Viewpoint
- You Win Some
Publishing a quarterly magazine can be an exercise in chance. The UWYO staff begins work on the next issue just as soon as the previous one is printed and mailed. Stories are drafted and photographs are taken within a month of assignment; layout begins two weeks after the editing process is nearly finished. The whole package is sent to the printer a month prior to publication. A lot can happen during that month or shortly thereafter. We’ve taken to calling it the UWYO jinx.
During our first years of publication, a featured football player blew out a knee between the time the magazine was printed and mailed. Shortly after we profiled a women’s track coach, she left for warmer climes. The same phenomenon has happened with several staff and faculty members. Though it might seem like a jinx, we attribute it to the normal flux associated with a dynamic university.
Every now and then, however, the timing works out perfectly. As we prepared for this issue of UWYO, we patiently tracked the personnel situation regarding men’s basketball. As the copy deadline approached, UW’s athletics director fired then-coach Steve McClain. Advised by Athletics Media Relations that McClain’s replacement would probably not be hired by our deadline, we prepared to run a story about the firing and search process. Fortunately for UW and for UWYO, Athletics Director Tom Burman made a timely hire of Heath Schroyer as the university’s 20th basketball coach. We were able to include a brief story about Schroyer in this issue.
We needed an even longer planning timeline and even more luck when we decided to follow women’s basketball this year. In winter 2006, we published a feature on Coach Joe Legerski’s recruitment of players from Australia. It was, as we noted, a gamble that paid off last year with a trip to the WNIT. In February, with the Cowgirls playing well, we decided to feature Elisabeth Dissen, for her academic accomplishments and career ambitions, but also in part for her basketball prowess. Ever mindful of the UWYO jinx, we held our collective breath as the Cowgirls advanced through this year’s WNIT, winning some tremendously exciting games and generating extraordinary fan enthusiasm. With every game, we extended our deadline. After the win over South Dakota State University, we began preparing a story on how the Cowgirls won the WNIT. We didn’t know whether it would ever see a printing press. But here it is.
They say it’s better to be lucky than good. UWYO
was lucky. The Cowgirls were both.
Jay N. Fromkin
Director, University Public Relations
