The Oakland Post

In June of 2011, I began as an intern at The Oakland Post, Oakland University’s independent student newspaper. Since then, I have been promoted twice, once to Staff Reporter and again to Sports Editor. I followed the Oakland Hockey beat and covered the men’s hockey team as they made it to the finals of the ACHA National Tournament. I have covered other topics outside of sports as well, including an article on the Baha’i faith and coverage of Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s VICTORY RALLY at the university.

Oakland athletes climbs Willis Tower one year after paralysis

Sunday, November 4 in downtown Chicago, Oakland softball player Kylie Schalz participated in the SkyRise Chicago fundraising event hosted by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. The event involved participants climbing all 103 floors (2,109 steps) of the tallest skyscraper in the western hemisphere. In the summer of 2011, Schalz was paralyzed from the chest down following a surgery, and was able to walk again due to the care she received at the RIC. Just over a year later, Schalz participated in the event as a personal triumph and a thank you to the RIC.

Strengthening the modern athlete

This article follows up the profile on Kylie Schalz. In this article, I focused on the physical training (strength and conditioning) department at Oakland University and how they assist student athletes. Schalz was featured once again, with her specific story being the focus of the extreme good that the department does.

Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Paul Ryan makes a stop on campus

On Saturday, October 6, the Mitt Romney campaign announced that on October 8 running mate Paul Ryan would host a “Victory Rally” at the Athletics Center O’rena at Oakland University. Being the first to pick up the call, I arranged for myself, our editor-in-chief and multimedia editor to attend the rally and provide coverage. I manned the video camera, did the news report and wrote the article covering the rally. The above link is to that article as it appears online, and the following is the media created alongside the article.

Paul Ryan hosts “Victory Rally” at Oakland University

Paul Ryan’s full speech at Oakland University

These videos were filmed with a Canon XA10 camera.

The following is a photo of how the article appears in our weekly publication:

Oakland hockey road ahead

This was the first hockey article for The Oakland Post during my time as sports editor. This article highlights the success of the 2011-12 season, where Oakland sent Penn State to the NCAA with a loss, made an appearance in the ACHA National Tournament finals for Division I and finished 2nd in the nation. Also discussed is the tough road schedule and conference opponents in the GLCHL, as well as building team chemistry and systems.

Higher education explored at ‘Education Under Fire’ screening, panel

A screening of the documentary “Education Under Fire’ was shown on campus, followed by a panel. The film shows the difficulties facing Iranian students who are members of Baha’i faith in Iran. Not being allowed to attend college, for the most part, these people are discriminated against by their government, and the film revealed all of this. The panel consisted of scholars in the know of the issue as well as members of the Baha’i faith from Iran who have personally dealt with these difficulties. The article highlights a lot of this information.

 

Oakland Hockey: Proving Everybody Wrong

I had the privilege of covering Oakland University Division 1 Men’s Hockey for the 2011-2012 season. This article is essentially a season wrap-up article of sorts, as the Golden Grizzlies reached the championship game of the ACHA National Tournament in the post season. Oakland lost in the final game against the #2 seed, Delaware. En route to the finals, Oakland knocked out #1 Penn State, who will be playing Division 1 NCAA hockey next season and in the Big Ten Conference for the 2013-2014 season. The article highlights the tournament and the stars that elevated the team to a memorable season.

GAME REVIEW: Terror return to ‘Diablo III’ after 12-year hiatus

Kyle Orski, a long time friend of mine, and myself have been fans of the Diablo franchise for years. In fact, it is how we originally became friends in high school. With the launch of ‘Diablo III’, I wanted to review the game for The Oakland Post. Orski and I teamed up to write what has been said to be the longest story ever posted on The Post website. Our article explains the back story to the game, new gameplay features and style, news surrounding the game and development over the last 12 years.

Men’s Hockey gears up for post season

This is a brief article previewing the post-season for the Golden Grizzlies division 1 hockey team. The article explains their conference playoffs, their automatic bid in the ACHA National Tournament as well as the finale of their ‘Good Luck Duck’ series with Davenport University.

Increase in engineering students leads to expansion

This story highlights the beginning stages of a new engineering building that is to be built on campus. A rise in students majoring in various engineering fields has led to an expansion in space needed for these students. New labs, offices and classrooms will all be built to accommodate new students and faculty.

Division 1 men’s hockey ‘Good Luck Duck’ series continues

The rivalry between Davenport and Oakland is highlighted in this article, as their ‘Good Luck Duck’ series is in high gear. In the article, the history of the duck is discussed as well as what winning the trophy has meant for each team.

 

From Purple Rose to silver screen

Oakland University student Laura Kriss is featured in this article. Kriss is a japanese language major at OU, but is also an aspiring actress. She has appeared as an extra in the Hollywood movie, Reel Steel, as well as starred in many performances and low-budget films. I also took the photos for this article, which was the first photo I have ever had printed in the newspaper.

Creating Compliance

After three Oakland baseball players were arrested for underage drinking, The Post looked into the disciplinary processes in place for athletes, and students overall, of all kinds. We looked at the law enforcement, university and athletic departments procedures and described what each is like for any student who finds themselves in any sort of trouble around OU.

Oakland Hockey Profile: Defenseman Jacob DeSano

A straightforward profile of Golden Grizzlies hockey star, defenseman Jacob DeSano. This feature highlights DeSano’s season and career achievements, gives some background on the player and offers a look into his possible future both in the sport and academically.

WXOU 88.3 FM Auburn Hills

The Pit: Sports Talk with Damien Dennis

Originally starting at WXOU, Oakland University’s college radio station, in 2010, I had hosted a few shows off and on again, usually a combination of music and talk. In Fall 2011, I began hosting ‘The Pit: Sports Talk’ every Friday evening, and it has grown to become my most successful and longest running show on any college station to date. We have had guests on ranging from local skaters and baseball beat journalists to the OU Hockey coaches and players. The show has become something I am proud of and enjoy doing every week.

One of the more recent editions of The Pit, we interviewed Oakland Hockey head coach Jeremy Bachusz after the Golden Grizzlies defeated Mercyhurst in round one of the ACHA National Tournament earlier that day. We went on to talk about college basketbal and the OU teams.