What if I told you women like sports too?

Sometimes, there are no stats for things that need sharing.

“I am a journalism student at Utah State with a self-declared emphasis on sports journalism” — That’s usually how far into an introduction I get before the questions start flying. The questions differ depending on the individual I’m conversing with, but they usually revolve around three general ideas.

“How much do you know about sports?”

“How many sports have you actually played?”

And the worst one — “What’s your real motivation for covering sports?”

The first question, doubting my knowledge of sports, is quite obviously impolite. If you told me you are majoring in history, I would not ask you to recite the Declaration of Independence or tell me who the first five states were to ratify it. Similarly, I shouldn’t have to prove my sports knowledge just because I’m a woman. I don’t pretend to know everything about the sports I cover, but nobody has a complete understanding of their job. Like any other college student, I get enough quizzes in my classes — I prefer not to have pop quizzes in casual conversation.

Secondly, what impact does experience playing a sport have on a person’s ability to cover a sport?  The most experience I have playing sports is little league soccer and softball and three years of recreation league basketball while I was in high school. I love and learn about sports because I spent more than half of my life analyzing the games that we all love and observing athletes.

I know that people who ask me about my past experience playing sports usually just want to find a common interest, and I appreciate that. The confused and sometimes disapproving reaction is the part that makes me squirm. In Division I football, less than ten coaches have experience playing in the league they coach for. Some of those coaches include Washington State’s Mike Leach, Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze, and Cal’s Sonny Dykes. These coaches have successfully coached Division I football without having direct experience on the field. Who’s to say someone without experience cannot successfully analyze and observe those playing?

The third type of question is more of a question of my personal ethic, whether or not the person asking it realizes it as such, and is the most sickening to me.

Most of the time, these questions will come in the form of people jokingly asking if I get any dates out of what I do, or if I do it just because of the chance to associate with the athletes — “You just like the tight pants they wear, huh?” You can be sure that my love for sports is rooted far deeper than a shallow desire to get free dinner out of a college athlete. I do what I do because I appreciate that sports are one of the only things in the world that can bring fighting countries together and burst through class distinctions that normally tear people apart. I care much more about sharing the story of an athlete or coach than how he or she views me on a personal level.

The questions are inappropriate, the scenarios are uncomfortable and I am most certainly not the only one facing them.

I’m a woman, sports journalist, and sports enthusiast — that shouldn’t be a foreign concept.

Tracking stats is a core part of being a sports fan, but there are no numbers to represent how many times I’ve been asked these questions or how many times I’ve proved assumptions wrong.

Sometimes there are no stats for things that need sharing.

Paige Cavaness is a sophomore working on learning how to ride a bike, whistle and wink. Anyone with tips can contact her at paige.a.cavaness@aggiemail.usu.edu or on Twitter @ususportspaige.