I started writing this from a car somewhere in Kansas, which is not unprecedented or infrequent for me in the four years I’ve worked at OU Daily.
It’s a Friday morning and my parents and I woke up at 5:30 to drive to Kansas City. It’s time for some well overdue apartment hunting. I’m set to begin a sports reporting internship with the Kansas City Star on June 5.
Even as I’m making plans for a promising summer covering the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Salvador Pérez, I’m overflowing with gratitude for all the experiences that have helped me land this opportunity. On May 13, I’ll finally graduate from OU with a journalism degree. There’s been plenty of emotional buildup to that moment during a final semester that has been relaxing and reflective in a way few other times in my fast-paced life have been.
After five consecutive semesters as a sports editor and football beat writer for OU Daily, I stepped aside in December to work part time as sports enterprise reporter in my final months preceding graduation. That has afforded me the opportunity to still write in-depth stories, but maintain less rigorous obligations than my previous position. Don’t get me wrong, I loved covering a college football blueblood every day while also editing 10 other people’s OU sports stories, but that gets to be a bit much after a while.
Since January, I’ve gotten to “just be a college kid” in ways I haven’t for the previous three-and-a-half semesters. I’ve been playing intramural softball for the first time, becoming fast friends with people I’d otherwise not know. My parents traded in my 2010 Honda CR-V for a red 2018 Chevy Colorado, an early graduation gift I’m still reveling in.
While around family and friends, I’ve tried to be more open, generous, compassionate and undivided in my attention. You have a lot more headspace for your emotions when you’re not staring at Tweetdeck, waiting for that three-star linebacker to commit to OU so you can quickly post a blurb, then return to the dinner table.
I needed only three credit hours to complete my degree, so my workload has been extremely light. I was booted from OU housing for not being a full-time student, but that’s all right; I got to move back in with my parents. My dad is retired now, so we’ve spent a lot of time watching crime show reruns, talking about golf and baseball, and running errands for my mom, whose work ethic and business acumen I’ve always admired and tried to emulate.
This period of respite would not be possible without OU Daily, both in what I have invested in this place and what it has given me in return.
‘Everyone was wondering who I was’
I immediately knew I wanted to work at OU Daily when I visited as a high school senior and met our incredible adviser Seth Prince and the stud sports editor at the time, George Stoia.
A few months later, before Daily orientation on the eve of classes, I communicated that I was interested in joining the sports staff, but somehow, I wasn’t added to the list for training. Everyone was wondering who I was when I showed up that Friday morning unannounced. Due to the confusion, I wasn’t assigned a beat that day, but I kept coming to the newsroom asking for work.
Eventually, I was put on Sooners in the NFL: no reporting, just quick game recaps on Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. I was so hungry to enhance my contributions that I wrote anything and everything I could on that beat and jumped at any chance to fill in on OU varsity sports.
The next semester, I was promoted to covering OU women’s gymnastics as my main beat, as well as meet coverage for OU wrestling. I was learning how to craft inspiring, long-form features — shoutout to former sports editor Vic Reynolds for all the edits — and really starting to blossom as a sports writer when COVID-19 hit. Suddenly, there were no NCAA gym championships to cover, and really no sports at all.
Come summer, I was advised to join the news desk if I wanted pay and consistent writing reps. I covered protests in Oklahoma City and Norman in wake of George Floyd’s murder, as well as OU Health's COVID-19 press conferences and the contentious police funding debate surrounding Norman City Council.
I gave that my best shot, but my plan was always to return to sports when school resumed. Even while on summer news, I was always flagging opportunities for sports posts as they arose and pitching in when asked.
That endeared me to sports editor Caleb McCourry, to whom I’m grateful for hiring me as his assistant for the fall. He trained me to take his place the following spring — during which I co-wrote the most-read story in OU Daily history — and I built enough of a portfolio in my first season covering OU football that I landed an internship with the Tulsa World.
In Tulsa, I covered a little bit of everything, from criterium bike racing and pro-am tennis to minor league baseball and soccer. The icing on the cake was taking the lead on OU coverage when news broke of Oklahoma and Texas’ transition to the SEC.
Returning to OU Daily for my junior year, I was still just getting started. The SEC news was a seismic quake in the college football landscape. Little did I know that I would tweak the Richter scale with my own reporting that fall.
‘This was much bigger than us’
Mason Young poses in front of a drawing of Rece Davis, ESPN College GameDay host, in the OU Daily newsroom. Davis shouted out OU Daily's reporting on OU football's quarterback change after observing practice from a window in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Documentation of my perhaps most notable accomplishment at OU Daily is scribbled in dry erase marker on the easternmost wall: A masterful mural of Rece Davis, ESPN College GameDay host, and his declaration that will hopefully reverberate in newsroom lore forever, “Who says journalism is dead?”
