Alumni Stories with Graham Couch

Alumni Stories

You're listening to LCC alumni stories, a show dedicated to highlighting the amazing alumni of Lansing Community College. I'm Steve Robinson, President of LCC. And on each episode I have the awesome privilege of getting to know one of our many inspiring alum's and hearing about their experiences at, and since leaving LCC, LCC alumni community is expansive and far-reaching. They're an incredibly diverse group of people representative of all walks of life, working in hundreds of industries across the country. Lcc alumni stories shines a bright light on alumni who make a positive contribution to their community and showcases those who have overcome obstacles and barriers to achieve academic and personal success. These are their dynamic stories. My guest today is Graham Couch, a sports columnist at the Lansing State Journal. Graham, It is great to talk to you. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me. We'll look. I have been looking forward to having you on the show and I, I just have to start off by thanking you for writing kind of intro to the community piece for me in the journal when you are obviously taken a little break from sports. Thank you for writing that great piece about me. I got a lot of good feedback on it while you were an easy subject. So that's, that's really the key to those stories, right? Oh, how was it, how was I easy? Because if I asked a question, you gave a great answer. Oh, that's that's flattering. Thanks. Well, we're talking today on the podcast because you are an LCC alum. Tell me about your time here at LCC. What did you study? What were you working on? Yeah, it was 90, 97 through 99, a couple of years here. And I grew up in Lansing with The Lansing Sexton high school and was not, I wouldn't say I was an incredibly serious student until late in my high school career. Okay. And became one here really and very much so. And came here with the idea that I would transfer would do two years in transfer and that's what I did. I went to Columbia College, Chicago. But I came in looking for and got a very, I think, Rich, diverse experience with all sorts of philosophy course is public speaking courses, course freshman comp and all the stuff in left. But I left here with my academic confidence, which was a big thing. And because I hadn't always had that, some of which had been my fault. But took part in the student newspaper. The lookout, took part in the radio station, did play by play for the men's and women's basketball teams, which is which was a lot of fun. I still have those tapes someday. I'll go back and use guy, You're check tapes from doing like play-by-play here with the stars. Because I thought this was the key. I thought I was gonna go to play by play. And like this was this was the path I was going to need these I guess your portfolio? Yes. That's right. That's what I was thinking. And yet, the lookout was an amazing experience too, and really lead to a lot of, you know, I don't know if I I don't know if we'd be sitting here. We may have come across the same path eventually, but my initial plan was not to do, was not to get back into journalists might done in high school a little bit until I transferred. And I was working in the testing lab, the placement testing lab. And so I Little flyer that they needed a sports editor. Okay. And I had been reading a book at the time by Dan Patrick and Keith Oberman who were doing sports centers big show on ESPN. And they had, you know, one of the things they had this chapter on how to be a sports caster. And there were really adamant, not waste, don't waste time like you've at least be on your be on your student newspaper staff or be on the air if you want to be on the air. And so I just went and didn't wind up doing that because I had the testing lab lab job full-time. But wind up covering the teams and writing 5-6 stories, uh, an issue and that led to the radio deal. And so it was it was a really, a really good experience, I should say. I I mean, I kind of grew up around here. My mother still teaches here. I'll fantastic. What did she teach? Developmental ed. So phenomenal. That's my that's my discipline. I wrote my dissertation about that. Yeah. So I grew up. I mean, there are very early memories like when she was teaching night classes, getting in my pajamas, and coming down here with my dad and sister to pick her up from our class and things on a cool thing, what you said so much in there that really resonates with me and a couple of pieces I want to pick out. One is I gotta follow up on what you said that there was your experience here at LCC, the kind of sparked an academic seriousness and you tell me how that happened. I mean, it sounds like in high school, you are semi-serious, came here and something clicked. What was it? Yeah. I mean, really good teachers. Number one, you were in classes where you felt like an adult, right, That was different, you were treated that way and that started to happen late in high school. I wouldn't say my senior year was a difficult curriculum, but it was one where it was classes I valued and felt like I was getting value and that helped. I also knew that my parents were a little skeptical about my seriousness okay. As a student and wanted their trust in me as I went throughout throughout college. And and it was but yeah, I think a lot of it was finding courses and teachers that engaged me really well. And understanding too that I needed to, needed to do that. But I, you know, I had and this is one of the reasons I'm so passionate and adamant about the community college experience. I mean, I really think the two years here were as rich is educational experience. I had, you know, anywhere along the way and set me up, not, not just confidence wise, but the sort of, the sort of class and classes and curiosity I had for subjects like that. Well, and that is the other thing that you said that I wanted to pull out is that it sounds like you've curated for yourself an incredible amount of