By james art 
Tallahassee, FLA. – The most forming year of Madison Fitzpatrick’s life included tears. Many and many tears.
“I cried almost every day for a month -two,” she recalls, laughing.
Here was Fitzpatrick, a 22-year-old who knew a little different from a success, fresh to the senior year in Florida, who saw her leave as leader of program # 7 for all time (86). She was comprehensive in a team that graduated from the NCAA championship, All-Academic, all almost everything.
“My last year has been the best year so far,” she said.
And now she could have been the oldest year.
Like most of her peers in Talahasi, Fitzpatrick applies for any job that has a reasonable resemblance to her future career. In her case, it meant broadcasting jobs across the country, including a little clothing in Little Rock, Arkansas who wanted it as bad as Brooke Neals He once did it when the head coach was recruiting Fitzpatrick from the Lincoln High School five years before. The difference here is that where Fitzpatrick did not hesitate to engage in the state of Florida, she was strongly pressed to find some enthusiasm about the potential move in Arkansas. Then again what other options did she really have?
No, as it turned out.
She went to Arkansas.
“The worst year of my life,” she said. “I had no training at all, but they really needed someone. I thought it would be easy, but no, I edited, produced and directed. I was hosting my own 30-minute talk show. It was the biggest growth I ever have is He experienced in the first year. “
She recalls her experience at Little Rock with the attachment of an athlete who withstands a particularly difficult freshman, understanding, with 4K clarity in the background, how valuable this difficult season was. Was it brutal at that time? Undoubtedly. Was it the most appropriate path to development? Absolutely.
“It was so uncomfortable, it was so painful, I was so embarrassed constantly,” she said. “I remember running from my computer to the news to where I would anchor, I was just cry Yes, I’m here.
There is a common refrain in sports you either win or learn. This essentially made Fitzpatrick in Arkansas, and it was this clichéd frame of sports that allowed her to approach mistakes and perceived failures with grace and acceptance that they were a necessary aspect for improvement.
“If I weren’t an athlete, I wouldn’t be anywhere close to where I was today,” she said. “As for the hard work, pouring every ounce of myself into the goal. The national championship when I was an athlete, that was all I thought of, every day, every workout, that was about it. Also with the pursuit of storylines Lines, pursuing coaches running in the dressing room, demanding the maximum of themselves.
She always had this way of thinking, long before she had ever reached the grenade and the gold of Florida. When he was only three years old, there was a fitzpatrick full of those unmistakable bouncing curls armed with an old school camcorder, pretending to be the girl Weather, pretending to be conducting interviews, pretending to be delivering the news unknowingly preparing for a career in a career It would end up making her do these things – except for the time report – in front of millions on national television a month.
“I have always been obsessed with public talk, fun and engaging with people. I always knew I wanted to get into it,” she said.
And, don’t be fooled, she’s deep in her. During this year’s indoor volleyball championship, there was Fitzpatrick stunning in a shiny dress, delivering a native to the size of bites after the next side line reporter for ESPN. It was there, interviewing Penn coach Katie Schumacher-Cayley, interviewing Louisville coach now, Nebraska’s coach-Danny Busbum Kelly.
There she was on the biggest stage in sports, doing exactly what she had foreseen 23 years earlier.
“Dreams come true, frankly,” she said. “I grew up, playing volleyball. I love it with all my heart. I know exactly how I feel to play in high bet situations and I knew I wanted to get into the broadcast, so it was just the natural development for my career to go.”
Only 26 years old and at the top of her profession in the sport of volleyball is only a matter of time before Fitzpatrick jumps at higher levels in other sports. The purpose of the dream? The side line reporting many sports – football, basketball, volleyball – for ESPN. This is not almost as far as a tear -filled girl at Little Rock could only imagine a few years ago.
“It was a very hard work,” she said, “but it’s worth every second.