Sports have been in my life since I was 3 years old. My brother started playing basketball and tee-ball at the age of 5, and eventually when I turned 5 I joined him and started playing basketball and softball myself. I went to almost every game of his unless we had a time conflict. I decided to quit sports because I knew my parents couldn’t be in two places at once. Between traveling for my brother’s baseball and basketball games, watching sports was a year-round thing for me. Having sports instilled in my brain at such a young age and never getting a break from it developed my love for watching sports. As I said before, my brother started playing at the age of 5, and stopped when he graduated high school at 18. That is 13 years of year-round live sports for me— I loved it. Of course, when he graduated, I continued to go to my high school’s basketball and football games, but it wasn’t the same. He played at a private school, so the competition was much more competitive than at my high school. As I came to ODU, I attended almost every home football and basketball game last year; it was the highlight of my week. Unfortunately, with COVID, attending those games isn’t feasible right now.

My dad and grandfather are two of the biggest sports fans I know. The two of them can talk sports for hours. I have to be careful of the questions I ask because sometimes it can turn into a 2-hour conversation with them. With this being said, some type of sporting event is always on the TV at either one of our houses. Whether it is basketball, football, baseball, golf, or even Nascar, there will be at least one TV in my house with a sport on it. Nowadays, TV and Twitter are my sports media consumption diet. I am on Twitter often, so I get sports updates and see highlights occasionally. I pay a monthly fee to subscribe to ESPN+, so I was able to watch some of the ODU Men’s basketball games in my dorm when they were away. My best friend played DII basketball for a small school in South Carolina last year. With me being in Virginia and South Carolina being 5 hours away, I was only able to attend one game in person. Fortunately for me, some of his games would be streamed online so I was able to watch. Most nights my parents, my brother, and I will sit downstairs and watch whatever football, basketball, or baseball game is on that night. Sunday nights are very popular in my house during football season.

            Personally, my sports media consumption diet has changed some in the past five years. I wasn’t on Twitter as much as I am now, so that has changed. I also have apps such as ESPN and CBS Sports which give me notifications with game updates and sport-related news which I didn’t have before. In the next five years, I predict that not much will change. I imagine I will still be obtaining information from Twitter and watching a lot of television. Maybe there will be new apps and streaming services added on along the way.