He kept telling himself to fall asleep already.

The biggest interview of his career awaited the following afternoon – James Arthur Boeheim, mano-a-mano, for the basketball guide’s cover story – and he hadn’t finished preparing questions. But no, there he was, eyes glazed over at his laptop at 5:19 a.m., his familiar peach ice tea at his side, preparing The Daily Orange Sports schedule for the next semester.

It was early October, 2005. The assistant didn’t know if he would be sports editor in the spring semester. Only a few sophomores had been SE in the previous 10 years.

Yet with his immediate schedule stuffed, he was determined not to go to bed until he figured out the likelihood of a women’s rowing meet on April 15.

Who is this guy?

***

He didn’t expect a warm response.

Gerry McNamara is overrated.

Minutes after the aforementioned Jimmy B ripped into the 19-year-old live on national television – after a game-winning 3 from No. 3 in the first round of the Big East tournament – e-mails poured in proclaiming the end of his sportswriting career.

Right.

He was the subject of SI.com and SIoncampus.com columns the next day. He spoke at the annual Associated Press Sports Editors Northeast convention months later (and hit the bar with the editors the night before). He won the Society of Professional Journalists’ national award for collegiate sports column writing in 2005 – without that column from early February 2006.

But actually, what he considers the most important part of the entire episode was reinforcing on a national scale the value of an independent student paper. He had no idea how many readers fail to understand The D.O. isn’t a PR arm of the school – and thus can explore negativity.

That, not the actual column, is what he wants readers to remember.

Who is this guy?

***

He never would have fathomed taking an F.

A NEW305 story was due at midnight, and he had only done a few interviews. With an hour before deadline that night in mid-February, a classmate submitted a story and cc-ed him because it might work for the Sports section.

Rather than finish his own mediocre article, he accepted a zero and spent the next two hours editing his classmate’s story even though he knew he wouldn’t run it until the end of the semester anyway.

Because for the first time in his life, he was really good at something.

He loves nothing more than to pick apart a solid but not great article with potential – every one presents its own unique challenges. He knows how to improve stories and writers, relishing the test of mixing praise with criticism each time.

He’d take another F in a heartbeat.

Who is this guy?

***

He spent weeks chasing people down.

Not for a story. An e-mail. A party invitation. Each April or May the SE must organize Battle for the Bottles, Sports’ annual spring semester party – famous for its traditions, most notably sending people to the hospital. His year had to be even more memorable.

Recent D.O. Sports alumni would be in attendance – his idols, those who’d helped him immensely, those he still tries to measure up to, those who made the section one of the nation’s finest. And those who partied hardy.

The call-to-arms staff e-mail totaled 16 vignettes and 3,000 words from those at the New York Times, Washington Post, Yahoo!, Seattle Times and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to name a few. Amazingly, the party measured up.

The sports editor got his traditional beer bash. No E&J remained. And someone did end up in the hospital. But his memories are only thanks to Facebook. Eight beers and E&J turned his night black. At least someone carried him home…

Who is this guy?

***

He planned on updating his résumé that Monday afternoon. That, and the usual million other things.

The girlfriend of a month and a half had another idea: apple picking. Again. He had already cleared his Sunday for the Lafayette Apple Festival – the NFL helped by giving the Steelers a bye week – but after discovering you couldn’t actually pick apples at the early October event, she pestered him the next morning in bed to skip class and find another place.

What a difference a year makes.

For perhaps the first time since he started in the sports office, he didn’t accomplish a single work-related task during a weekday.

Instead, the suburbia boy was caught making out on the ground in an apple orchard, all part of an incredible relationship he never thought possible given his schedule. Yet his section, as it had for most of his second semester in charge, still turned out excellent. So did his résumé.

Who is this guy?

***

He wanted to stop time.

It was his fifth and final guide night – when the sports editors disdain sleep to put the final touches on a season preview section before it’s due to the printer the next afternoon.

On tap, the basketball guide – the final landmark of his tenure. The previous two weeks had been a nightmare of no sleep, but it didn’t matter.

That early November night made him forget all the times he despised his 60- to 70-hour work weeks and reminded him what he would miss the most from his three semesters in the sports office: the camaraderie.

With a former sports editor designing the section, the night consisted of four guys laughing about the paper, memorable nights, past editors, current writers, past parties (see above), the section’s future, sports, girls and all the inside jokes any group of guys have – all while putting out a great 24-page guide.

He didn’t expect to feel so sad sitting alone at Starbucks at 8:15 a.m., staying awake by truly comprehending for the first time only a month remained. It would go in a flash.

Who is this guy?

***

Someone who would love to re-live the best 18 months of his life all over again. But also someone who is ready for what lies ahead (including Sports’ fall semester party – Race for the Cases – this Saturday night).

Peace.