Meet your sports staff

Gretchen Sandau

Sophomore, International Studies

Future plans: To teach abroad

Favorite sport: Soccer

Favorite sports team: Oregon Ducks football

Why are you a sports writer?

I enjoy covering sports because they are exciting. You never know what is going to happen. As for writing for the Vanguard, this paper is fun and a great fit for me!

Most memorable sports moment:

The USC blackout night game last year for the Ducks. Being there all decked out with my brother and dad watching the game; it was so intense. Despite the rain and cold, the adrenaline kept us warm.

What sporting event would you cover?

The World Cup, but I’d like to be behind a camera, and in the country that is winning. I would love to capture the pride, excitement and unity of a winning nation through pictures.

Favorite book: “The Vanishing Pumpkin” by Tony Johnston and illustrated by Tomie dePaola

 

Stephen Lisle

Junior, Communication Studies

Future plans: Sports editor or sports marketing

Favorite sport: Rugby

Favorite sports team: The Blazers

Why are you a sports writer?

I love sports and plan on making a career out of sports marketing and reporting. What I lack in athletic ability, I make up for in my writing skills.

Most memorable sports moment:

My most memorable sports moment was scoring for the first time with my rugby team. After you achieve that goal you have to run nude down the length of the rugby pitch.

What sporting event would you love to cover?

The 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand

Favorite author: Tucker Max

Favorite movie: “Superbad”

 

Kevin Fong

Post-bacc, Business Management

Future plans: Writing of some kind

Favorite sport: Basketball

Favorite sports team: The Blazers

Why are you a sports writer?

I love writing and I love sports. I’ve been covering the Portland Timbers for the past few years on the website DroppingTimber.com. From that experience I found out how much I enjoy sports journalism.

Most memorable sports moment:

My favorite recent sporting memory was this season with the Timbers in their last home game at PGE Park. The Sunflower Goal was incredible and I’ve never experienced anything like it.

What sporting event would you love to cover?

Basketball is the true love of my life.

Favorite author: Cormac McCarthy

Favorite movie: “Magnolia”

 

Rosemary Hanson

Sophomore, Community Development

Future plans: To work as a public relations specialist

Favorite sport: Basketball or track and field

Favorite sports team: The Blazers …or the Miami Heat. Go LeBron!

Why are you a sports writer?

I really enjoy journalism and I like watching sports even more, so it’s a perfect fit. I also think that the interviewing practice I get will be beneficial for a career in public relations.

Most memorable sports moment:

In my senior year of high school, I went to the track and field state championship (in Alaska) with my 4×800-meter relay team. We went into it in fourth place out of seven teams and ended up winning in front of a home crowd. Everyone in our team ran a personal record, and carrying the Alaska state flag down the track after the race was an unforgettable memory.

What sporting event would you love to cover?

I would love to cover the women’s track & field sprinting events in the next Olympics because I find those women to be incredible role models. And I would love to not only watch them up close, but to also speak with them afterward.

 

Tanya Shiffer

Senior, English

Future plans: Writer

Favorite sport: Basketball, Tennis

Favorite sports team: The Blazers

Why are you a sports writer?

I love sports and I love to write. The combo just seemed like a natural progression for me.

Most memorable sports moment:

Meeting the ’87 Blazers team at the Coliseum on a school field trip. We got to sit and watch them practice, then they all came over and talked to us and signed autographs. That experience began my love for basketball and the Blazers.

What sporting event would you love to cover?

The NBA All-Star Weekend or Wimbledon. It would be fun to see the basketball players enjoying a fun game that puts no pressure on winning. As for Wimbledon, I’ve always wanted to see a major tennis tournament, and I love the U.K.

Favorite book: “Last Days of Summer” by Steve Kluger

Favorite movie: “Hatari!”

 

Allison Whited

Fourth-year Ph.D. student, Physics Department

Future plans: I’ll receive my Ph.D. next December (fingers crossed), but after that I’m out of ideas

Favorite sport: Hands down, football

Favorite team: The Philadelphia Eagles, but I’ve been feeling a little put off this year because of the McNabb trade

Why are you a sports writer?

As a grad student, I have very little free time that isn’t consumed by research and homework and writing technical papers. This is the one thing I do for me.

Most memorable sports moment:

I don’t have an athletic bone in my body and I’m clumsy as hell. My most memorable moment would have to be watching the Patriots play the Giants in the last game of the 2007 season. I was in the airport and everybody was huddling around the television to see if the Patriots could pull off an undefeated regular season, which they did.

What sporting event would you love to cover?

I would love to cover NFL training camps. I think it would be very interesting to see what the teams were changing, how the rookies are fitting in and how coaching changes are affecting the team’s outlook. It’s the most hopeful, positive time of the football season when everything is possible.

