Matt Conrad: Penn athletics just pulled me in

I have a confession to make: I was never really all that into sports. Not at first, anyway.

I casually followed baseball and hockey, but wasn't one of those guys who could recite stats or name 500 different players. And I was in the marching band in high school, but really couldn't care less about how our thoroughly mediocre football team did.

So when I got to Penn, I knew that I'd want to go to a few games here and there, but I certainly didn't plan to be one of those hardcore fans.

Well, the old cliche says that you get just as much in college out of the classroom as you do in it. For me, it certainly held true - and I largely have Quakers athletics to thank.

By midway through September of 2003, I had joined the Penn Band, a group that has provided me with some of my fondest memories of the last four years.

Struggling to find something else to do with my time besides band and my always-thrilling Physics courses, I ended up at the DP sophomore year, eventually becoming the Copy Editor for the sports department. By 2006, this experience and a very fortuitous DP election put me in the position of Senior Sports Editor.

Once again, being involved in Penn sports, even in a distinctly off-the-field manner, taught me a great deal about how the real world functions that you can't experience in the classroom.

I learned how to speak on the phone for hours with angry coaches, negotiate with occasionally belligerent athletic communications staff, and manage a large staff of reporters and editors that I am incredibly proud to have been associated with.

And spending 50 hours a week editing a newspaper while trying to fit in classes and a social life was one of the most intense, difficult and rewarding times of my life.

But how sports has influenced my time at Penn goes even beyond these experiences.

I've seen how sports has the ability to bring a community together, whether it's through chanting and heckling opponents at the Palestra, commiserating on another missed field goal at Franklin Field, or even just sitting around with my fellow DP columnists on a Friday night talking sports.

Penn is really a fantastic place, but there have been times where it was a bit lacking in school spirit. Sports is one of the few things that we can all rally around, and it can keep us connected to each other after we've moved on.

For example, as I prepare to leave Penn, one image that sticks in my mind is the sight of a packed Palestra crowd, ranging from freshmen to 80-year-old alumni, singing "The Red and the Blue" at the end of the game.

Even after I'm no longer a student, and the band roadtrips and sports department meetings are a thing of the past, sports is the best way that I can stay connected to these great times.

And most important are the people who I have met through my experiences with Penn sports. I have met many of my friends through the DP and band, and my time here was much better for having known them.

So even though I never set foot on a field, I think that sports has been the single most defining part of my Penn experience.

And despite the fact that I never planned or expected this to happen, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Matt Conrad is a 2007 College graduate from Manalapan, N.J. and is former Senior Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail adress is mlconrad@sas.upenn.edu.

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