Since sixth grade, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I fell in love with writing stories and immersing people in the words on the page. I grew up in a sports family and formed a love for all kinds of sports at a young age.
As I got older and started my high school career, I knew I wanted to go into sports journalism. I wanted to report on athletes and write about games, big and small, for the rest of my life. I knew as a woman, entering the sports journalism industry was going to be difficult, but I didn’t care. I wanted to be a female sports reporter and show young girls that women can and will succeed in a male-dominated industry.
Kate Dalhausser with friends.
When I got to the University of Oklahoma, my mind was set on becoming a journalist. After taking classes about broadcast journalism, I realized I was a much better print writer than a broadcast writer.
Unfortunately, by my sophomore year, doubts started to enter my mind. Thoughts of not being able to learn more about the sports world than I do now made me second-guess everything I wanted to be when I graduated. My love for writing did not go away, but I became discouraged.
For the first semester of my junior year, I switched my major from journalism to communication.
I quickly realized that communication was not what I wanted to do and I was happiest as a journalism major at Gaylord. I talked to my adviser and decided to switch back to journalism for fall 2023. To this day, I do not regret my decision.
In spring 2024, I joined OU Daily for my practicum — a “class” that is required by Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication for students to get hands-on experience in the journalism field they want to pursue.
I met with the director of OU Student Media and OU Daily’s faculty adviser, Seth Prince, to discuss what desk would suit me best. The two we talked about were the news desk and the sports desk. I mentioned to Seth that I grew up with a love of sports and I have been wanting to be a sports reporter since I was young.
He added me to the sports desk, and I was given the women’s gymnastics beat by my editors at the time, Louis Raser and Gracie Rawlings. I barely knew anything about women’s gymnastics and only watched the sport during the summer Olympics.
I was ready for the challenge but also nervous. I wanted to do a good job.
Kate Dalhausser with her family at the 2024 Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot.
Throughout the season, I saw my writing grow and learned a lot about gymnastics. The doubts I had a few years before about not being able to learn more went away completely. I started the season with very little knowledge about the sport and ended up with more information than I thought I could retain. This showed me that I am never done learning, and even if I do not know much about a sport, I will learn more as time goes on.
At the end of the year, Seth came up to me and asked what my plan was for next year. I told him that I would be completing my fifth and final year at OU, and he asked if I would want to come back to OU Daily. He told me I did great work covering women’s gymnastics and he and my editors would love for me to be back on the sports desk.
I told him I would love to come back and I really enjoyed my time at OU Daily that semester. Both my editors and Seth encouraged me to apply to be a senior sports reporter for the 2024-25 year.
After deciding to apply, I interviewed for the position with Gracie. She asked about covering basketball and I told her the sport has always been one of my favorites. I knew the beat would be difficult at times, but I was up for the challenge.
For the 2024-25 school year, I was covering Oklahoma women’s basketball as a senior reporter.
Covering the sport was a challenge at times, but it was because of those challenges that I grew as a writer. Writing about the OU women’s basketball team this season made me realize I want to continue covering the sport.
At the Daily, I was given opportunities to expand my journalistic career and write stories I am proud of. I had opportunities people only dream of, and I got to live out my childhood dream. Being in press conferences felt so surreal, and covering round one and two of the 2024-25 NCAA women’s tournament in Norman is something I will never forget.
If it was not for OU Daily, I would not have found my love for sports reporting again. The connections and memories I made during my time here are ones I will cherish forever.
