Our readers know that The Torch has covered basketball at St. John’s University for decades, but last week was one to remember.
It started on Jan. 25, when The Torch sat down with University President Brian Shanley for an exclusive interview. We planned to cover everything from tuition, to the Staten Island campus’ closure to athletics. What we didn’t know was that the scheduled interview with Shanley was the first he had agreed to with external media in some time.
A week later, we released an article about Shanley’s thoughts on the current state of St. John’s athletics on Feb. 1. Like usual, our Torch Sports account on Twitter posted about the article. But this time, the tweet garnered over 35,000 views in just a few days.
That same night, the sports section prepared to cover the Men’s Basketball game against Seton Hall, which coincided with National Women and Girls in Sports Day. In the end, the story wasn’t about the game at all: the University’s Athletics Department did not recognize the Dance and Cheer team during game day operations or on social media.
The Cheer team chose to protest by deciding to stand in a line during their scheduled performances while wearing “WE ARE WOMEN IN SPORTS” on their backs.
We posted a brilliant photo of the protest captured by our photo editor, Sara Kiernan, on Twitter. That tweet reached over 13,000 people, and earned The Torch a spot in multiple media outlets as the story made national news.
The Torch was referenced in Fox News, Business Insider, the Washington Examiner, the New York Post and other outlets.
As the current editor-in-chief, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank our entire organization for the volunteer work they do to provide great coverage for The Torch. We’re grateful for the exposure, and will continue to give our readers the best content we have to offer going forward.