No one could’ve predicted Davis shouting out OU Daily on national television. Spencer Rattler was OU’s incumbent starter and Heisman Trophy favorite entering the 2021 season. I’d already penned a definitive profile on the former five-star recruit and established a rapport with his inner circle.
Then, freshman phenom Caleb Williams burst onto the scene as the savior of the Sooners’ season in the Red River Showdown against Texas. It seemed likely he would supplant Rattler in unprecedented fashion, but OU coach Lincoln Riley wasn’t transparent about that in what would end up being his final season in Norman. He wouldn’t make Williams available for interviews after one of the most compelling performances in college football history.
Meanwhile, the following week, my colleague Austin Curtright heard Rattler had all but abandoned his post. Seeking to verify that he was no longer practicing, we hastened to the third floor of Gaylord College to observe practice from a window overlooking the Barry Switzer Center fields. No one discouraged us from being in the building where we took classes daily.
Rattler was there, but it was obvious Williams was getting the first team reps with the starting skill players. My relationships with Rattler’s inner circle assisted our reporting, as they dispelled rumors about his departure and added context to his plans for the rest of the season. Sprinting to beat the start of Riley’s midweek presser, we wrote and published a story laying out our observations and process.
In response to our story, OU athletics released a statement instituting a total media blackout for the rest of the week and summoned us to a private meeting. Social media was ablaze, and my Twitter DMs were on fire with interview requests from radio and television stations. I even received an email from the producer of The Paul Finebaum Show.
All requests were politely declined.
We quickly came to realize this was much bigger than us. This was a stand for transparency and journalistic freedom. This was also a service to our audience, providing clarity where it wasn’t plentiful. Something Seth said that day that still resonates with me is that a journalist’s job is to report the news, not become it. We weren't going to stir the pot without speaking with the athletics administration.
I will say, though, it was an honor to see our work recognized by established reporters like OU Daily alum Baxter Holmes, Wright Thompson, Rich Eisen and Ian Rapoport, through both social media and personal emails. NFL Draft expert Matt Miller went as far as tweeting that he wanted to offer us jobs.
They’re the 4th-ranked team in the nation but is #Oklahoma making a QB change?? Lincoln Riley shut down media availability for the rest of the week thanks to the intrepid moves of @OUDailySports @AustinCurtright: pic.twitter.com/k0wkSTkxqY
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) October 13, 2021
This is wild. https://t.co/gakQBbUsoj
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 13, 2021
Someone send me this reporter's name. We want to hire him. https://t.co/2G8gveOQoS
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) October 13, 2021
Throughout that time, as well as our meeting with athletics officials, Austin, fellow sports editor Chandler Engelbrecht, then-editor-in-chief Blake Douglas and I stood firm on our process. Ultimately, OU athletics made its displeasure clear but levied no additional sanctions. We proudly covered Williams’ first start against TCU that Saturday, hours after Davis commended us on the set of ESPN.
The rest of the season was a whirlwind as Riley jettisoned for Southern California after a disappointing Bedlam loss and was replaced by Brent Venables in the span of a week. I battled a cold while writing print-award-winning stories on Riley’s exit and Venables’ return and regrouped before the Alamo Bowl to write an award-winning profile of Williams before he joined Riley out west. Spring football was fun, given all the excitement around Venables, improved media access and a packed spring game.
Mason Young shows off his front-page article about OU football coach Brent Venables' return after former coach Lincoln Riley left the university for the University of Southern California.
The following summer I packed up and drove more than 1,000 miles to intern with the Detroit Free Press, spending three months the farthest I’ve ever lived from home. From the Detroit Lions camp to the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and everything in between, I continued to learn from the best in the business while enhancing my portfolio.
Funny enough, one of my assignments in Detroit was writing about Davis’ son, Chris, making a diving catch in an independent summer league baseball game that landed on the SportsCenter Top 10. I appreciated Rece and Chris sharing their stories with me and, upon returning to Norman, had the pleasure of sending a picture of our mural of Rece his way.
‘Prioritize relational journalism over transactional’
My senior year at OU got off to a strange start.
I had just plopped down on my bed after a two-day drive back from Detroit when news of OU assistant coach Cale Gundy’s resignation surfaced. I was called back into action at OU Daily much quicker than I expected, writing a breaking news story late that night and, within a few days, a long-form analysis piece on the incident of racism that became a national story.
Not long after, I was presented with a potentially significant career advancement opportunity that I ultimately decided not to pursue. Admittedly, balancing it with my responsibilities at OU Daily would’ve been difficult for me, and I believed in what I could accomplish in my final go-around in this place. At first, I was slightly bummed about passing up this chance, but my spirits were quickly lifted.
