How hard can life really be as a D1 athlete?

Ashton Pankey is number 30 for the University of Maryland Men’s Basketball team season 2011-2012. I gave him an interview this past week about the season this year including the struggles, approaches, and competition. A major concern I always had with D1 athletes dealt with balancing school and basketball, or what Ashton likes to call “work”. I asked him how he handled his everyday schedule with the strenuous combination.
Keeping Up With the Terps




Ashton is just one of the selected 15 that was chosen to play for UMD basketball this year, so I’m sure the competition was very competitive. Not only getting into the program, but making it as a team is a struggle. So I asked the 6’9 center forward to elaborate on this topic.
Fear the Turtle





After their recent Thanksgiving tournament in Puerto Rico, the men's basketball teams begin the season with a record of 2-2 as of 11/21/11. As a freshman on the court but a sophomore in the books, Pankey explains what goes on off the court.

Off the Court but STILL Game Ready



In addition to reviewing tapes, Ashton also mentions how the team practices hard, and goes to scoutings. Due to an injury, Pankey was unable to play his first year last year, so I asked another player that is a returning starter number 21, Pe'Shon Howard "What were the most challenging parts of playing in the season last year and why?" His response,"loosing...it was the most challenging. Im not use to it, and we lost a lot". After my interviews with both players, I have realized the difficulties and challenges that go into being an athlete at UMD, and the challenges they have to live up to just to get recognized and meet expectations of coaches, families, spectators, and fans. Good luck to the team this season!

The Past, Present, and Future of Satellite Radio

       After my brief interview with the UMD student Jennifer Ramirez, I have come to find information Satellite radio. After giving me the gist of what it is, she explains the past, present and future of the top two satellite radio companies including Sirius and XM radio. She explains satellite radio as “a digital radio signal that can be broadcasted through different satellite allowing the radio signal to reach farther areas in comparison to normal radio signals such as AM and FM”.

     To begin, I did a little research and read up on a tweet on Twitter posted by Jennifer stating “Sirius and XM radio merged as one company in February 2007”. After reading that, I decided to catch up with her to ask her a little more about this convergence of the two companies.

listen to ‘Getting Serious with Sirius Radio’ on Audioboo

What else is there to know? In addition to the formation, subscription price, satellite orbits and number of subscribers, I also learn more about what SiriusXM has to offer. For example, it includes over 140 non interrupted with commercial channels  including music, sports, executive talk, comedy, news, traffic, weather and so much more. Because SiriusXM is subscripted based, some of the FCC rules do not apply that do apply for FM and AM radio broadcasting.         

So where is this going in the future? Well according to another one of Ramirez’s tweets “Sirius XM has now gone 2.0, but with a hefty cost of course, and car companies and Sirius radio work together”. Some auto industries including Nissan, Infiniti, and from my own experience, Honda, are incorporating and equipping Sirius radio for free for the first three months of ownership. This exposes more people annually to SiriusXM so the number of subscribers continues to increase from 2010 with 20million.         

Taking Actions on Bullying

listen to ‘Issue on bullying’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Taking actions on bullying’ on Audioboo

The above audioboo shows an interview I gave with an expert named Richard in the field of bullying here at UMDCP. I chose this topic because, like I stated in the interview, my major is Communications and I felt it would be important for me to know more about it and understand the techniques we can use to spread the word and help prevent bullying and suicide. After I spoke more with Richard, I learned not only about physical abuse but also cyber-bullying through technology and the effects of it. As a result, Richard says "All in all, parents must keep the communication lines open with their children". He explains the importance of communication at home and programs at school, interacting in sports, and even homeschooling are all preventative measures of bullying and even more, suicide. "Years of torment can lead to life long insecurities"-Richard.