Pitch

  • Who is your possible subject and why?

Robert (Will) Ledbetter: He is super involved on campus and has multiple super interesting leadership positions.

  • What is the angle or approach for each subject? What makes this interesting?

My angle would be all about what positions he has on campus and how they have helped him to grow as a person and leader. He is going to be a senior next year and is a Presidential Ambassador, Student Ambassador, Resident Advisor, UNE Football player, and on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. These are all super big roles and it would be very interesting so see how he balances all these responsibilities along with being a student athlete.

  • Based on your research, what questions might you ask: Develop a list of 5 questions for each.

What clubs or organizations are you involved with on campus?
How are you able to balance these extracurriculars with your academics?
What has been your biggest take away from holding these leadership positions?
Do you believe these positions will be valuable to you after graduation?
What advice would you give to younger students here at UNE?

NOTE: Changed my topic after completing our pitches

Early Draft

Mr. All American: UNE Football Crowns Its First Nationally Recognized Player

Damien Jones, a Sophomore Business major, shares his journey to becoming the University of New England Football’s first D3 All American.

March 25, 2025

Anthony Lacaprucia

University of New England Student

In January 2025, Damien Jones, a Sophomore Business major at the University of New England, was picked for the D3football.com All-American 3rd Team as a return specialist. This award marks the football program’s first player ever to be selected onto a national team.

This proved to be a big milestone for UNEs young football program, which has now found itself receiving national recognition in the competitive world of Division III football. INCLUDE A QUOTE

For Jones’ however, this award meant a lot more than just showcasing his team on a national level. ADD QUOTE

BACKGROUND INFO

CURRENT INFO

TEAMMATES THOUGHTS

FUTURE PLANS

Workshop Draft

Mr. All American: UNE Football Crowns Its First Nationally Recognized Player

Damien Jones, a Sophomore Business major, shares his journey to becoming University of New England Football’s first D3 All American.

April 7, 2025

Anthony Lacaprucia

University of New England Student

In January 2025, Damien Jones, a Sophomore Business major at the University of New England, was picked for the D3football.com All-American 3rd Team as a return specialist. This award marks the football program’s first player ever to be selected onto a national team.

This proved to be a big milestone for UNEs young football program, which has now found itself receiving national recognition in the competitive world of Division III football. Head Coach Mike Lichten states, “TBD”.

For Jones’ however, this award meant a lot more than just showcasing his team on a national level. “Just to be nationally recognized means my name is out there. It means I’m really being seen and that gratification feels really nice,” he states.

Growing up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts he developed a passion for football at a very young age. “It’s kind of like a funny story actually. I was supposed to sign up [for football] when I was five, but my dad missed the deadline. I ended up having to wait a whole extra year to play, so I started playing when I was six,” he says. However, this wasn’t the only challenge Jones would have to face.

“In middle school I played AYF and Pop Warner. [I was] five foot nothing, maybe even four foot. I [was] making plays but [when] I did get tackled I [was] getting thrown around. I had a little bit of an injury history,” he says. 

At 5’7” and 140 lbs today, Jones is still considered an undersized running back when compared to his collegiate peers. He says “All I ever wanted to do my whole life was to prove everyone wrong. My whole life I was told I’m too small. [Everyone said] you’re just gonna get hurt, everyone’s bigger than you, faster, stronger, and you can’t do [anything about it].”

Jones did do something about it though. His long list of accolades started his Freshman year at UNE. He garnered the Conference of New England’s Rookie of the Year award after his first season.

Since then he has received the New England Football Writers (NEFW) Association Gold Helmet Award and been named the Conference of New England’s first team as a kick returner and second team as a running back.

“To be recognized like this meant everything to me. Being able to have [these awards] to back up what [I’ve always known I could do] was pretty meaningful,” he says.

Despite all of these personal recognitions, Jones doesn’t hesitate to credit his teammates’ support that got him to where he is today. “I got the award as a return specialist, which means kick and punt return. Well it takes 11 people to do that, right? All I’m doing is catching the football and running with it, but it takes a bunch of one-on-ones to really make everything happen. You have me versus the kicker and then you have everyone else who has to do their job,” he says.

Coach Lichten adds that the program’s attention to special teams has been their winning edge. “TBD,” he says.

On top of this, Jones talked about how his relationships with his teammates have changed with his past two years at UNE. “As a freshman it was kind of like we were secluded almost. Then as the year [went] on we all became closer and closer. Now my sophomore year the entire team knows everybody like a family,” he says.

INTERVIEW TEAMMATES HERE

GO INTO JONES’ FUTURE GOALS HERE

Revised Draft

Mr. All American: UNE Football Crowns Its First Nationally Recognized Player

Damien Jones, a Sophomore Business major, shares his journey to becoming the University of New England Football’s first D3 All American.

April 17, 2025

Anthony Lacaprucia

University of New England Student

In January 2025, Damien Jones, a Sophomore Business major at the University of New England, was picked for the D3football.com All-American 3rd Team as a return specialist. This award marks the football program’s first player ever to be selected onto a national team.