experiences where you could do and try these things in sports journalism and in the play by play and all that stuff. And as you probably know, some of those experiences are harder to get at a bigger institution and they were here for you and you made it happen? Totally. I mean, one of the things I always tell people is you can get anywhere from anywhere. Right? And and that's not to put down the anywhere that you are. But when I was at Columbia College Chicago, I would be working that internship that were some of the interns were from Adele at Northwestern. And I took great pride and just kicking there, but things like that was enjoying. That's a heavy duty program, right? It was less than yet and I loved to be more valuable than them and to see that and the people I worked for and and, you know, but One of the things you need to get as you go along and figure out what it is you want to do is you need to have opportunities. You need to have experiences, right? And here, I mean, it was just there were there, were there, and it was a great laboratory for, I mean, I look back at some of those articles I wrote and I cringe. And I thought they were fabulous at the time. And I'm sure the radio broadcast feel the same way, but it helped me discover what I wanted to do and have enough. Frankly, I mean, when I went to Columbia College, I was immediately an assistant sports editor on the staff getting paid because I walked in with clips. I was immediately on the radio station there because I had tapes. And so the experience it wasn't just the the the experiences. I had some teeth behind what I had done. Yeah. You had some real deliverables and some things that then and you got those at LCC. I love that. Now. You're a great writer. I mean, I really like reading your, your writing and I don't read a lot of sports journalism, I gotta confess. And some of that is because of the pros and the writing style. You've got this engaging way of really, really digging in to sports. And obviously, you're very passion about, passionate about the sports here in town, particularly Michigan State. How did that happen for you when you obviously came back to town and how did you get on, on this beat in this pathway of covering Spartan sports so closely? Yeah, I mean, I grew up in Michigan State fan, but I also don't think you can do the job if you are Michigan State fan, it's one of those things where you've gotta be removed. And I was for a long enough time, this was bucket list job for me growing up. It's the newspaper I sat on the floor next to my parents heating register eating brown sugared oatmeal before school. Sports pages open. And, and the staring at the standings and reading articles and, and, and so there was a part of me that always wanted to come back, but I frankly didn't know. And I turn the job down initially, really and part because I didn't, it's sort of the, the Seinfeld reference because stands at the combining of two worlds. Yeah, I, my worlds collide. Yeah, yeah, I know I like this world being, and I wrote my intro column about that because I like this world being different. I wouldn't, I worked in Free Port, Illinois for 2.5 years and then about seven years in Kalamazoo and loved it. And wasn't sure that I wanted my third grade teacher to be reading my opinions and things like that, you know, didn't yeah, I can understand. Didn't know that I wanted that. But I was annoyed. I built in some ways for the job because I had sort of institutional knowledge, historical knowledge, and I'd been away long enough. I covered Western Michigan football. I had not paid attention MSU football for enough years. I had covered things that were much more important at the time I was covering, which I think it's important for people. And so that fandom dissipated, which is, is really important because what you can't be when you cover somebody. As ticked off at them for losing. Well, that's fascinating to me because I think I told you growing up, I didn't consume a lot of sports. But that makes sense to me is that you needed some distance from your identity as a Spartan fan to come back and cover that beat so closely. And are you able to, is that still a tension for you or you feel like you can be brutally honest with, with Spartan sports where you're coming from. I know it, it's I'm definitely removed and in part of it is you you're, you're so close that you see everything and you see the war to see things. You don't really star struck, right? Cuz you've gotta be able to ask the hard questions of these people that in your previous life you would have been like wanting selfies with them, right. So that was very easy with Mark Dantonio because he started while I was away. He started long after I no longer really been paying attention like a fan. And so he was the coach and it was easy to Tom is it was a little different for me, right? I would imagine because he's got the job when I was 15 years old. Sort of hate fandom, right? And, and so it wasn't that bad. But I remember early on the first time he called really upset about something I wrote. And I mean, the thing about Izzo, that I appreciate is you always know where you stand and he doesn't hold a grudge, but he will let you know that day what he thinks about some interesting and Dantonio is very much the opposite, like he seems that way. If he was upset, it would just simmer. And so he always seems like the classic like fifties dad. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's kinda what it looked like. So the first time that I really got into it was took me a minute to say, you know what this is. Okay. You've got to stick up for yourself and, and, and, you know, because frankly that's something Izzo wants from the people he's challenging. He didn't want to run you over. He wants if he's gonna respect to he wants to your opinion and he wants you to stand up for yourself, stand your ground, even if even if he doesn't agree with you, fantastic, well, you know, and that's gotta be a challenge, right? Is to be able to, to, to stand behind what you wrote. And I bet every time, I guess, again, this is something that is relatively new to me since I'm married into a really rabid sports family. No matter what you write, there's this base of people who are incredibly passionate about it, write it built into sports as this is this huge competitive drive and also the fan orientation. So you must get some heavy blow back. Sometimes there will be days that for the same column, I'll have people that think I was way too easy on him and way too hard on. You get the emails are are entertaining, sometimes bad. And, you know, one of the things though that I try to be, I think if you're fair to people and the people you're writing about. And you can tell yourself and you can sleep at night, you know that you are, even if you're critical, then you can respond to those people and explain your point. And usually when you respond to somebody, it's disarming, right, and even if somebody's even on Twitter at, usually I don't, I try not to mute people unless they're really awful I don't block people. And if, if they're really upset any and you engage them for a little bit, the respect you, even if they disagree with you and you become sort of an adult in the room a little bit. Well, it's funny you're talking about essentially diplomacy, right? Who would have thought they'd be in a sports columnist would involve that kind of relationship management and diplomacy. So look, you said something really interesting to me. So you through through a path that involved LCC, landed your bucket list job. What would you say to aspiring sports journalists to might be starting at a community college? I think you gave some advice, but you know what, for, for other folks who maybe want to do something similar to what you've done, what would you tell them? That would be my advice. Look at the opportunities around you and take advantage of them. And it might be the the, the lookout in the lookout led to while I was still here, I did some stringing and answered phones for high-school games at Lansing State Journal. You know, that was a connection. I admit that I actually didn't stay there that longs that didn't wind up being important back then. But there, wherever you are at the community college, you're at, they're generally going to be opportunities are generally a school newspaper. There's generally, there might be a radio station or some sort of online podcast you can take advantage of, right? And take advantage of those. Get, figure out what you do want to do and what you don't want to do as much as you can. And the other thing is I would say this, you also have all the time in the world. Don't be in a rush to get their interesting. You know, one of the things that was, has been interesting on my path is there are people who get to where they are really fast while they want to be and get two big jobs in their, in their mid-twenties. And that's great. And there are people that wind up loving weather at covering high school sports, their whole lives. Mid-sized dailies. But you've gotta take the jobs that interests you that help you develop. Because what's important is that you actually are good enough to do the job well, because that, that will change your career. If you get an opportunity you're not ready for. I'm not saying don't take it. Because sometimes opportunities are too good to pass up and you gotta find a way to swim. But take advantage of every opportunity, figure out what it is you like and don't like and and and just remember that you've got a lot of time. Yeah. And one other thing I heard you say is and to produce good work, right? That's what you said is to, is to get the good work, whether it's, you know, the actual writing or in your case, before the tapes and all that, produce good stuff, uses a laboratory. I mean, I really think this is, this is what it is. You will think at the time that I might, this is going to be something that's going to give me that first job or whatever this is. But most stories won't. Most stories wind up. I have, you know, bins in my basement, in my parents basement of articles that at one point I thought were like the next great pieces. And but I had a teacher actually at Columbia College gave me really good advice. He was the deputy temple at, at, at the Chicago Tribune and I was in a Feature Writing class with him at night and he just he was working for The Daily Herald, which is a big suburban paper covered in high school games. And he would say, You know, you're writing these games that are fine, but you gotta take more chances. The worst they can do is change it. And that's how you develop interest. And, uh, and so I would say when you're, you know, you're going to swing and you're going to swing and miss quite often. But even when I'm helping to hire somebody or recommend somebody, or you want people who, whose, whose writing has interesting and sometimes they do swing and miss. But those are usually the people that developed quickly. That's great advice. Well Graham, Look at this. I have really enjoyed talking to you and I want to thank you for continuing to let people know that LCC is part of how you got to where you are. That was one of the first things I noticed about you when when we talk that first time. So thanks for telling your LCC story. And it's, it's been really cool talking to you. Thanks for having me. And it was, it was absolutely essential to getting where I am great. This episode of LCC alumni stories was recorded and engineered by Steve Robinson and the Michigan room at LCC is downtown campus and produce virtually by Brock Elsesser from LCC is digital media, audio and cinema program. The soundtrack is license to the college through de Wolf music. Thanks for listening, tune into future episodes and learn more about what our alumni have been up to. If you're an LCC alum and want to share your story, send me an email at [e-mail]. Until next time, keep learning. This has been LCC DMAC Lansing Community College, digital media, audio and cinema.