Changes

There are very few people in the world who get to do what they truly love to do for a living. For me, that love has changed over the years. When I was younger, it was playing football. I lived and breathed the sport until a back injury took away my ability to play after my freshman year at Hardin-Simmons University.

I have to say, when I transferred to Texas Tech, I didn’t know if I was making the right call. It only took two weeks for me to realize how dumb I was to have ever doubted that I would love Texas Tech. I lived and breathed this school during my time here, going to every game I could, reading everything about the team I could, and talking about it every chance I got.

I never considered myself a strong writer, but after I finished up my senior papers, I decided that I would try and take writing on as a side gig in addition to a career in either ministry or as a high school history teacher. When Seth and co. left VTM, I found my chance to combine two loves that I had with my new hobby: football and Texas Tech.

I can give you all sorts of statistics that show how much we’ve grown as a blog. I can give you all of the really cool interviews we did. I can give you stories about the borderline insane and sometimes purely stupid articles we’ve ran here. I can give you the links to articles by unpaid writers that far outclass anything at mainstream sites. I can show you the world-class analysis in our football and baseball Film Room articles, but the thing that will stay with me from my time at VTM is the people.

It’s the rabid and sometimes irrational fans that have made this worthwhile. It’s the staff, who have become some of my best friends. It’s all about the unification of people who come from all over but have one thing in common: they love Texas Tech.

As my time at VTM continued, I found a new love: writing. I genuinely enjoyed finding a way to put what was going into my head onto a computer screen. It became fun to me; how many alliterations can I use, what’s the perfect verb-noun combination to describe this situation, how do I cultivate my voice in ways that make people want to read my work but don’t compromise who I am as a person. Through this love, I started to freelance other places. It was insanely hard work for a while; there were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of time spent away from friends and family, and admittedly a lot of mistakes. I wasn’t making a lot of money and I was working a lot of hours, but I had found something most recent graduates don’t find the second they leave college: happiness.

This story brings us to today. On October 15th, I will be stepping down as the Managing Editor of Viva The Matadors to become the full-time Managing Editor of TexasHSFootball.com. After I push the “10 Things we learned after the West Virginia game” article live, I will be done at VTM.

Nothing will change for VTM as far as content. Everything for the next month will remain the same moving forward.

As I prepare to leave the best SBNation affiliated Texas Tech blog on the Internet, there are some people that I have to thank.

Drew Borsellino - For working harder than anyone to make this what it is, right from the beginning.

Brice Paterik - For being the most cheerful, happy person I’ve ever met.

Ryan Smith - For all the late night Slack chats and podcasts.

Kyle Jacobson - For being one of the strongest writers I’ve ever read and for smoking me in bowling too many times to count.

Jon Althaus - For your willingness to do anything asked of you.

Zachary Reed - For being the voice of reason.

Eric Linthicum - For your cheerfulness.

Maitland Rutledge - For your dedication.

Isaiah Lucio-Lopez - For your work ethic.

Austin Jordan - For your enthusiasm.

Drew Parker - For your friendship.

The entire writing staff of Staking The Plains - For paving the way.

Matt Brown and Luke Zimmerman - For taking a chance on a 24-year old kid. I would not have the opportunity I have today if it wasn’t for y’all.

HOW THIS AFFECTS THE FUTURE:

As of right now, there is a paid Managing Editor position open at VTM. If you would like to apply, go to this link and fill out everything. Even if you don’t want the job and just want to write for the site, apply. The freedom and platform you get writing at SBNation is infinitely better than writing for any other website on the internet.

As of right now, I’ll still be here another month or so. The announcement is coming so early in order to smooth the transition and ensure that there are zero hiccups moving forward.

I’m going to miss this place, but it’ll be in good hands.

- Hunter Cooke