Zielonka: Thanks for joining me as I try something new

Welcome to my newsletter, Guarden State. Let me tell you why I'm here.

Welcome to the first edition of Guarden State! I’m thrilled to launch this newsletter and cover college basketball around New Jersey in the upcoming 2021-22 season, with a primary focus on Rutgers, Seton Hall and Princeton.

Let me break this introduction into two parts: the “what” and the “why.”

The “what” is straightforward: In Guarden State, I will write two newsletters a week – most likely Thursday and Sunday/Monday – breaking down what’s happening in New Jersey college hoops. The lead item might be a feature story, an interview, a column or analysis of a game I cover in person. I’ll conclude with an assortment of other observations or notes about the local programs, perhaps with recurring sections like a tournament bubble watch. Short and sweet, but worth basketball fans’ time.

That leaves the question that’s trickier to get my arms around. Why am I doing this?

Well, I’m not doing it to make a ton of money. Guarden State will always be free to read, with an option for you to pay to subscribe if you believe I deserve it and you want to show support. (I may consider subscriber-exclusive content down the line once I’ve got this thing rolling, but it isn’t a priority.)

I’m continuing my “day job” editing and writing for Field Level Media; everyone is great over there, and my bosses are encouraging and understand I want to try something new. So Guarden State is a side project – more important than a part-time hobby, but nothing that must become my primary source of income either.

Then why, exactly, am I embarking on this project? There’s a few ways to answer. College basketball has always been one of my favorite sports to follow as a fan and to cover as a journalist. It’s been on the rise in my home state of New Jersey, where Rutgers is coming off its first NCAA Tournament bid in 30 years, and Seton Hall has had some truly high-caliber players come through the program while being consistently competitive in the Big East.

There’s interesting stories to tell here, yet I feel the state is often overshadowed. New Jersey has a population of more than 9.2 million people but gets split into the New York and Philly media markets, which have their own college hoops to cover. We have a few terrific journalists covering Rutgers here, but I honestly feel there’s more demand than supply for local college sports content. This could be a great niche for me to fill.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you already know me, either from my past work or from “real life.” But I figure a couple of you found your way here solely through your interest in college hoops. It’s only fair I open up and let new readers get to know me a bit better.

So let me pose a question to the room:

Have you ever lost sight of why you’re spending all your time and effort on something?

I have. Being a sports writer was the only career I ever wanted, but I wasn’t prepared for what happened once I made it. At some of my previous jobs, many assignments felt like chores. Worse, the journalism itself often was swept aside by other job-related nonsense that bogged me down. I kept expecting that things would turn out fine if I worked hard enough, but it wasn’t that simple. For several reasons I wasn’t a healthy person throughout much of 2019 and 2020, and I thank God I was able to see things through to a brighter day.

For a period of several months after leaving the Washington Times, the only thing I’d write was cover letters. One after another, sometimes 10 a week, as I chased sports media jobs that often were predestined for internal candidates anyway. I don’t remember when this clicked for me, but at some point I said, “I keep telling these companies I can do the job. Maybe I should just show them.”

So if Guarden State leads to some bigger opportunity for me down the line, terrific. Even if it doesn’t, it’ll get me back out into our reopening world to cover sports in person again. It’ll let me practice my craft on a type of writing far more fulfilling than cover letters.

I’ve been nervous – still am today! – and unsure of myself. But recently I read an edition of Malala Yousafzai’s newsletter featuring reflections from several Ted Lasso cast members, including Cristo Fernández (of “Fútbol is life!” fame). We know him as an actor, but Fernández was describing his background as a filmmaker, and how he concentrated on controlling the things he could control early in his career.

“Because I believed in the things that were possible for me in the future, I was able to create my own work, rather than wait for it to come to me,” Fernández said.

I think that’s exactly the encouragement I needed to find.

That’s enough of that. I’ll actually discuss basketball in Thursday’s edition, jumping in with some preseason predictions and projections. I’m aiming to write some season previews for the Pirates, Scarlet Knights, etc. after that.

It’s cheesy, but thanks for joining me on this journey. Let’s do this thing.