SE: Showing K-State Fans What Lies Beneath
Mar 16, 2020 | Sports Extra
Dear K-State Family,
I've got to start with the purple laundry lint.
I'm confident that it's one thing I already share in common with thousands of Kansas State fans in Manhattan and around the world.
Grabbing my clothes out of the dryer and seeing that purple dust caught in the lint trap has made me smile ever since my freshman year at Northwestern, when one color took over most of my closet.
Maybe it was a sign that this kid from South Florida was always destined for the Flint Hills.
The opportunity to join K-State Athletics as your new Sports Extra Writer is a dream come true. When I think about the stories that will soon be appearing in your inbox and the programs I will have the opportunity to bring you a little closer too, it gives me chills.
And it's why I hope this is the most you will ever have to read about me on K-StateSports.com.
Taking the reins from Corbin McGuire, I know that I have big shoes to fill. Reading his work over the last few weeks has revealed not just an immensely talented writer, but someone who invested in building positive relationships with so many members of the K-State community.
I'm humbled by the opportunity to step into his shoes and serve a K-State Family that has been nothing but welcoming since I arrived in Manhattan. Thank you to the Athletic Communications team for giving me this amazing opportunity, and I'm so excited to join such a talented group.
I wish I could tell you that my K-State story began way back at the 1998 Alamo Bowl, when I watched the Wildcats take on Drew Brees and Purdue. This would be so much easier to explain if on that afternoon in San Antonio, I fell in love with the Cats.
It's true that my family was in the stands at the Alamo Bowl that afternoon. But I was home with a babysitter, and it turns out, my K-State story would have to wait a few more decades.
Going to college at Northwestern, I learned for the first time what it meant to stand in the student section or crowd around the TV in a dorm room and cheer for your school.
I joined the Northwestern Athletic Department in college, writing about student-athletes with their own remarkable stories and hundreds of different roads to reach the Big Ten. After graduation, I've been lucky enough to work at the United Center in Chicago, first with the Chicago Blackhawks and since last summer with Stadium, a national sports network.
Over two decades after the 1998 Alamo Bowl, my K-State story actually began just a few weeks ago. It all started with a few questions from my aunt and uncle, who teach in K-State's College of Education in the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy:
Do you know what EMAW means? Do you think they might ask you what Willie Wildcat does after every touchdown? Are you familiar with the coaching pillars of Bill Snyder?
As I prepared to visit K-State for the first time and meet the Athletic Communications team, I was lucky enough to have the two biggest Wildcat fans I know in my corner. I remember feeling more connected than ever to a word I kept seeing in Manhattan, everywhere I looked: Family.
And what a K-State Family it's going to be in 2020.
Now to be completely honest, this is where I was going to write about Baseball, Track & Field, Rowing and all of the sports I was excited to help bring you over the next few weeks. The response to COVID-19 on campus and around the college sports landscape has changed that.
I can't stop thinking about those affected and the K-State seniors who may have played their last game in Manhattan. I planned to catch a few innings at the brand new Tointon Family Stadium on Sunday, when K-State Baseball was supposed to play Eastern Michigan. After moving to Kansas over the weekend, nothing sounded better than just another game.
The good news is that this is temporary. And if college sports were just about showing up to the stadium and then going home a few times a year, I'm not sure any of this would be here.
I was back home in Florida a few months ago, when my Dad told me I needed to watch a show on HBO called 24/7 College Football. The series begins with a simple statement:
There are places in the world, where they want you to always remember what lies beneath what you see. Where they want you to respect history. Be mesmerized by tradition. And find yourself, even intimidated by all that surrounds you.
I know that Manhattan is one of those places. And I would be lying if I told you that walking into Bill Snyder Family Stadium for the first time, I'm not feeling just a little intimidated.
But I want to make you a promise, to honor everything that K-State means and all that I still have to learn about this place. The respect for history? Guaranteed. Mesmerized by tradition?
If the goosebumps that I have while writing this are any indication, that won't be a problem.
I look forward to bringing you stories about K-State and the student-athletes that make it special, ones that you won't find anywhere else.
With your support, I can't wait to show you everything that lies beneath what you see.
