In this final article I will ever write for The Colgate Maroon-News, I want to tell my loyal readers what sports mean to me.

My parents – specifically my dad – are responsible for my obsession with sports. Being from Boston, I grew up watching the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins. I would go to school almost every day wearing something to do with Boston sports: A Tom Brady jersey, a “Pedroia-the-destroya” shirt or a “Kevin Garnett For President shirt” – you name it.

My infatuation with sports started when my parents took me to Fenway Park and I found love at first sight. We’d sit behind the Sox dugout and I would always beg the ball boy to get a ball for me. I’ve been to countless Sox games since, including being lucky enough to attend Opening Day games, the World Series and Wild Card games, sitting everywhere from the first base line to the bleachers, and even up in the radio booth. Even today, I still feel like a kid when I walk through the gates of Fenway Park.

Sports are about relationships. Some of my best friends are from my Little League teams or lacrosse teams I played on throughout my life. I often say that playing a round of golf with somebody is the best way to get to know them.
Cheering on my teams and admiring sports are how I’ve built my best relationships. My dad and I are experts when it comes to anything Boston sports, and whether we’re watching a Patriots game, Celtics game, Bruins game or Sox game, we’re always chatting it up, often being a tad too critical of our favorite teams. I’d always choose watching a game with him over watching with anyone else.

There’s no better way to bond with my friends than cheering on the same team. Whether it be watching every Sox game in the dog days of summer in my friend’s basement, or riding out a deep Celtics playoff run, nothing compares to the feeling of camaraderie and connection in cheering on your favorite team.
Sports often provide the best debates, too. I’ve taken that from casual conversation with friends into forming a sports talk radio show, “The Booth Review,” with two of my best friends on Colgate’s WRCU radio network. For two years, I’ve had some of the most fun in my college career exchanging banter and debating about the week’s sports topics.

Sports are also about moments. I could tell exactly what happened in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Bruins and Canucks in 2011; I could rehearse the call Fox announcer Joe Buck made when the Patriots won Super Bowl LI after being down 28-3; and I have fixed in my head the wiping slider Chris Sale threw to strike out a twisted Manny Machado to win the Red Sox in the 2018 World Series.

These moments have been some of the best in my life. I experienced levels of joy possibly alarming to non-sports fans in countless moments. Like when Russell Wilson threw an interception on the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX, as I danced around and screamed like a little kid, or when I watched the Red Sox win the World Series from my first-year dorm room like a kid in a candy store — I’ll always remember those moments and the people I was with.

Sports bring out lots of emotion, and I’ve experienced some sad moments too. When my dad woke me up one late night in the summer of 2008 to tell me my favorite player Manny Ramirez got traded, my eight year-old self was devastated. When the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the Eagles in 2018, after I drove home from my friend’s house, I sat in my car in silence for 30 minutes pondering how they could have possibly lost. When David Ortiz played his last game before retirement and came out on the field, saluting Red Sox Nation, I cried along with him. That’s the beauty of sports; it makes you feel all different kinds of emotions.

Now, I’ve turned my love and passion for sports into a writing career, and The Maroon-News has given me the platform to do that. I find that when you’re writing about something you love, it comes easy, and I will continue my love for sports and writing about the relationships and moments they bring well after my college career.