Blinding lights can be seen in every direction with the band competing with passionate parents on who can be the loudest. The strong smell of sweat and chili cheese nachos fill the air as the helmets collide, creating seconds frozen in time as the ball tries to travel from one end of the field to another, each player wearing a team number coated in colors created by generations of school spirit.
Once you look past the cheerleaders getting tossed in the air as if they were aiming for stars and students screaming as if their lives depended on it, you will find Abigail Miller in the midst of it all, with her hair tied back and eyes focused on the field, hoping not to miss the next tackle or touchdown.
“I sit there and I observe and not only watch the plays but I watch if the quarterback throws a pick, does he walk off the field with his head down or does he walk off furious,” Abigail describes the sensation of reporting from the sidelines. “That shows his love for the game and that tells a story.”
Abigail, affectionately known as “Abby,” is a sophomore majoring in print and digital journalism at Mississippi State University. For the past, she has taken the utmost pride in her role as a sports writer for campus newspaper The Reflector.
Growing up in Fort Myers, Florida, Abby has always been consumed in sports due to becoming an athlete herself at a young age. Dancing for 14 years as well as running track since her freshman year of high-school, Abby knew how much hard work and dedication went into play for a few minutes of fame.
Abby wasn’t the only athlete in her household; her sister was a gymnast and her brother played baseball. When she wasn’t in the studio practicing pointed toes or on the track hopping hurdles, she was being a supportive sister.
“My mom gave me this really nice camera to take photos of my brother during his baseball game,” Abby recalls. “So I would take photos for the team, and one day, the newspaper reached out to me and asked me to be a photographer.”
That one instance changed the trajectory of her future in sports. While she was still an athlete herself, she says that she viewed spots from a different angle: through a camera lens.
As a sixth-grader in middle school Abby was a sports photographer for The Press, the local newspaper, capturing many sports, including baseball, track and weightlifting. Even though she was happy to be involved in sports media, she still wasn‘t satisfied.
“I don’t get to talk to anybody,” Abby admits. “I just show up, take a picture and leave. That‘s no fun. I want to talk to people.”
Abby knew that she wanted to tell stories. She craved the human connection of being able to talk to someone and make their voices heard. Even though a photo tells a thousand words, Abby wanted to put down the camera and pick up a pencil and write, using her words and full creative freedom to produce never-before told stories of athletes, their journeys of how they got on the fields and that hard work put them on.
Abby wanted to give athletes a chance to be seen. Once she moved further in her career and stopped writing for The Press, she began writing for The Reflection. Knowing that Mississippi State is an SEC school, she wanted to make sure her priorities were in place. Players who may normally be overseen by everyone else are first pick on her list.
“I like writing about people who aren‘t always in the news and giving them a spotlight because the third string quarterback is working just as hard as the first string if not harder,” Abby contends. “I want to shine light on the people who don‘t always have the light shown on them.”
She uses her platform to create compelling stories about the individuals who put in work behind the scenes. The players who show up to practice early and leave late, the players who aren’t on scholarship and barely affording college yet show up to all their classes, the players who play for the love of the game, not just for the love the game gives them.
Just like the difference in the players on the field, Abby is seen as different when she walks in the press box. Women in sports media aren’t always taken seriously, yet Abby makes it a point to take up space and show that she is worthy of the responsibility she has taken on.
“Being surrounded by middle-aged men is a little nerve racking because they look at me as a young woman and assume I don‘t know sports,” she contends. “So I have to stay focused to prove that I know just as much as any of them.”
Abby wants to leave a legacy, not just game recaps in the weekly paper.
“I hope when people read my work, they see that we’re all the same as these athletes,” says Abby. “They just happen to be playing a sport and I happen to be writing about it.”
If you can’t find Abby merging with the crowd on Saturday night, you can find her words within the campus newspaper hoping to catch the attention of a reader the same way the quarterback is hoping to catch a football in the endzone.