Go Cats!
Austin Siegel
I've got to start with the purple laundry lint.
I'm confident that it's one thing I already share in common with thousands of Kansas State fans in Manhattan and around the world.
Grabbing my clothes out of the dryer and seeing that purple dust caught in the lint trap has made me smile ever since my freshman year at Northwestern, when one color took over most of my closet.
Maybe it was a sign that this kid from South Florida was always destined for the Flint Hills.
The opportunity to join K-State Athletics as your new Sports Extra Writer is a dream come true. When I think about the stories that will soon be appearing in your inbox and the programs I will have the opportunity to bring you a little closer too, it gives me chills.
And it's why I hope this is the most you will ever have to read about me on K-StateSports.com.
Taking the reins from Corbin McGuire, I know that I have big shoes to fill. Reading his work over the last few weeks has revealed not just an immensely talented writer, but someone who invested in building positive relationships with so many members of the K-State community.
I'm humbled by the opportunity to step into his shoes and serve a K-State Family that has been nothing but welcoming since I arrived in Manhattan. Thank you to the Athletic Communications team for giving me this amazing opportunity, and I'm so excited to join such a talented group.
I wish I could tell you that my K-State story began way back at the 1998 Alamo Bowl, when I watched the Wildcats take on Drew Brees and Purdue. This would be so much easier to explain if on that afternoon in San Antonio, I fell in love with the Cats.
It's true that my family was in the stands at the Alamo Bowl that afternoon. But I was home with a babysitter, and it turns out, my K-State story would have to wait a few more decades.
Going to college at Northwestern, I learned for the first time what it meant to stand in the student section or crowd around the TV in a dorm room and cheer for your school.
I joined the Northwestern Athletic Department in college, writing about student-athletes with their own remarkable stories and hundreds of different roads to reach the Big Ten. After graduation, I've been lucky enough to work at the United Center in Chicago, first with the Chicago Blackhawks and since last summer with Stadium, a national sports network.
Over two decades after the 1998 Alamo Bowl, my K-State story actually began just a few weeks ago. It all started with a few questions from my aunt and uncle, who teach in K-State's College of Education in the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy:
Do you know what EMAW means? Do you think they might ask you what Willie Wildcat does after every touchdown? Are you familiar with the coaching pillars of Bill Snyder?
As I prepared to visit K-State for the first time and meet the Athletic Communications team, I was lucky enough to have the two biggest Wildcat fans I know in my corner. I remember feeling more connected than ever to a word I kept seeing in Manhattan, everywhere I looked: Family.
And what a K-State Family it's going to be in 2020.
Now to be completely honest, this is where I was going to write about Baseball, Track & Field, Rowing and all of the sports I was excited to help bring you over the next few weeks. The response to COVID-19 on campus and around the college sports landscape has changed that.
I can't stop thinking about those affected and the K-State seniors who may have played their last game in Manhattan. I planned to catch a few innings at the brand new Tointon Family Stadium on Sunday, when K-State Baseball was supposed to play Eastern Michigan. After moving to Kansas over the weekend, nothing sounded better than just another game.
The good news is that this is temporary. And if college sports were just about showing up to the stadium and then going home a few times a year, I'm not sure any of this would be here.
I was back home in Florida a few months ago, when my Dad told me I needed to watch a show on HBO called 24/7 College Football. The series begins with a simple statement:
There are places in the world, where they want you to always remember what lies beneath what you see. Where they want you to respect history. Be mesmerized by tradition. And find yourself, even intimidated by all that surrounds you.
I know that Manhattan is one of those places. And I would be lying if I told you that walking into Bill Snyder Family Stadium for the first time, I'm not feeling just a little intimidated.
But I want to make you a promise, to honor everything that K-State means and all that I still have to learn about this place. The respect for history? Guaranteed. Mesmerized by tradition?
If the goosebumps that I have while writing this are any indication, that won't be a problem.
I look forward to bringing you stories about K-State and the student-athletes that make it special, ones that you won't find anywhere else.
With your support, I can't wait to show you everything that lies beneath what you see.
Go Cats!
Austin Siegel
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