Pitch:

Mike Perez (football)- I think he would make a great profile because he has faced many injuries in his playing career and has become a starter his senior year after being out for 2 years with different injuries.

Damian Jones (football)- Was named an all american at the end of last season. Would talk about how it felt for him and what kind of hard work it takes for him to earn that and how he felt earning that.

Sean Gherard (football)- Is a first year player that has earned playing time. I would talk about how it feels and the difference in play from high school to college football.

10/31 status report:

My subject is Mike Perez who is on the football team at UNE. I have made contact with him and have planned the interview time. The reason I plan on doing him is because of the challenges he has faced playing football. I plan on doing the interview with him on Sunday 11/2/25. I have drafted up my 7-10 questions to ask him but I am prepared to alter questions based on his response. I plan to start writing Sunday night to have a well polished first draft for the 7th when the first draft is due. I plan on interviewing the head football coach as well who has seen him progress through the years as well as a teammate of his who has seen him battle injuries and overcome challenges. I have not yet started drafting because I am waiting for the interview to happen first to see which way the story goes.

7-10 Questions:

1. How did you first get into playing football?
2. What are some of your favorite memories from playing football?
3. What  challenges have you faced playing this sport?
4. Why did you choose UNE to play football in college?
5. What other sports did you have success in?
6. What are things you would tell your past self about playing football?
7. How has football affected your mindset on life?
8. How do you think the challenges you faced with football will help you with your future?
9. What does a typical day look like for you?
10. How do you balance school and football?

200 Words:

The sound of tape unrolling from a fresh roll is the only thing you can hear in the University of New England athletic training room. 

Perez is usually one of the first people into the training room before a practice or a game. This is solely because of the injuries he has faced in his college career. 

Mike Perez is in his fourth year at the UNE, but on the football field he is only a sophomore. This is because he has been sidelined with two severe injuries in the past years. 

Just when Perez thought he would have a stellar sophomore year of football he suffered a torn ACL. This put him out the whole season and he worked hard and came back eager to work hard to get a starting spot. He was then faced with another injury, this time breaking his ulna in half. This ended up sidelining him for the rest of his junior year as well.

Perez in his fourth season with the team has been playing exceptionally well, as he was named a starter and has kept that spot throughout the season thus far.

Peer review draft:

Beyond the field-Mike Perez

By:Evan Glynos

The sound of tape unrolling from a fresh roll is the only thing you can hear in the University of New England athletic training room while athletes get ready for practice.

Perez is usually one of the first people into the training room before a practice or a game. This is solely because of the injuries he has faced in his college career. 

“These injuries have tried to determine my playing ability and take me out of the sport” Perez stated.

Mike Perez of Peabody, MA, is in his fourth year at UNE, but on the football field he is only a sophomore. This is because he has been sidelined with two severe injuries in the past years that ended his season before they even started. 

Just when Perez thought he would have a stellar sophomore year of football he suffered a torn ACL. This put him out the whole season and he worked hard and came back eager to work hard to get a starting spot. He was then faced with another injury, this time breaking his ulna in half. This ended up sidelining him for the rest of his junior year as well.

“Its tough to come back from two serious injuries like that but having my guys be there by my side made it easier on me and I was able to get the motivation to keep playing.” Perez recalled

Perez in his fourth season with the team has been playing exceptionally well, as he was named a starter and has kept that spot throughout the season thus far.

Off the field Perez is the example student athlete as an applied exercise science student withholding just barely shy of a 4.0 grade point average.

“I plan on attending med school next year… not sure what school just yet” Perez explained.

Perez has dreams of becoming an orthopedic surgeon to work on athletes who will face similar injuries that he has faced to be able to help them get back on the field promptly. Although becoming an orthopedic surgeon is a lot of extra school Perez is up for the challenge.

Perez is nearing the end of his senior football season, as he tries to keep playing to his best ability to stay in the run on earning all conference recognition. He has 42 tackles on the season which is lower than the rest of the conference players at his position, but others lack consistency where Perez has been consistent.

Peer Review Experience:

This was a great experience overall. For me this was beneficial because I was able to have others read over my article in advance and come into class with feedback ready to go. I thought this was important because we were able to use the most of our time going over the articles. This helped me a lot because I was able to see where my brush strokes were in the article. Being able to get feedback from others is important in this process because it helps set you up for the real world experience. Giving feedback to the other two articles I was assigned was also important because I was able to help them develop better stories as well. I liked the fact of having a few days to read these articles because it allowed me to read it multiple times to figure out the details. I think this was overall very helpful because it made things flow smoothly during the peer review time in class and we were able to maximize the time we had.

