Hey! My name is Zaria Flippin, and I am the new Head Sports Editor at The News. I am also the Editor-in-Chief of The Warbler.
I am a junior majoring in sports media relations and minoring in social media engagement.
I wrote a few articles and game stories for The News during my sophomore year, but my main priority was the magazine.
I am taking on both positions this year, and I am excited to see more improvement from The Warbler and the staff at The News.
My goal for the sports section in The News is to give you more multimedia coverage and content. I want to implement more interviews and Q&As with your favorite Eastern athletes. Through creative video ideas, I want the reader and/or viewer to get to know the Eastern athletes as people rather than just athletes.
I want to bring a similar style to the sports section as I did for The Warbler last year. In The Warbler, the staff and I had more feature stories and profiles, and we realized more people gravitated toward the feature stories rather than the records and rosters of teams.
I want to give Eastern Illinois University athletics the same coverage and attention that my hometown of Lexington, South Carolina, is getting lately.
I graduated from River Bluff High School in Lexington, South Carolina. Lexington is not a small town, but it is nowhere close to the size of the bigger cities in South Carolina, including Charleston, Columbia, and Rock Hill.
The athletic talent in Lexington mostly goes unnoticed, but Lexington has been gaining more attention and coverage lately.
In December 2022, Apollos Cook, a three-star wide receiver from Lexington, South Carolina, committed to Duke University to continue his education and athletic career.
In July 2023, I was given the opportunity to work a basketball tournament at my high school. My job included creating content, editing videos and interviewing basketball players after their games. Most of the athletes came from Lexington, and it was fun to watch these players show off their skills throughout the three-day tournament while capturing content of what they love to do.
One month later, the town of Lexington had a four-star basketball player, Cameron (Cam) Scott, commit to the University of Texas to continue his education and athletic career with the Longhorns.
The signings of Cook and Scott were big for Lexington because the town is aware that Lexington does not get a ton of coverage compared to the larger metropolitan areas in the state.
I want to bring similar coverage to Eastern because the school is not in a big city, but I feel the athletes still deserve the same coverage.
I am looking forward to writing stories and features of the athletes here at Eastern, and I am also looking forward to trying new ways to get content out for more people to see.
I am very excited to work with more sports reporters, Eastern Athletics, and the rest of The News Staff. I am ready to report and write on the athletes and coaches at Eastern, and I am looking forward to creating stories, reports, and multimedia content to share with y’all!
Zaria Flippin is a junior majoring in sports media relations and minoring in social media engagement. She can be reached at zhflippin@eiu.edu or 217-581-2812.