Favorite book: I read so much! Obviously, as a scientist, I love science-based books whether they are about scientific theory or scientists. But if I had to read one book over and over, it would be Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham. It’s a fictional story about a man who does everything that everybody else wants him to do his entire life but realizes at the very end that all he can really do is live for himself.

Favorite movie: Totally cheesy, but I love “Home Alone.” It’s always good for a laugh and the warm fuzzies. I think it’s so much bigger than just Christmas.

 

Madison Beard

Freshman, Graphic Design

Future plans: Who knows these days?

Favorite sport: Playing: volleyball. Watching: football.

Favorite sports team: The Ducks

Why are you a sports writer?

I wrote opinion pieces for my high school newspaper, and coming to PSU, I wanted to be a part of the Vanguard. I love sports. It’s a big thing in my family, so not only do I get to keep up on all the events, but I get to inform everyone else.

Most memorable sports moment:

It was while I was playing volleyball my freshman year in high school. I was up to serve, and was already doing pretty good. The ref blew the whistle and I served and ace that landed in the back corner of the opposite team’s court. I was so excited that I ran to the middle cheering while my entire team and the stands started cracking up because, apparently, when the ref blew the whistle he was calling a timeout.

What sporting event would you love to cover?

I would love to cover volleyball, just because I feel it all makes sense and hits home with me when I watch the game. I love the intense interaction and gameplay; it’s an easy sport to watch and get into.

Favorite artists: Jason Mraz, Jack Johnson, John Mayer

Favorite movie: “Talladega Nights”

 

Nilesh Tendolkar

Grad student, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Future plans: I want to work in the semiconductor and high-tech industry, preferable at Intel.

Favorite sport: Soccer

Favorite sports team: Manchester United

Why are you a sport writer?

I like watching sports and I like writing. So I really enjoy writing about sports, particularly soccer. Soccer is the biggest sport outside the country and being an international student, soccer was the only college sport that I knew really well.

Most memorable sports moment:

One of my most cherished sporting memories is the Portland State women’s soccer team’s march to the Big Sky regular season championship last season. It was a very close race and the Vikings played some amazing matches on the way to the title. Covering the team during this period was a very rewarding experience.

What sporting event would you love to cover?

I would love to cover a Manchester United home game at Old Trafford—The Theater of Dreams. Manchester United is one of the biggest clubs in the world. I have been a United supporter for over a decade now and the atmosphere in the stadium when the team plays, is electrifying.

Favorite author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Favorite movie: “Pirates of Silicon Valley”

Favorite artist: Metallica

 

Jason Liao

Freshman, Business and Advertising Management

Future plans: Anything in advertising or marketing

Favorite sport: Definitely basketball

Favorite sports team: Blazers

Why are you a sports writer?

To be honest, I would have liked to be a “roving” reporter and contribute to all sections like I did in high school. But the sports section was my priority at the Franklin Post, so I feel like I am most familiar with it. If I had a choice in newspaper sections to write for, it would definitely be sports.

Most memorable sports moment:

My most memorable moment playing sports is when I did this up-and-under pump fake move that I saw Brandon Roy do a few weeks before I did it. I shot it over this behemoth 6-foot-5 guy, and I was so dehydrated that I—to this day—have no idea how I pulled it off. Of course, on the next play, the giant blocked my shot and roared in my face.

I have a few memorable moments from watching sports. One is the infamous playoff Game 7 between the Blazers and the Lakers in 2000. When the Blazers blew that big lead, I literally cried as if Tanya Harding clubbed me in the leg.

 

Robert Britt

Senior, Communication Studies

Future plans: To work as a newspaper reporter

Favorite sport: Baseball

Favorite sports team: Boston Red Sox

Most memorable sports moment:

It’s my first Red Sox game at Fenway Park. My family had just moved from Boston to the Midwest a couple years prior, and we went back to the city for a spring vacation. It was April 11, 1990 and the Sox were playing the Tigers in the second game of the season-opening series.

Even though we didn’t have tickets, my stepfather and I went to the ballpark. That was back before the Sox were good again, so I guess the plan was to buy some cheap bleacher seats. We had just gotten to the gate when a guy came up and told us that two of his buddies couldn’t make the game, so he had a pair of extra tickets. He said we looked like a nice father-son combo, and just gave them to us.

We sat no more than eight rows directly behind home plate, and watched Boston beat Detroit in 10 innings off a Dwight Evans home run. I even got to see Bill Buckner pinch hit.

I realized that day how beautiful baseball is.

What sporting even would you love to cover?

The return of the Portland Beavers.

Favorite author: Chuck Klosterman. It might sound cliché, but to me he feels like the modern-day Hunter Thompson, with less drug-fueled hysteria.

Favorite movie: It’s a toss-up between “The Goonies” and “Stripes.” You might as well throw “Back to School” in there, just for the Kurt Vonnegut cameo.

Favorite book: Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”