Final Twin’s Take: Thank you for the helping hands

We’ve learned a lot at UConn, and a lot of the learning took place outside the classroom. The beat writers and columnists for the UConn men’s and women’s basketball and football teams took us under their wings from Day One. They were incredible people to work with, and we’d also like to extend a special thank you to the sports staff at the New Haven Register, Hartford Courant and Ken Best of UConn Magazine. Mac Cerullo and Russell Blair, thank you for all the help. Adam Giardino, Andrew Callahan, Chris Jones and the rest of WHUS, thanks for the cameos.

Aside from our co-workers, professors and friends who have helped us and given us advice through these four years, we’d like to thank the athletes that made our job possible. You learn to find comfort through some of the athletes. My (Colin) first college class was Elementary Discrete Mathematics. The first classmate I ever talked to in a college class was UConn football player Jonathan Jean-Louis. Also in that class, Gary Wilburn, Kelmetrus Wylie and the late Jasper Howard.

A few weeks after Howard was killed, I remember Jean-Louis coming up to me at Howard’s memorial service at Jorgensen and asking me how I was doing? How I was doing. How incredibly selfless. The last two years, Jean-Louis, Wylie and Kashif Moore have talked to us on the anniversaries of their friend’s death so we can write special articles about the memory of Howard.

Members of the UConn football team have even supported us on the field. Players like Johnny McEntee, Moe Petrus, Blaise Driscoll have watched some of our Intramural flag football and basketball games. Just an incredibly selfless team.

Players and coaches from other beats like BreAnn Cheung, Courtney Dinnan, Carlos Alvarez, Dan Naurato and L.J. Mazzilli helped us make deadlines. All the other players from the beats we were lucky enough to be a part of were incredible to work with. As well as all the coaches: Jim Penders, Bruce Marshall, Glenn Marshall, Len Tsantiris, Nancy Stevens, Ray Reid and John Deeley, Randy Edsall, Paul Pasqualoni, Geno Auriemma, George Blaney and Jim Calhoun.

Growing up UConn basketball fans, it was a dream to be a little bit on the inside track with the team, even if it was just covering them for the school paper. Shabazz Napier, Donnell Beverly, Enosch Wolf, Niels Giffey, Kevin Freeman, the Olander family and Alex Oriakhi went beyond the call and gave us a great deal of help off the court.

Lastly, we’d like to thank our entire family for reading our articles and being there for us every step of the way. There are not enough words for them, especially our mother and father. Thank you Mom for putting up with our love of sports all these years and becoming a sports fan yourself. And thank you Dad for giving us our love of this great escape in the first place.