BEHIND THE STORY
Jay Hansen reflects on his experience writing the July/August 2007 feature for Ohio State Alumni Magazine.
Although I was excited to have the chance to follow three Ohio State football families during the 2007 season, the excitement was edged with a bit of trepidation.
A lot can happen during the course of a season, and I wondered how the parents would weather the inevitable ups and downs. What if they decided six weeks in that they didn’t want to participate? And what if they weren’t, you know, interesting?
Turns out, I didn’t have a lot to worry about. Bart and Teri Denlinger, Ed and Jenna Gonzalez, and Deborah and Glen Johnson turned out to be the perfect subjects to work with on a project like this. They were fun, patient, and most of all, interesting.
This presented a second challenge: how to not screw up a really good story. It was clear from my interviews that the families were able to give me a lot of compelling material. My job was to get out of the way and make sure that the story came through strongly. I believe it did.
The families deserve much of the credit. For almost an entire year, they put up with regular phone calls, visits, and requests from me. I’m sure it wasn’t always convenient for them. But they stuck with me, never said no, and did everything they could do to accommodate my requests. They made it easy for me.
They also made it fun, by far the most fun I’ve had working on a story in the 10-plus years I’ve been writing.
I’m going to miss talking to Deb Johnson, Jay Richardson’s mother, on a regular basis. She always brought lots of energy and a positive outlook to the table. I usually interviewed her and Glen early in the morning, which worked out well. Talking to Deb at 7 a.m. is better than two cups of coffee.
I will also miss speaking with the Gonzalez family during a season when they watched their son Tony emerge as a star. I always got the feeling that although they were completely confident in Tony and his future, they were pinching themselves a little as he stepped forward as one of Ohio State’s premier players.
And I’ll miss the patience and honesty of the Denlingers.
While Tony and Jay were regular contributors in 2006, Todd wasn’t. But each week, his parents talked to me about how he coped and how he was comfortable waiting for his chance in the spotlight. I have no doubt that chance is going to come this year.
All in all, it was rewarding to work with parents who had such pride in their children. It reminded me of the father of a professional athlete I interviewed years ago. He said—and this has always stuck with me, as both a writer and a parent—“There is no greater joy in life than seeing your child succeed.”
For the past year, I’ve been a fly on the wall, watching and listening to parents who were experiencing this kind of joy on a daily basis. It’s an experience I won’t soon forget.
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