FInal Draft:

Beyond the field-Mike Perez

By:Evan Glynos

Courtesy of athletics.une.edu

The sound of tape unrolling from a fresh roll is the only thing you can hear in the University of New England athletic training room while athletes get ready for practice.

Perez is usually one of the first people into the training room before a practice or a game. This is solely because of the injuries he has faced in his college career. 

“These injuries have tried to determine my playing ability and take me out of the sport” Perez stated.

Mike Perez of Peabody, MA, is in his fourth year at UNE, however on the football field he is only a sophomore. Due to being sidelined with two severe injuries in the past years that ended his season before they even started. 

Just when Perez thought he would have a stellar sophomore year of football he suffered a torn ACL. This put him out the whole season and he worked hard and came back eager to work hard to get a starting spot. He was then faced with another injury, this time breaking his ulna in half. This ended up sidelining him for the rest of his junior year as well.

“Its tough to come back from two serious injuries like that but having my guys be there by my side made it easier on me and I was able to get the motivation to keep playing.” Perez recalled

Perez in his fourth season with the team has been playing exceptionally well, as he was named a starter and has kept that spot throughout the season thus far.

Off the field Perez is the epitome student athlete as an applied exercise science student withholding just barely shy of a 4.0 grade point average.

“I plan on attending med school next year… not sure what school just yet” Perez explained.

Perez has dreams of becoming an orthopedic surgeon to work on athletes who will face similar injuries that he has faced, to be able to help them get back on the field promptly. Although becoming an orthopedic surgeon is a lot of extra school Perez is up for the challenge.

Perez is nearing the end of his senior football season, as he tries to keep playing to the best of his ability to stay in the run on earning all conference recognition. Although Perez’s 42 tackles are lower than some other conference players at his position, many of those players struggle with consistency, something Perez delivers every single week.

“He is a great leader on and off the field, we call each other the bash bro’s” George Villis said. Villis in his senior year as well, has also faced injuries this season taking him out for the year. Villis is Perez’s counterpart at inside linebacker coming up with the nickname “Bash Bro’s”.

Perez fell just short of gaining  all conference recognition this season. Even as dominant as he has been this year.

“Perez could have easily gotten all conference this year but the conference does not see overall performance, they only see player stats”, head coach Mike Lichten stated. Lichten in his 10th season leading the Nor’easters, has led the team to many program firsts this year.

At the beginning of the Nor’easters fall training camp Perez was not named a starter. He was second string on the depth chart, still expected to see time on the field. 

“Seeing the depth chart for the first time and not being the number one, a spark just lit in me that wanted to work for that starting spot” Perez said.

Working as hard as he could and watching as much film as he possibly could he was finally moved up in the depth chart. The starters were now Villis and Perez.

“I was so excited for him, this meant we finally got to be on the field together after waiting since his injuries,” Villis said. 

The “Bash Bro’s” would only share the field for three quarters of the first game of the season against United States Coast Guard Academy. This was due to Villis going down with an injury taking him out for the rest of the season.

“When he went down with an injury I knew I needed to step up especially with some younger guys getting the chance to play more” Perez stated.

Not only stepping up on the field but off the field as well. Perez and Villis are roommates, and when Villis went down with the ankle injury, Perez made sure to help him around the house with getting around.

Although the “Bash Bro’s” could not take the field together, they would still do their handshake before every game. This handshake consisted of a few high fives and a soft head touch.

“We always would say some encouraging words to each other when we would touch heads, this never stopped even when Villis got injured,” Perez said.

Perez is looking forward to his next steps in life after this football season. He has the option to come back for two more years or go onto another school to continue to play while in med school.

Reflection:

My overall reflection on this project was that I think it went very well. To start things that I think well was my ability to get access to my subject for an interview. This was important because I did not have to chase around the subject trying to find the best time. Although in the real world of this profession success like this may not come as easy and I have faced the challenges before. To overcome this challenge I had reached out to my subject well in advance to secure a time slot. Some challenges I faced were that some of the quotes were unclear that I had gotten so I did have to contact the subject again to clarify those quotes. This was important because if I do get into journalism I would have to do that in the future. As an editor my experience was nothing but positive. I was able to help my peer review group clear things up in the stories. Whether this was grammar errors or making sentences sound more clear and digestible for the readers. I thought being in the editor role was important because I was able to see the other side of how a news room would work. For peer review I thought it was extremely helpful. Not only did I get great feedback for my article but I was also able to give feedback. This time was beneficial because we had the articles in advance. I was able to read through multiple times and get a better feel for what story was trying to be painted. Overall for the whole project I thought this was great. I was able to work on my writing skills for a profile while also learning more about a teammate. I think the whole experience of the project went well for me and I never really faced any challenges. Writing profiles can be tough because you are trying to stay centered on one subject but I think it is great to write pieces like this.