South Plains College

I spent 2 1/2 years working at the radio station in Levelland, Texas-- April 1998-December 2000. KLVT, 1230 AM and 105.5 FM. I started out as half of the full-time staff, then I became the full-time staff when the gentleman who hired me took another job. I covered meetings, sold advertising (tried to), had the crime beat, anchored newscasts, hosted the morning show, etc.

Something else I did was cover ball games. It was the reason I applied in the first place. Levelland High School was my domain, and when the boss took off I did South Plains College basketball. My last year, winter 2000, I'd accepted a new job in Lubbock and did LHS and SPC games. Four nights a week, two games a night. Home games were a 30-minute commute. And the road games? High school was not too bad. A few games in Lubbock, but also trips to Canyon, Plainview and San Angelo (three hours). Junior college trips were a different matter. Two hours to Midland and Odessa, 1:45 to Big Spring, and two hours to Hobbs and Roswell, NM, plus a time change. Schools in Clarendon and Borger rounded out the conference (I would go to Clarendon but never traveled to Borger).

In addition, my job in Lubbock involved early mornings. That, combined with late-night drives home combined for some raggedness during the week. I remember the driving, the games, and the tired from those days vividly. It even got difficult to stay on the road sometimes.

After moving to Clay Center, I even had the chance to touch base with the women's coach at SPC, who'd brought his team to Salina for the national tournament. Seemed like he remembered me. There were even a few folks in the crowd who said someone that looked like me used to do their games.

Of course, all the success happened after I moved away from the area. First, to Oklahoma and then to Kansas. The men's team also went to nationals a few times, winning it all in 2008, and again tonight. Through the magic of the Internet, I watched the last nine minutes and found myself wandering back to Texan Dome, the road trips, and the miscues (of which there were several).

And the choices. I had the chance to go back to Levelland (since the job I took in Lubbock didn't work out), but I decided going back would constitute a step backward. I could've gone back to doing ball games and news, but ownership was new, I didn't know if I wanted to learn to work with them, and I didn't want to go back. They sank a lot of money into KLVT, and it would've been a better place to work than the place I started out with. the new people would've offered some structure and a real chance to learn. I never really got a chance to learn much under previous ownership, which was 1 1/2 hours away and with their own agenda.

It's truly one of the life choices I wonder about. I don't spend a lot of time second guessing-- wouldn't do any good.  I'm almost 1000 miles and 12 years away from those circumstances. And so many decisions have been made since then.