The adventures of Gary, Nic, Ginger and Dolley as they navigate life in a crazy world. They love sports, reading bed-time stories and of course, the Hokies.
Me, Her, the Boy and a Dog by Gary Cope is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Virginia Tech 2010 Football Schedule
9/6 | vs. Boise State (8 p.m., ESPN, FedEx Field)
9/11 | vs. James Madison
9/18 | vs. East Carolina
9/25 | @ Boston College
10/2 | @ N.C. State
10/9 | vs. Central Michigan
10/16 | vs. Wake Forest
10/23 | vs. Duke
11/4 | vs. Georgia Tech
11/13 | @ North Carolina
11/20 | @ Miami
11/27 | vs. Virginia
I think we’ve got a cakewalk through the year. All we need to worry about is Miami and Boise State. We’ve had a bad history of losing the big games to open the season though the past couple years.
39 days and counting! I love how Boise State players say they are going to crush us. Yeah, we’ll see about that.
Virginia Tech’s orientation leaders do the whirlybird dance one last time as today is the last day of orientation. Here it is in its entirety!
Have you seen the Virginia Tech orientation leaders do the “whirlybird” dance at Squires in the morning? If you haven’t, here’s a sneak peak courtesy of the video production crew over in the media building. A more complete video is in the works, but until then, get your “whirlybird” on!
Also, your last chance to see them do the dance live is tomorrow, Thursday, July 22, around 10 a.m. Don’t miss it!
Orientation leader at Virginia Tech
Incoming freshmen at orientation
Time for lunch at orienation
Lunch time under the tree
Orientation leader on campus
Another orientation leader
Now that's a sandwich!
Virginia Tech bottled water
I was on campus today and took some pictures of incoming freshmen in their orientation groups. This is the last week for orientation - classes begin Aug. 23.
The old building at the Duck Pond
Solitude is getting some repairs
Solitude is a historic landmark
Renovations have begun
If you’ve driven by the Duck Pond at Virginia Tech recently, you’ve probably wondered what’s going on with that old building? Well, Albert Raboteau and I stopped by the “old building,” also known as Solitude, on Friday to get an up close look at the renovations that have begun.
We took more than 100 photos, inside and out, and Albert’s working on a slide show to go with some history on the historic landmark, as well as an update to the work being done on the old building.
Until then, enjoy a sneak preview and stay tuned!
I turned down an opportunity from Fox Sports
I was recently presented with an opportunity to cover Virginia Tech football for Fox Sports and initially, I was excited. But, when I got the details of the “agreement,” I was disappointed.
The opportunity was presented to me, initially, as a stringer/beat writer for Fox Sports, writing previews and recaps. But, when I got the agreement via e-mail, it was much different that I had believed. Fox wanted 3-4 “quick hitter” articles and one 750-1,000 word article per week in addition to 3-4 video elements (i.e. sound bytes), that I would have to upload to the server. Fox would send me all the video/audio equipment complete with mic flag and I would have to attend the weekly press conferences.
So, what was the compensation? $300 a week. Sounds like a lot, but when you break down the time and effort to put all that together, it’s actually not, at least not for someone with 18 years of sports journalism experience. Shoot, I can make $150 per free lance article. Anyhow, I weighed the pros and cons such as the prestige of working for Fox Sports vs. the low pay and how much the additional work would cut into my family time and decided it just wasn’t worth it.
I will continue to cover the Hokies for VTHokieFans.com and TechHoops.com. I hope to see you guys there. Go Hokies!
From 2003-2004, I provided game previews and recaps of Virginia Tech football for The College Football Hour, a nationally syndicated sports radio show on the Sporting News Radio Network. In the midst of my move, I came across some old DVD backups and found this audio file of one of my reports. Brings back memories.
Fox Sports is looking for a beat writer to cover the Hokies this season and my name is in the mix. Here’s hoping I get the gig.
Um, my orientation leaders didn’t look like this.
I am a proud alum of Virginia Tech. And like many graduates, I got the calls from the university after I graduated asking me to give money. My initial reaction, like that of many other recent grads, was, “Why are you asking me for money? I just paid $xx,xxx to get my degree!”
For years I would politely, but quickly tell the student on the other end of the call, “Thank you, but I’m not interested.” I never gave it a thought. Just another sales call.
As I’ve gotten older and learned to appreciate the value of my education more, I have changed my view on giving back to my university. Partly because I like to think I’m a little wiser than I was 13 years ago. Partly because my student loans are paid off. And partly because I now work with my alma mater doing what I’m good at and I have seen up close how things work. You’d be amazed how much goes into educating future Hokies.
I always figured that my tuition dollars paid for everything related to my education at Tech. This, however, is not the case. State funding, private giving, grants and my tuition combined paid the bills. But two of those three funding sources have been on the decline thanks in large part to the economic downturn.
So, here I am, 35 years old, father of a little boy about to start kindergarten, five months away from getting married to a fellow Hokie (and William & Mary) alumna, and I’ve made my first financial contribution to Virginia Tech, specifically to the Communications Department. Took me long enough, didn’t it?
Now, I’m not a big donor (financially speaking) so I’m not expecting any invites to President Steger’s next social, but that’s not the point. The point is, I’ve changed my attitude toward supporting higher education and I hope you will give it some thought, too.
Name: Gary Cope
Class Year: 1997
Major: Communications
Favorite Hokie Color: Maroon
Why I support Virginia Tech academics: “Now more than ever I feel the need to give back to the university that has become so much a part of my life. Times are tight for many of us, but for those that can afford to give, I feel it’s our responsibility as alumni to give what we can. Every little bit helps.”
