Marquette Wire
Links below to my print sports reporting
Marquette Wire
Links below to my print sports reporting
Club tennis team ‘excited’ to be in rec center, back on campus
Ben Ward, Sports Reporter, Marquette Wire
September 2, 2025
Instead of traveling to Glendale just to practice, the Marquette club tennis team is ready to serve up a significantly improved set-up.
A 15-minute drive has become a short walk for the club tennis players with the opening of the newly renovated Wellness + Helfaer Recreation Center on campus.
It means the club no longer needs to trek to the Northshore Elite Sports Club, where it practiced for two years starting in spring 2023, giving the team more court time, additional practices and heightened expectations.
“I think it will totally be to our advantage,” said senior Claire Converse, who also serves as the team’s president. “People are already getting excited.”
One thing they’re especially excited about is the high player retention rate now that they’re back on campus.
With an estimated 50-60 returners, Converse said the team is excited to make a statement with their experienced senior class and promising new talent who have been competing at a high level.
“We are thinking tryouts might be more competitive this year,” Converse said.
Marquette club tennis tryouts are Sept. 8-10 at the Wellness + Helfaer Recreation Center. (Photo courtesy of Claire Converse)
Those tryouts are for the club’s national team, which competes against other universities in hopes of qualifying for nationals. It’s something the club has unsuccessfully tried to do before, getting close but falling just short in years past.
Now, with their experience and the new practice environment, they’re aiming to break that pattern.
“We’ve known that’s the strategy for a couple of years,” said Converse. “Now we have good retention with our seniors… our class has been really strong.”
But the team cares about more than just wins and losses — there’s a community aspect to joining as well, something Converse has emphasized the new rec center will help accomplish this year.
“People found their roommates and best friends,” Converse said. “People have come out of their shell.”
In what is normally an individual sport, Converse said she appreciates how the club makes tennis team-oriented, allowing players to cheer for their teammates during matches, as everyone is watching on the court.
“All the grades go together,” said Sophia Esquivel, a senior in the College of Health Sciences.
Having that support system from other club members helped Esquivel improve in her four years on the team.
“My doubles game has gotten way better,” she said.
Converse wants to keep building the club by having as many people as possible attend tryouts Sept. 8-10 at the rec center.
“It is truly a great blend of (a) competitive and recreational (environment),” Converse said.
Print Journalism
Samples as published in Coastal Tides.
NFL Divisional Round Yields Several Storylines
Ben Ward, Sports Editor, Coastal Tides
January 17, 2025
Well, after 18 weeks and 272 games of ceaseless gridiron clashes, the NFL season has reached its most intense round of the playoffs.
The divisional round.
8 teams left.
One Lombardi Trophy to be hoisted.
After a somewhat lackluster Wild Card Weekend in terms of merriment, with five out of six games ending in a ten plus point win for the higher seeded team, there are a lot of storylines on the line for the upcoming divisional round.
Can Houston Dethrone the Monarchy Chiefs?
The Kansas City Chiefs are on their road to a three-peat, and the first team standing in their way in these playoffs are the young-rounded Houston Texans.
Texans’ second year quarterback C.J. Stroud is seeking to get his revenge on the Chiefs after taking a 27-19 loss back in December.
This time it’s life or death for the season.
The Texans looked dominant in their win against the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card round winning by 20 points and forcing star quarterback Justin Herbert to throw four interceptions, more than he’s thrown in the entire season…
But will the inevitable Chiefs push their luck even further?
Kansas City has won 16 straight one-score games since last season, meaning luck has been on their side for a year.
The Chiefs currently have a 62.7% chance of winning according to ESPN.
The three-peat race is still very much alive.
Battle For the MVP
Years in the past sports fans had Brady vs. Manning or Steve Young vs. Joe Montana.
In today’s age, we have Lamar Jackson vs. Josh Allen.
Both of these quarterbacks have put up MVP numbers all season long, and Saturday night they get to face off in frosty Buffalo, NY.
The Baltimore Ravens versus the Buffalo Bills is definitely the most hyped up match up of the weekend, and with the Ravens dominating the Bills in their last battle in the regular season, Bills Quarterback Josh Allen is here to prove critics why he deserves the MVP award and get his revenge on the resolute Ravens.
Lamar Jackson on the other hand is trying to prove why he deserves to be respected in the post season, as his playoff record sits at 3-4.
Not very appetizing to NFL critics and fans for being a two-time MVP.
Rams Look to Reignite Courage in Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Rams’ playoff plans took a major left turn when they learned they had to play their Wild Card matchup in another location other than their home field in which they earned by winning their division, due to the tragic wildfires in the area.
The game was transferred to State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, and to attempt to re-create the Rams’ home atmosphere, a field was rolled into the stadium with a painted Rams logo and endzones.
However, with the Minnesota Vikings being in the playoffs under a magical season with a backup quarterback, their fans would show up regardless, as the original red seats were filled with purple, blue, and gold.
A 50/50 split of Vikings and Rams fans.
After a brief commemoration for the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires, things kicked off.
In what felt like a college bowl game due to the split of fans from both teams, it was very far off from the entertainment value college football brings.
The Rams won in dominating fashion beating the Vikings 27-9.
With the Rams having a chip on their shoulder involving the struggling victims of their home city, they are looking to surge into Philadelphia and invade the Eagles hopes of reaching their second Super Bowl in the last three years.
The Eagles were able to beat the Rams previously 37-20 back in November.
