Bolt Field, also President Herbert there at every home game. It also plays into our recruiting process a lot, the gameday atmosphere as well as our facilities and culture on campus are great tools. In some cases the school sells itself.”
I then asked Ruest what the staff was looking for and he said ” We want a guy who can do the things that don’t require talent, we look for people who are going to commit to all aspects of being a student athlete on campus. We want athletes who are good people as good players. It took us a bit but I feel that we are evaluating the right guys and believe that they will fit with our current group.”
What UNE has done in the past few years is remarkable, the team experienced its first season with a winning record in program history. In addition to this they also had many other accolades in the form of all academic conference players and in players being named in the first and second team All CCC. All conference players and winning seasons aside, the program and coaches have done so much for the campus community.
Senior Trenton Jackson says “being a part of UNE football has shown me how to speak up for people and my beliefs. Being on this team and sharing the same values that the other players and coaches share, has given me a chance to speak up and voice my opinion. Football is a roller coaster and through all the ups and downs, this team has taught me to stand up and keep on fighting no matter the circumstances.”
UNE and the football program has changed campus culture for the betterment of the school. Through players and coaches from all backgrounds you find a family dedicated to the sport of football and constantly improving themselves. Whether it’s the phenomenal coaching or the dedication of the players in a combined effort to be great it’s so hard not to fall in love with the story that is still being written today.
Reflection: Overall I have learned a lot over the course of the Feature Creature project. Mainly it is the real world experience that I got for what is going to be my chosen profession of journalism. The editorial in class discussions as well as actually conducting the interviews are what really stood out to me throughout this process. Getting live feedback and being able to revise my work really helped me develop my piece. Before my feature creature was up to be revised I applied some of the techniques from the other feature reviews to my story that was only being written at the time. The things that I learned from the book and the class discussions was the use of good storytelling aspects, condensing my writing, and finding your focus and your story. These techniques specifically are what helped me a lot, fortunately enough these themes came up a lot in these workshops. I also gained a lot of experience in interviewing people, I have only been on the other side of interviewing so being the interviewer was a nice change. This also ties in to my Sports Field Production class in which I also had to give an interview for a project. These skills helped me immensely in that interview process as well as the interviews for the feature creature. I also continued to develop the skill of collaborating with others and using my voice in a work or project setting. The writers workshops that we did really opened my eyes up to what an aspect of my future career is going to look like in journalism. In conclusion the feature creature project helped me with all of the skills that I had mentioned before, as well as applied teese skills into my feature creature project as well as other projects.
Reviews:
Cole
I like the title off the bat, it’s very funny and it’s a good way to bring your readers in. This is set up really well, sometimes the best way of tackling an issue is by sugar coating it in humor. Additionally some of your paragraphs, like the first 2 after your lead. They contain good information that is appropriate to the story overall but it needs to be made more digestible and easy to read. Also you need to make a new paragraph when you are introducing a new quote.I think that it’s crazy that Fetherman is the only building on campus that is handicap accessible. That may be the most powerful quote of this piece.
Kirsten
I like your title and I think that asking a question in your title is a great way to bring people in because people want answers to all the questions that get asked. I think that there are no grammatical errors and everything is formatted properly. Something that I also want to point out is your ending and how that stood out to me because of the wording and the way that you conveyed that it was still a mystery of the boat’s disappearance. “More context clues than answers.” is the quote that stood out for me. I think it just shows really good storytelling abilities.
Caitlin
Outside of some formatting errors with your paragraphs and quotes I think that this is a phenomenal story that needs to be talked about. The tuition increase and cost of living at UNE has been a huge topic of discussion since I got here. Knowing what I pay in tuition per year, this is an article that can hit close to home. I especially like that you included tables that included what the costs of on vs off campus housing looks like, so that way the reader gets the message and you can still adhere to the word count that Prof. Miller asked us to follow. Some things to note: where did you get the information? I would also speak to someone at housing, and maybe see what prompts the school to charge this much.
Sara Bedore
I think that you have a great piece and it is very well written and formatted properly. It is very informative but I feel that some better aspects of storytelling could be applied. There’s some words that you could use to spice it up a bit. I think that it is a great, real, captivating story but the only way that it can truly be captivating is that it has to be written like an informative story. That way you will keep people engaged with our topic.
Kayleigh
First off I think that you need a shorter leade. I think that is enriched in great content and I believe that it would be great in the nut graf and in the first paragraph. I think that focusing on a green initiative that UNE is focusing on with students helps promote an interactive feel with a classroom. The Saco river is home to many wildlife and marine plant life and is important to the local community in Biddeford and in surrounding areas. Some things that I wish were included in this were how long it took to get the grant, and how do you convince an organization to give you over 100k? I like what you’re going for in terms of your angle about how this on campus program has been able to get a large sum of finances from another company to help preserve marine life in the Saco river.
Phoebe
In your leade include the location, dates if applicable and instead of using the term “On Campus’ ‘ in the leade establish that you’re talking about the Residence Life on campus at UNE in Biddeford Maine, not just on campus. There should also be a new paragraph when giving a quote. This feature creature needs a title, no one is going to take note of or want to read an article that doesn’t have a captivating title. I think that this is a good story and that it needs to be cleaned up and made to be more digestible. It is a good story and a great idea for a feature. I just think that it needs a little bit of TLC.
