Tasser: Student-athlete-sports reminisces about his time at Pitt

For my final three-and-a-half years at the University of Pittsburgh, I played a dual role: a student-athlete and a sportswriter for The Pitt News.

While it wasn’t always easy, and my five years here were marked by a series of sporting ups and downs (disappointment is a lesson learned the hard way for many Pitt sports fans), I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.

For three years, my editors saw fit to give me the chance to literally write whatever I wanted about the world of sports on a weekly basis. And I am forever grateful for that opportunity.

As a sportswriter, I witnessed Scottie Reynolds and Villanova crush the collective dreams of Pitt fans in one full-court sprint in the final seconds of an Elite Eight game in 2009. Pitt basketball’s regular-season brilliance and the collective dedication of the Oakland Zoo to create an unmatched home-court advantage still astounds me.

I saw four different head football coaches and the variety of disappointments each one brought.

I saw the beautiful Petersen Sports Complex open, finally providing the baseball, softball and soccer teams with the amazing facility they deserve.

I saw the Steelers play in two Super Bowls and win one, prompting a ridiculous riot in Oakland. The Penguins won a Stanley Cup that same year, but it was summer and there was no such debauchery to be had.

It was strange trying to play both the sportswriter and the athlete, having to write about my fellow athletes objectively.

The task became especially difficult when Pitt lost; I knew firsthand how hard every athlete worked, and to write negatively about any team or player was never fun.

As an athlete, I saw our wrestling team evolve from a middling program to the powerhouse of the Eastern Wrestling League. We recorded a very unimpressive 4-7-1 record during my first year on the team, but we quickly improved. Over my four years, we went 22-1 in conference dual meets and became a fixture in the national top-15 rankings.

Last season, we even broke into the top 10 for the first time in 50 years.

I watched two of my close friends and teammates, Matt Wilps and Zac Thomusseit, become All-Americans and win Pitt’s most prestigious student-athlete awards, the Panther Award and the Blue-Gold Award, respectively.

I witnessed my younger brother, P.J. Tasser, defy all odds and qualify for the national tournament at heavyweight last season, despite giving up between 60 and 100 pounds to all of his opponents.

I saw my coach, Rande Stottlemyer, win his 300th dual meet and ride off into the sunset a winner, as my other coaches, Jason Peters and Matt Kocher, prepare the team for upcoming ACC dominance.

And I was lucky enough to wrestle in the NCAA tournament twice.

While my final tournament — and my career, in general — did not go the way I had hoped, I have a lot of great memories, made a lot of great friends and, in my spare time, wrote my opinions about sports for everybody to read.

It was a lot of fun, and I’m going to miss Pitt.

Tell Donnie about your favorite Pitt sports moment from the past four years at [email protected].