So it’s the chip on the shoulder versus the red hot soaring Eagles who also showed up big in their Wildcard matchup against the Green Bay Packers.
David vs. Goliath, Rookie vs. The Veteran
The Washington Commanders finished the year 4-13 and no real idea of where the team was headed in the next couple of years.
This year, they finished 12-5 and won their first playoff game since 2005.
The Commanders are under the healm of Rookie Quarterback Jayden Daniels, who was selected second overall in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Daniels has brought back the energy that Washington fans haven’t had for a long time.
However, they face an opponent on top of the NFL world.
The Detroit Lions are led by their famously emotional head coach Dan Campbell and eighth year quarterback Jared Goff.
The Lions rank first in almost every offensive stat category in the entire league and are the number one seed in the NFC with a 15-2 record.
They are coming off of back-to-back division titles and reached the NFC Championship game last season.
They are most of everybody’s picks to reach the Super Bowl out of the NFC.
So a rookie quarterback leading his army for the first time in twenty years to the divisional round, headed up to gritty Detroit to clash with one of the best teams in the entire league.
Doesn’t get any more David vs. Goliath than that.
The Slipper Fits
It’s the middle of March, which means college basketball is at its cinematic peak.
Ben Ward, Sports Editor, Coastal Tides
March 14, 2025
The month has arrived when Cinderella’s carriage revs up.
When a Golden Retriever can perfectly fit a slipper and dance its way to history-making.
When a 98-year-old chaplain can wheel around across the nation reshaping what it means to be an underdog.
March Madness allows for this magic to occur every Spring, bringing together basketball fans across the country.
There’s something poetic about all these schools and storylines being brought to one event that no other sport can account for.
The college football playoffs only allow 12 teams to compete. The NFL has just about the same team win every year. The NBA has prolonged, overreaching seven-game series every round of the playoffs.
But nothing can beat 68 teams fighting for their lives to keep their season alive for one extra day.
I remember sitting on the carpet in my parents’ room toward midnight in fifth grade.
After a long day of basketball watching, I had too much adrenaline to sleep, especially since 16-seed UMBC – ranked lowest in the tournament – was on the brink of making history against the perennial powerhouse Virginia, regarded as the best team in the nation that season.
CBS Sports play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz’s words still ring through my ear to this day. “What has happened to Virginia?!”
Followed by color analyst Bill Raftery answering Nantz, “Flustered by this persistent performance!” and then Nantz letting out a loud, “From the corner, three more!”
This dialogue from the announcers didn’t encapsulate the improbability of the moment: in the 79-year history of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, a 16-seed had never beaten a one-seed. And I had finally witnessed it firsthand.
Now, a 16 and one-seed might not feel like a huge difference number wise, but historically, this matchup in the tournament felt like a nuclear power fighting a tribe living in northern Montana.
Shoes squeakily slip across the hardwood floors over the freshly painted “March Madness” logo in the middle of the floor.
The ball is tipped, and the immortality of a school in a two-stoplight town faces off against an unconquerable blue-blood program who has been in this situation countless times.
It’s hard to put into words how exhilarating the first two days of the tournament. Sitting at home flipping through each channel of games.
Thirty-two games spread across just two days.
I remember sitting in my eighth-grade science class watching the first couple of games of the day on my elderly school laptop. Don’t worry, Mrs. Norris, I got my assignment done.
There’s something poetic about all these schools and storylines being brought to one event that no other sport can account for.
So, if there’s no spring plans with family or friends, tune into one of the most electrifying spectacles in sports.
2025 NFL Draft filled with prank calls, jarring trades, and hometown heroes
Ben Ward, Sports Editor, Coastal Tides
April 28, 2025
The 2025 NFL Draft, held in Green Bay, Wisconsin, kicked off with the Tennessee Titans drafting stud quarterback Cam Ward number one overall.
This was followed by a jarring move by the Jacksonville Jaguars as they traded up to the number two overall pick to select Colorado superstar dual-sided threat Travis Hunter. This would be the first Heisman winner ever drafted by the Jaguars.
Teams filled needs all around including the hometown hosts of the draft, Green Bay Packers, who give their young star quarterback, Jordan Love, a fresh weapon at wide receiver with Mathew Golden from Texas.
Past Atlantic Coast Stingray, Pat Bryant, was selected in round three to the Denver Broncos, becoming the first ever Atlantic Coast football player selected in the NFL Draft.
Bryant allotted 128 receptions for 2,261 receiving yards during his time as a Stingray.
What had dismayed sports fans was the plummeting status of Shedeur Sanders, however.
Sanders was projected by almost every sports media outlet to be a first round pick but ended up being selected in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns, who even more surprisingly selected a quarterback before Sanders in the third round.
Sanders’ draft plummet sparked several storylines including a prank call involving the son of Atlanta Falcons Defensive Coordinator who got a hold of Sanders’ number.
Jax Ulbrich and a friend called Sanders to tell him he was getting drafted by the New Orleans Saints and he would have to “wait a little bit”.
The Falcons organization and Ulbrich released apologies on social media about the call after both Sanders and the callers point of views got released to the public.
In more lighthearted news, Jack Bech, brother of Tiger Bech, who was a victim in the Bourbon Street terrorist attacks earlier this year was selected in the 2nd round to the Las Vegas Raiders.
This year’s NFL Draft marks high end standards for all 32 teams including the hometown Jaguars who are looking to make noise with their new star Hunter. Next on the NFL schedule is the highly anticipated schedule release coming May 14th.