While in Detroit I was afforded a lengthy Zoom sitdown with OU quarterback Dillon Gabriel for a profile that would end up as the cover story of our upcoming football preview tabloid. Upon returning to Norman, I got to know the UCF transfer passer’s family through subsequent interviews. The Gabriels are some of the kindest people I’ve met in my short time covering college football. The Gabriel story, shouted out by Jason Benetti on Fox’s broadcast of OU’s season opener, remains one of my favorite profiles.
A day or so after publication, I was walking under the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium when I bumped into Gabriel. He thanked me for the story, saying it was potentially the best he’d seen written about him, and that not everyone would put that kind of effort into such a piece.
I’ve had people I wrote profiles about compliment me here and there, but this one felt different. It unlocked something for me. It’s not that I didn’t prioritize relational journalism over transactional journalism beforehand, but it was really reinforced at this time. One of the exercises in my capstone journalism class this semester was to craft a career mission statement, and I wrote something to this effect:
“I want to help athletes and coaches elevate their platform for societal betterment and provide the audience with inspiring and entertaining content about their favorite teams.”
I tried my best at that throughout a tough 6-7 season, one of the worst in recent OU history, filled with the highs, lows and little victories in between.
I’m well aware that my predecessors covered Heisman Trophy winners (I sort of did with Williams) and College Football Playoff qualifiers (nope), but I’m grateful for the opportunities I had and wouldn’t trade them for anything else.
‘Are you THAT Mason Young?’
Mason Young will graduate in May 2023.
My trip to Kansas City was successful beyond all measure. We found a place for me to live in Overland Park with relative ease on Friday, then spent Saturday joyriding around town and dining excessively on Jack Stack barbecue and Stroud’s pan-fried chicken.
As I’m getting around writing the rest of this on Sunday, I’m back where I started: in the car somewhere in Kansas. I’m ready to be back in Oklahoma City, but having this time to write is nice. I still have several people I’d like to acknowledge for their influence on my career.
Thanks to my parents, Tim and Deborah, among many other friends and family, for their unconditional love and support.
My mom always goes out of her way to make sure I’m not lacking. I credit her for paving the way to a journalism career by reading to me often as a child and editing my essays and papers. My dad put so much time and effort into my high school baseball career, unspectacular as I was, and has been equally invested in reading and commending my work. He is and always will be my favorite buddy to talk about sports with.
Traveling with them to Lubbock last November for the last OU game I covered in person is a memory I’ll cherish forever.
For that, the many other road trips I went on — to the Cotton Bowl, Alamo Bowl and every Big 12 school except West Virginia — and the memories from them, I have OU Daily to thank.
Thank you to Seth, who is undoubtedly the best college newsroom adviser in the country and will only continue to strengthen OU Daily through his expanded role as director of Student Media. He made clear to me early that I would get out what I put into this place, but he was always there to cheer me on and guide me along the way.
He’s a selfless, humble “program guy,” not unlike Bob Stoops, and I believe students would not get as much out of OU Daily if not for Seth. I’m honored to be one of many who has been made ready for the professional ranks by his investment in my development.
Thanks to George, Caleb, Vic and Blake for mentorship and the standard they set before me.
Thanks to Chandler, Austin and rising OU Daily sports editor Colton Sulley for the experiences and successes we shared as editors, on the football beat and in the ways we pushed one another daily to better serve our audience.
Thanks to current reporters Jason Batacao and Nick Coppola and former sports writer Grayson Blalock for being great friends and letting me be your editor.
Thanks to graduating editor-in-chief Jillian Taylor, who has quickly become a trusted friend this semester. I appreciate her giving me the chance to stay on part time and guiding me through my final contributions to the Daily and, by extension, the OU and Norman community.
That last part — societal impact — is what many journalists hope their career is measured by, and I’m no different. Sometimes, it’s perceived in Twitter traffic and analytics spikes, but I saw it in my exchange with Dillon Gabriel, and once again more recently.
Last week, as I introduced myself to my senior portrait photographer at the OU Duck Pond, she inquired, “Are you THAT Mason Young?”
I confirmed, not thinking of myself as some celebrity, but certainly cognizant of the reach OU Daily has helped me have, and how far I’ve come since being that freshman nobody knew on day one. I hope I’ll have that same impact in another community in a few years.
On May 13, I’ll walk across the stage at McCasland Field House, where I started out covering wrestling four years ago, with my fellow Gaylord College graduates.
Then, all too soon, I’ll be driving back through Kansas, with plenty of stories left to tell.
Mason Young served as a sports reporter from fall 2019 through spring 2020, senior news reporter for summer 2020, assistant sports editor for fall 2020, sports editor from spring 2021 through fall 2022 and sports enterprise reporter for spring 2023. He is a journalism graduate with a minor in political science.
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