I've learned to hate the phrase "unprecedented times" over the past six months.
I was in a hostel in Ireland when I realized just how different life would be for the foreseeable future, getting frantic phone calls and texts from my family informing me I needed to get back home immediately because the president had announced he was closing the border.
Well, here we are six months later, and the times are still unprecedented. I find myself in the unusual position of being the sports editor of a major college newspaper, which covers one of the biggest collegiate athletics departments in the country. And I keep waiting for the tweet that says it's all canceled.
I still don't believe that the games will happen. I don't think I'll believe that they'll happen until I'm watching the first snap of the football season, and even then, I think I'll still be waiting for the referees to come running out to pull the players off the field and send them home. Too much has changed to believe that we could try to go back to normal, at least right now.
There's going to be a whole lot of news this year. God knows it's already started. Every week, the ACC makes an announcement telling the world they aren't canceling the season yet, taking half steps toward that outcome. Every week, our reporters stand on their toes, wondering if this will be the week it finally shuts down, and until then they make preparations to carry on their normal roles as best they can.
I spent every moment since that night in Ireland thinking about what we would all do in August — when there was a desk of reporters ready to get out and cover the many sporting events that happen here at UNC — if there were no sports. It's August now, and I'm still not entirely sure. If there are sports, we will be there. And if there aren't, well, we'll still be there, wherever that may be.
I wanted to start this column to try and put down in writing what happens this year. Besides being a watchdog, and a training center, and a source for local news, and a whole list of other things, I think The Daily Tar Heel's most important role is as the paper of record. You can go to Wilson Library and look at what was happening in Chapel Hill on any given date, because someone from this organization was, for the most part, there to write about it.
So that's my goal: to try and record what happens. In 20 or 30 years when people ask what was happening during the pandemic, they'll be able to look back at the DTH and see how we, as a sports desk, tackled our jobs when it seemed like the reason for our jobs might disappear.
So think of this as part historical record, part self-reporting media column about some of our unique challenges this year. I hope you'll follow along.
