Kotloff | #LifeOfASportswriter

At the first Penn basketball game I attended as a college student, I wore a “Wildcats Basketball” t-shirt. I rooted for Villanova, my bandwagon Big 5 team since eighth grade, and was rewarded with a blowout win.

I think I made up one-tenth of the student section that day. There didn’t seem to be much reason to come back, except that I’d wanted to be a sportswriter since I was 12 years old.

Seven semesters (and, somehow, two summers with The Summer Pennsylvanian) later, I have many leather-bound books, my apartment smells of rich mahogany and searching my name on theDP.com yields 168 results. A few of them — hint: they’re labeled “This Week on 33rd Street” — I wish would disappear, but on the whole, this place gave me everything I ever wanted.

I ended up shedding many beads of sweat on press row at the Palestra. Before every basketball game I covered, I looked out to the floor and up to the rafters and could hardly believe where I was. I leave this campus as a Quakers fan for life.

I also leave having swallowed my share of reality doses when it comes to my dream job. I like to label them with #LifeOfASportswriter:

6:15 PM — Nov. 24, 2010: Covering my first bball game. Can’t decide between the black wrinkled polo and the grey wrinkled polo. #LOAS

6:03 PM — Jan. 12, 2011: Me & @kesteves215 are the only ppl on the subway. Haven’t eaten in 8 hours, hoping they have pizza at the game. #LOAS

1:34 AM — Jan. 29, 2011: Doing voiceover on the highlights, just dropped the line “Get that weak stuff outta here!” Might regret this in the morning. #LOAS

10:09 AM — Jan. 29, 2011: How do you delete videos from the DP archives?

1:17 PM — Feb. 6, 2011: Got to shoot around at the Palestra today during team film study. Shot like 7% from the floor. #LOAS

5:24 PM — Sept. 25, 2011: BATTLE FOR I-95 TONIGHT GONNA BE LIKE FIVE FEET AWAY FROM LEBRON MELO AND CP3 WHAT SHOULD I ASK THEM AFTER THE GAME!!!!! #LOAS

10:45 PM — Sept. 25, 2011: Team Melo doesn’t want media in the locker room. #LOAS

Some thank yous:

To Dad, for (somehow) letting me choose sportswriting over medical school.

To Mom, for reading every article I ever wrote. With your eye for typos, you’d make a great copy editor.

To Steph, for being my No. 1 cheerleader and for thinking that any combination of letters I put together was James Joyce-ian.

To Kevin, “If you were a chick, who’s the one guy you would sleep with?” “LEANDRO BARBOSA!”

To Cal, for caring an extreme, almost concerning amount about The Buzz (and the DP as a whole). #instagramwich.

To Megan, for being the baddest betch I’ll ever meet. Sorry for Flegging out on you this semester.

To The DP, for being the highlight of my Penn experience.

Momentum.

BRIAN KOTLOFF is a 2012 College graduate and former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian from Elkins Park, Pa. After graduation, he will work for CSNPhilly.com. He can be reached at bkotloff22@gmail.com.

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