Nick Coppola
Nick Coppola, who worked on OU Daily's sports desk, is graduating with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
 Provided by Nick Coppola

Content warning: This article mentions suicide. Resources are included at the bottom of the story.

On Dec. 30, 2011, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone faced Nate Diaz in a lightweight bout at UFC 141. Through the first two rounds of the three-round fight, he got hit 66 times in the head. Before the third round, Cerrone’s then-coach, Greg Jackson, yelled at him in his corner, telling him to “give me five minutes of hell” in the third round.

Cerrone went out, got hit 35 more times in the head, and lost by unanimous decision.

Why am I starting my farewell column with a random UFC lightweight fight from 12 years ago? Because so far, I think that’s been my journalism career. I’ve accomplished much so far, yet it hasn’t been without setbacks. I’ve been punched in the mouth more times than I can count. I’ve continued to deal with my limitations with autism, and I went through many personal struggles, both inside and outside of the newsroom, as I tried to cope with life in college and life as a journalist. I had a plan of becoming an editor covering OU football for multiple years. I hoped to leave here and jump straight into a prestigious job at a big place. None of that was meant to be.

But each time I’ve been knocked down, I’ve found a way to get right back up. I’ve written work that’s garnered multiple Associated Press Sports Editors honors, given the OU Daily a model for high school football coverage that I hope future Daily writers will attempt to emulate and became one of the most respected reporters in the newsroom.

I’ve done that in my personal life as well. This year, I’ve found more time to have fun and go to sporting events to watch the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, San Antonio Spurs and the U.S. men’s soccer team. I’ve made lasting friendships and connections at OU that will hopefully last a lifetime. Most importantly, I’ve been able to talk to my mother, the main role model in my life, more than I have since I got to college. 

I went through the ringer over and over again. And yet, here I stand, ready to embark on the next chapter in my life with the same hope and optimism I had when I first got to the OU Daily in 2020. I don’t know where I’m headed just yet, but I’ve managed to find a way in life many times before. Who says I can’t do that now?

Maybe my original plans were overzealous, and even though they never came to fruition, I feel like my time here was still a success and I learned an important lesson through it. It isn’t about the title you hold or the sport you cover. Rather, it’s about the work you do, and boy, did I do some good work here. 

‘Life hit me like a ton of bricks’

I came to Oklahoma in a pandemic year, leaving Lubbock with much excitement, but equal amounts of uncertainty. I had never even heard about the Daily until that summer, and was hired with little trouble. My first beat was on Sooners in the NFL, a beat that doesn’t even have game coverage in it. The first story I ever wrote was about OU putting a cardboard cutout of Marquise “Hollywood” Brown in its stadium in lieu of decreased attendances due to COVID-19 restrictions. Riveting stuff, I know, but I felt like I was living the dream. I was eager to write about anything and everything, and that uncertainty quickly went away as I enjoyed everything that college life had to offer. 

Then I had my first real beat, baseball, and felt like a deer in headlights. I had to quickly learn the ropes, essentially on the fly, of how to actually do this job. I remember freaking out a few times to my then-editor, Mason Young, about how I’d even enter the stadium as a credentialed reporter a few nights before covering my first-ever game. 

I covered a pretty mediocre team, but I had some fun. I wrote two profiles on one of the Sooners’ most improved players in Conor McKenna and on future MLB draftee Tyler Hardman. Some games I had to watch in the cold (OU wouldn’t let reporters in the press box during COVID-19) in front of a crowd of less than a hundred people. Other times, I watched Jason Ruffcorn pitch six innings in relief to clinch OU’s first Bedlam series win since 2016. I had a good summer writing for the Daily, too.

And then, life hit me like a ton of bricks.

The fall of 2021 was the most difficult time of my life. I got put on women’s basketball, which at the time felt like a lesser beat than ones my colleagues got. I started to worry about being left behind and felt like I was being looked at as a worse writer than others around me. It never felt like I had any belief or confidence from anyone and it felt impossible for me to move up in the newsroom no matter what I did. 

Add in losing touch with old friends from Lubbock, sometimes for good, and continuing to feel further away from my mother due to distance, I wasn’t feeling too good. One of my lowest points was getting a text in October of that year from one of my best friends saying we couldn’t talk or be friends anymore. We talked almost every day up to that point and just like that, one of my best friendships was dead.

I felt worthless, my confidence sunk and I felt like nobody wanted to be my friend. I nearly ended my life as a result. But then, I put my faith in God to get my life back on track and just prayed to Him again and again for Him to show me the way. As a result, I got back on my feet to have the best start to a year I’ve ever had. 

‘As God closes one door, He opens another’

Isaiah 41:13 reads, “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” In that time, I needed to firmly grasp onto God’s love, and I did just that. I got myself right and leaned on myself and Jesus more than anyone else. That pulled me out of the dumps and good things followed. 

Suddenly, the women’s basketball team became a Big 12 contender. I wrote stories about first-year head coach Jennie Baranczyk, Skylar Vann overcoming mental health problems to achieve her OU dreams and the Sooners defeating top-10 Baylor after having their trip to Waco delayed several times due to ice and snow. I earned my first top-10 finish in the APSE student contest and landed my first internship at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. 