Elia
You have a great leade, I can get the feel of the story and the tone of it from just those few sentences. I also like the way that you introduce your quotes, “They don’t all start with “ and then someone said … “ Everything is formatted well. I think that the people you chose to interview were very passionate about the subject of the schedule change and how that affects the students. A quote that stands out to me is “I wish it would be, but I honestly feel like no matter how many people bring it up, there wouldn’t be a change.” from Mamula. I like the way that it ended as well. It summarizes and plays into the story quite well. I too would benefit with the idea of being off on fridays! I hate that they changed that before I got the chance to enjoy it.
Grace
I think your lead is good and captivating but it should be shorter. I feel that your first thirty words or so should be the lead and then rework the rest of the lead that you didn’t use into your first paragraph. I also like the idea of this feature on campus itself and how it acts like a mini city. I think that this is a thing that gets not enough attention. I think all of the accessibility that we have as college students is something that we take for granted. It’s extremely convenient and easy to navigate. I think outside of a few paragraph issues with quotes and maybe a misspelling or two this is a great feature.
Evan
Overall a good start. I think that this has potential but it needs more, maybe an interview with Chris, our AT to get his thoughts on the turf and how that plays into non contact sports injuries. I think that this is a good idea and I also like your title. It just needs more, maybe an interview with coach Lichten as well? If you’re going to include him in the lead then he should be featured in the article. Also there should be a new paragraph per every quote that you use. You also have one paragraph in the middle that is too big, mayne break that up to make it more digestible to read.
Zak
I like the inclusion of a sub headline. This feature also talks about a serious issue on campus that many students struggle with. Needs to be a new paragraph every time that you introduce a person, also should include pronouns. I like how many solutions as well as both sides of the argument are presented. Finally I like the way that you ended the feature, I think that asking a question keeps people talking about what is going on. That can lead to discussions with people who have a say.I think that the school should have more spaces for parking knowing how they get a large sum of money from students.
Sarah
I think this is very well written and talks about something that people don’t talk about. This would be a great feature to show someone who doesn’t know what they want to major in. Whether they are an undeclared first year or an upperclassmen attempting at making a change This feature is filled with valuable data and history on the new program. This feature shows dedicated staff committed to helping students find their future, I think that this could be a great resource for anyone who needs it.
Molly
I think that this is a great feature about the Hockey team here! Everything is formatted correctly and this piece is enriched with great content. You do need to make a new paragraph when using a quote. The interviewees were great and they provided more than adequate responses. Some paragraphs should be made more concise and shortened overall. I am also aware that this is hard to do when you have the constraints of a word quota. I think that this is a good way of showcasing college recruiting in sports and how a coach can make an impact on a team.
Finn
This article is clear and I understand the direction that you’re going with. As someone who has played rugby before and am passionate about the sport of rugby I understand how it may get swept under the rug in terms of “relevant sports” I think that This is a great advertisement of the team and that someone who may want to play rugby may look at this and think that they should give it a shot. Aside from that I think that you need to apply some aspects of storytelling and have fun with the feature. This is clearly something that you’re interested in, so put some of that positive energy into the story. Also I would add more breaks in the paragraphs in order to make the piece easier to read. I also like how your ending makes people want to wonder what is going to happen next with UNE rugby.
Nick
First off there are a lot of grammatical errors in the piece, not a terrible thing for a draft but it’s an easy fix for when you’re working on the finished piece.I also like your paragraph breaks and I like how the story reads. I also think that you need to have breaks when you do your quotes. I also think that the article has good quotes.I also think that this is a really good story and I’m looking forward to the final draft. Clubs are some of the things that I never hear about so hearing some of the inner workings and how these clubs are operating and the students and faculty seem to be passionate about these clubs which is always good to see!
Nate
I like that this tackles real issues at school, especially the bookstore. Also a spell check on my last came was spelled “D’Arcangelo” Otherwise I like that you have a variety of people that you are using for your quotes. I don’t see many grammatical Errors and I also like the title of this feature. I think that the title is clear and it is evident as to what the feature is about. I also like how you contrast the average amount of money that we at une spend on books with other colleges. I also like how you mentioned the other high costing things that are present at une, I think that It helps with your message.
Gage:
I think that there are a lot of things that came up in terms of organization, primarily in the beginning of the feature, in the first three paragraphs including the lead,right after the title and subtitle. However I do think that this is a good story that has a lot of potential. The campus gym is too small and I’m sure the fitness community on campus would love a larger space. I think comparing facilities with neighboring colleges would help this feature out a lot.On eof the best ways that you can bring someone to ask tough questions and make decisions based on those question is comparison . In this case that evidence is the comparison between une’s campus center gym and another school’s gym.
Brady
I like that you took notice of this “ issue” that is happening on campus with the hiring of new professors. This would work in the Handbook project in professor Millers Intro to Communications class. This is because of how informative this is for students who want to see how many professors are committed to being a part of the une’s faculty. I think that you could benefit from the use of more descriptive words. I think that would help hold this story together more.
