Meet the rest of the staff

First off, welcome to The Champaign Room. You have no idea how hard it has been for me to keep it hush-hush while the site was developing. Since Tom already got his introduction out of the way and we only get one real site launch, it only seemed fitting that I get to write one up as well.

If you were a regular of Hail to the Orange back in the spring, you might remember me as the guy who tried to help keep the ship afloat. We still sank, but it was fun anyways. Or you might recognize me from South Side Sox.

I moved down to Champaign in August of 2006 and set up shop on the third floor of the sweatbox that was Scott Hall. I would spend my year in the dorms letting Eddie McGee use my microwave at all hours of the day (and night) and occasionally drinking with Arrelious Benn while trying to convince him that his Speech Comm 101 TA did not hate him.

I would shoot my airsoft gun at a shoebox with Jeff Cumberland and Michael Hoomanawanui before the RAs took it away from me. I saw more of Vontae Davis than I ever wanted to. I went to every home football game over my four years, starting with a win over Eastern Illinois and ending with the ridiculous loss to Fresno State in 2009.

I spent the next three years living within the small area of Stoughton to Clark and Fifth to Wright, the majority of which is just a happy blur.

Over that time I earned a B.S. in Animal Science, lifeguarded at every rec facility with a pool, spent too many Mondays playing trivia at Brothers, and more money than necessary at Firehaus. I destroyed my wrist senior year and learned that my faith in the staff at Provena was just as misguided as my faith in Ron Zook.

I moved to Manhattan, KS after graduation to become a veterinarian. Mostly because I hate myself. You can imagine how I felt this spring when I woke up to discover that Bruce Weber had followed me to the Little Apple. So that should be fun.

So what can you expect from me? I'm not entirely sure other than that it's safe to say I'll be the 2006 Rashard Mendenhall to Tom's Pierre Thomas. Things are going to be pretty good around here, so stick around and enjoy it.