There, I wrote great stuff during my first experience in a professional newsroom. I covered high school sports, many Texas Tech sports, a Red Raider alumni basketball team in The Basketball Tournament and a professional egg roll eating contest (you may laugh, but I got a front page story out of that.) The features I wrote there landed me another top-10 APSE finish in 2023, and suddenly my life got back on track. 

My personal life improved as well. I spent so much time with old friends through going out to eat, disc golf days and Bible studies. I also saw my family every day and even took a trip to Chicago with my mother for Independence Day. I took a Mike Tyson uppercut to the jaw, but then God helped me stand tall. 

But, the struggles didn’t end there. In the fall of 2022, I failed to find my footing covering a not-so-great men’s basketball team and ended up in an enterprise role the following spring. I didn’t get another internship either and all that resulted in feeling like I plateaued as a journalist. But, as God closes one door, He opens another. And if there’s anything I’ve learned in this life, it’s that He’s always gonna take you to the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I joined the Daily’s summer sports desk as a senior sports reporter and spent the next few months having the time of my life, including covering OU softball’s entire postseason run to a third consecutive national championship and Big 12 Media Days at AT&T Stadium. I spent a lot of time with the Daily’s new sports editors, Colton Sulley and Louis Raser, on the road and covering what felt like everything under the sun. The road trips with them were fun, telling stories about great athletes like Grace Lyons, Jordy Bahl and Danny Stutsman was even better, and I made so many memories that I’ll never forget.

I was fully loaded, ready for whatever opportunity that came next. What happened was something I didn’t expect, but something I couldn’t pass up.

‘I got to be the ultimate storyteller’

In the fall of 2023, I dived deep into preps football, becoming the Daily’s first reporter to cover it weekly. It was an experiment I was determined to make work not just for myself, but for the Daily as we strived to become Norman’s news source rather than just OU’s. And I did more than just that. 

While covering preps, I got to be more involved than I ever had before. One thing about preps is that it gives you the freedom to talk to almost whoever you want, and I took full advantage of that. 

Every week I was at Norman High’s and Norman North’s practices talking to Tigers coach Rocky Martin and Timberwolves coach Justin Jones, and formed good relationships with both. I got to be the ultimate storyteller, writing human-interest stories I love. I wrote about Will Lundquist’s journey from three collarbone injuries to starting Norman North running back, the longtime connection between Norman High quarterback Phoenix Murphy and Norman North quarterback Owen Eshelman, how players from Norman High’s 1993 state championship team are passing down lessons to family members on the Tigers’ current team. 

I also saw two fun teams play every Friday, with both making the playoffs for the first time together since 2012. Every week, I heard from parents, coaches, administrators and players on how much they loved my work, which let me know just how much I was serving my community. In the end, journalists are measured by their impact on the people they write about and those constant comments proved that I was making a big impact. On the side, I was also able to write a story on OU’s continuing NIL efforts, proving that while I pride myself on storytelling, I’m capable of doing great reporting as well. 

After submitting my game story for OU’s championship win in the WCWS, I stood in an empty USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. I looked out onto the field, almost as if I was looking at my whole career, and felt like everything I’d been through had paid off. I started writing about cardboard cutouts of former OU football players, slowly worked my way up the ladder through personal and work-related struggles and closed out by covering arguably the greatest softball team of all time winning it all. Additionally, I created a model for the Daily’s future preps football coverage, and with it, a lasting legacy as I graduate.

I hope to feel like that again someday, even if I’ll have to go through many more trials. In fact, going through them will only make me better as it says in James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

There are many thank-you's I need to give out. I’d like to thank my mother, Susannah, for your endless support, love and confidence in me. I wouldn’t be where I am without you.

Thank you to my friends and colleagues Colton, Jason and Louis for being great people to be around. We’ve shared many moments and I wish you three nothing but the best as I move on. 

Thank you to my friend and former editor Mason for helping me get my start in this business, for being a fellow believer in Christ and for just being a really good dude.

Thank you to all of my colleagues at the Daily, including people like Ross, Kaly, Taylor, Karoline and more who all made this place special and a great environment to work in.

Thank you to our newsroom adviser, Seth, for your leadership and guidance as I make my way through this journalism journey.

Thank you to my editor at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Carlos, and all of my former colleagues there for taking a chance on me and making me a better journalist than I was before I got there. That’s all I ever needed.

And above all, thank you to God and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for gifting me with my abilities and for 21 years and counting on this Earth. I have received endless blessings from You and whatever I do in the future, I hope to glorify Your Name as I do it. 

Even though he lost that fight in 2011, Cerrone went on to have a phenomenal career. He had a UFC Lightweight Championship fight in 2015 and even though he lost, Cerrone finished his career with many accolades. He has the second-most wins, the third-most finishes, the second-most bonus money and the third-most fights in UFC history. I will finish my time at the OU Daily with two APSE honors, a professional internship, over 500,000 article views and a profound impact on my newsroom and my community. I think that’s pretty good, even though I never really reached the top here. 

Jeremiah 29:11 reads, “'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'” I will continue to follow my path that God has set out for me because I believe in it, and I encourage each of you to do the same. 

For the rest of your life, go out, touch gloves and fight. 

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