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The Phoenix Saga
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PHOENIX – As a member of The Arbiter staff, I have been most wondrously chosen to accompany the Boise State Broncos to the Valley of the Sun.
We came on our own, by air, via Oakland, Calif., where we became befuddled that the FAA has such strict regulations on the mouthwash you can take in your carry on, but the Oakland airport doesn’t have ceilings.
Old Jake Garcin has lost luggage, possibly in Chicago and our Stanley Brewster came by his lonesome.
We have our general manager, Brad Arendt to act as our technical advisor and chaperone. Our freshman sports writer Brian Luptak is here with his words and skills with video equipment. Our lovely News Editor Jessica Christensen and our Lead Copy Editor Sheree? Whiteley will be handling our most fresh endeavor, to bring the world of Arbiter readers the news in full-framed video. Mr. Garcin and I will be bringing you sessions of “Arbiter Sports Talk” on a daily basis. My aim is to fill in the gaps. Drew Mayes, our chief, is guiding this newspaper down a new road: one of striving technological advances.
The Arbiter is no longer merely a newspaper. No, it is becoming more. It is a media outlet. Plug us in. Watch us roar through this week in Arizona.
We are here to cover a football experience, not just a game.
We are blessed and thankful for our winning Broncos and their undefeated season of such historical vivacity. Without them and their wining ways, we would not be here testing the avenues of media variation. This week is about them, not us. This week is about changing the guard of what college football imbibes. Very few people outside of Boise ever thought a berth in the Bowl Championship Series was in the cards for these fortuitous stallions of fate.
The team we follow and cover has made great strides in its 11 years in Division I-A football. It made the leap from the Big Sky and rode the momentum to this Fiesta Bowl 2007.
If you could see what I currently spy, sitting on this balcony overlooking the Arizona dusk, you too might feel the vibrant tenacity of this program on the rise. Cacti line the courtyard and desert trees and shrubs give gentle shade to the December landscape. These Broncos are quite literally entering new territory. They have come out of the Blue and into the spotlight.
The sun sets crimson, but if you look at it in the right light it shines in shades of blue and orange. We are in a drying land, but the life and goals of this team, this university and this mass of fans seem to saturate my every pore.
There are so many things to do, stories to tell. And we are here to bring them to you whom could not attend this marked occasion. Stick with us as we peruse this city and break down this game, this change, this program, which has so miraculously overcome the stereotypes and made a season worth remembering,
Join us on this venture. For this is a most challenging task.
Dustin Lapray