Huober | Who needs Bill Raftery when you have the 'DP'?

Boy, did I get gypped.

The Daily Pennsylvanian, like most other campus student organizations, is of the hierarchical sort. You put in the time, you make the commitment, you work your way up and then the perks start rolling in.

Well, I put in the time. I made the commitment - half the guys in my fraternity didn't even know me by the time my term as sports editor had finished. I worked my way up - now, when I write articles, the word "senior" comes before "sportswriter" on my byline.

And the perks? They started trickling in along the way.

First it was the free pizza on nights I would come to the DP. Then it was more free pizza as I started spending more and more time there. Then, when pizza for dinner every night got old, it was the unparalleled acumen I acquired in the intricacies of using Campusfood.com.

Hungry at 1 a.m. on a Sunday? That's an easy one - Mykonos Pizza with a side of jalapeno poppers from Evan's Varsity.

Sprinkle in a free T-shirt here or there, plus a couple celebratory banquets featuring well-stocked open bars, and voil…! I'd say I made out like a bandit.

These days, I'm covering the sports I want when I want, which admittedly isn't often in my senioritis-hindered state.

But there is one perk that never ended up coming my way. The Holy Grail, if you will, for all of us DPOSTM lifers: a trip to cover the Quakers in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Picture this: You're a 20-year-old aspiring sportswriter and you're at March Madness, part of a fabled media frenzy that includes ESPN and CBS. You hear someone shout, "Onions!" and look over to see Bill Raftery sitting a couple seats down. Need I say more?

It's DPOSTM tradition that outgoing editors get first dibs on that trip. And I would have, too, if not for bad timing.

I would have been there in 2007 to see Jaaber, Zoller and Co. put a scare into Texas A&M;, but I was studying abroad in Italy. This season, no matter how much I wished it could, a young team in a rebuilding year just could not make it to the tourney. So, neither could I.

But really, unfortunate circumstance and sarcasm about so-called perks aside, it would be foolish to suggest that my sacrifices for the DP were in vain.

Freshman year, I got "stuck" with wrestling, a sport I had absolutely no familiarity with nor interest in, as my beat. But once I got my bearings enough to know that we had a good team (one of the best in the nation, in fact), I knew I was onto something.

Before long, I was jet setting to such exotic locales as St. Louis and Oklahoma City to cover NCAA Tournaments and see the crowning of Penn's very own national champion, Matt Valenti. Not too shabby.

But most importantly, I developed an unlikely appreciation for a sport I had never followed. And that insight, to me, has been invaluable.

Sure, some people may not give a damn about wrestling, fencing or any of the other obscure sports the DP covers. But some people really do, and that fact must not be ignored.

Working for the DP, and committing myself to the degree I did, has given me a unique window into that passion. I was there when Valenti hung on for his first NCAA title, then raised his fists triumphantly in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans. It was the culmination of years of hard work, and I was there to see it.

And for those who weren't, that's where my job came in. I had to write about it. I had to try and take that passion, bared so profoundly before my own eyes, and make other people aware of it enough to care themselves.

Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. But the lessons of that endeavor, even if they weren't learned at the NCAA Basketball Tournament while sitting next to Bill Raftery, have stuck with me.

How's that for a perk?

Ilario Huober is a 2008 College graduate from Syracuse, N.Y. and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His email address is ihuober@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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