Introducing Will Foley
Editor’s note: We’re excited to announce that we’ve hired a new writer, Will Foley, to the Inside the Hall staff. Will is a senior at Indiana University at the media school. His work began appearing on Inside the Hall last month.
Inside Assembly Hall – the one in Champaign, Illinois – on Feb. 7, 2013, I sat decked out in cream and crimson, candy stripe pants included, with my dad. An annual trip to see that year’s No. 1-ranked team face Illinois in a road environment. Confidence was high despite being surrounded by orange and blue.
That was until Tyler Griffey slipped past Cody Zeller for a last-second layup to stun my father’s alma mater, who was distraught much like me in the moment. All that could be done was a thousand-yard stare while the tens of thousands of Illini fans were crazed around us.
I grew up on Indiana basketball despite not being a Hoosier. The Hoosiers captivated me back home in Bloomington, Illinois, especially in the Tom Crean era when a national championship was in sight. Aside from one year being “brainwashed” by my mother – an Illinois graduate – and flashing an Illini shirt to my dad, I was indoctrinated to be a Hoosier through and through.
Fast-forward to the spring of 2021. I had already committed to attending IU and was taking a campus visit. After getting morning coffee, my mom and I stumbled into the talk of the town—Mike Woodson, just days after he was hired. The first thought in my mind wasn’t from a fan’s perspective; it was that I knew it was a sign we would soon cross paths as I planned on majoring in sports media.
Another three-and-a-half years later and here I am. It’s been quite a journey, but within that time frame, I’ve developed from someone who thought sports journalism couldn’t possibly be real, seeming too good to be true, to now pursuing jobs and internships in the field.
Heading into freshman year, I knew the IDS was my starting point. I wanted to strengthen my writing abilities, which is what I was most passionate about, before potentially dipping my toes into other areas like broadcasting. My hopes were high when I applied for the top beats like football and basketball, thinking back then that my writing was untouchable.
I was quickly humbled when I was assigned my first semester beat – women’s golf. After sending my first story through edits, I was taken aback at how unpolished my writing skills were and how much room there was for improvement.
That improvement gradually showed. After my freshman year, adding on the softball beat, I could see the clear difference in skill from the beginning of the year until the end. Thanks to editors like Evan Gerike and Amanda Foster — the newest Inside the Hall alum — I received several tips and was given direction on how to get better. I was starting to get prepared for a bigger stage.
Then came my sophomore year, when I covered football as a columnist in the fall and women’s basketball in the winter and spring. Around this time, I could tell sports writing is what I am made for and my confidence skyrocketed.
I also learned several lessons about covering different kinds of teams that year – the football team went 4-8 while Indiana women’s basketball earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. I made some of my favorite reporting memories that year, like cramping in a Motel 6 room with fellow beat reporters in Minneapolis at the Big Ten tournament and enjoyed some of the best basketball games I have ever watched live, including a Caitlin Clark buzzer-beater.
Finally, I earned a position as a men’s basketball reporter last year, accomplishing one of several goals I created my freshman year. It was a fruitful experience, filled with more travel, feature stories and finding new angles for a team with a solidified identity. My 11-year-old self would have never had the composure I’ve grown so used to covering Indiana – sometimes critical, sometimes glowing but always fair.
When I was a freshman, I mapped out a blueprint for how I wanted my sports writing experience to unfold. By sophomore year, I wanted to make sure I covered the big sports and the ones I cared for the most — football and men’s and women’s basketball. It turned out a little unrealistic, but by last year, I had finished the trifecta. There was one more goal left on the bucket list.
That was to secure a gig with Inside the Hall, which I had long considered the premiere coverage of Indiana basketball. Just thinking about it makes me smile, knowing I’ve done what I set out to do and all that’s left is to provide the best possible coverage for all to see.
My year-long coverage of Indiana men’s and women’s basketball can be tracked on Twitter, @thewillfoley.
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