This proved to be a big milestone for UNEs young football program, which has now found itself receiving national recognition in the competitive world of Division III football. Head Coach Mike Lichten states, “A program goal of ours has always been to have national presence. Damien’s accomplishment is a step towards that.”

For Jones’ however, this award meant a lot more than just showcasing his team on a national level. “Just to be nationally recognized means my name is out there. It means I’m really being seen and that gratification feels really nice,” he states.

Growing up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts he developed a passion for football at a very young age. “It’s kind of like a funny story actually. I was supposed to sign up [for football] when I was five, but my dad missed the deadline. I ended up having to wait a whole extra year to play, so I started playing when I was six,” he says. However, this wasn’t the only challenge Jones would have to face.

“In middle school I played AYF and Pop Warner [Football]. [I was] five foot nothing, maybe even four foot. I [was] making plays but [when] I did get tackled I [was] getting thrown around. I had a little bit of an injury history,” he says. 

At 5’7” and 140 lbs today, Jones is still considered an undersized running back when compared to his collegiate peers. He says “All I ever wanted to do my whole life was to prove everyone wrong. My whole life I was told I’m too small. [Everyone said] you’re just gonna get hurt, everyone’s bigger than you, faster, stronger, and you can’t do anything about it.”

However, Jones decided to work to defy these expectations. His long list of accolades started his Freshman year at UNE. He garnered the Conference of New England’s Rookie of the Year award after his first season.

Since then he has received the New England Football Writers (NEFW) Association Gold Helmet Award. The Golden Helmet Award recognizes outstanding performances by players in New England. It’s awarded a weekly basis for individual performances in the Division I, and II/III levels.

Additionally, he was named to the Conference of New England’s first team as a kick returner and second team as a running back. Among these accomplishments, he amassed numerous player of the week awards throughout the season.

“To be recognized like this meant everything to me. Being able to have [these awards] to back up what I’ve always known I could do was pretty meaningful,” he says.

Despite all of these personal recognitions, Jones doesn’t hesitate to credit his teammates’ support that got him to where he is today. “I got the award as a return specialist, which means kick and punt return. Well it takes 11 people to do that, right? All I’m doing is catching the football and running with it, but it takes a bunch of one on ones to really make everything happen. You have me versus the kicker and then you have everyone else who has to do their job,” he says.

Coach Lichten adds that the program’s attention to special teams has given them an upper hand against their opponents. “Our focus on special teams has been our winning edge. We practice them more than any other team in the conference and the results have shown on the field,” he says.

On top of this, Jones acknowledges how his relationships with his teammates have changed within his past two years at UNE. “As a freshman it was kind of like we were secluded almost. Then as the year [went] on we all became closer and closer. Now my sophomore year the entire team knows everybody like a family,” he says.

Cameron Durkin, a first-year Sport Leadership and Management major, adds that Jones’ is a strong leader on the team. “Damien isn’t the most vocal guy, but he leads by example. He is a perfect role model for the younger players on the team,” he says.

WIth all of this praise early on in his career, Jones’ has no intention of stopping. He states, “What I want to do in life is go pro. I want to play professional football at any level whether it’s UFL, NFL, or CFL even.”

The bar has been set high, and Jones’ feels there is a self imposed pressure to perform because of this. “I definitely feel the pressure, though there [isn’t] anyone else saying or doing anything that [make] me feel pressured. It’s my self nagging in the back of my head like you need to do better than last season. You need to perform. You need to live up to those expectations,” he says.

These expectations can be a lot for such a young student-athlete to handle. However, Jones hasn’t lost any of his confidence. He states “I’m not scared of anything or anybody, so it’s just like I’m going to go out and do what I do best, ball out. I know that I’m prepared for this.”

Workshop Experience

I think the workshop we did in class went pretty well. It was a little unfortunate how it ended up just being Maeve and I in class the day of, but I think we were both able to give each other enough feedback to work with. It definitely helped having another set of eyes on my work and getting some solid critiques. I got good feedback as to where I should go for the future interviews I have planned and good additional quotes to include. Maeve also helped me work through rewording some of the sentences I had that were too wordy or just not good. After our workshop I feel I am in a great spot moving forward on my revised/final draft. Although I will say I preferred how we workshopped our Feature Creatures but I understand that process took a lot of time that we simply don’t have at this point in the semester.

Profile Story Reflection

Overall I think the profile project went really well. This one definitely felt like it progressed a lot faster than our Features did which I didn’t actually mind. I had to pivot early on as I wasn’t really interested in my initial pitch that was approved. After switching to my new idea though everything was much more enjoyable to work on and I actually liked what I was writing about. I think this is an important part of the process especially when we are given freedom to write about whatever we want. I know this isn’t always the case in real journalism but I think it’s important to note. I finished up writing my profile feeling pretty proud of the progress I have made in my writing since the start of the semester. With this piece however, I’m not sure if I included too many quotes. I tried to really let the quotes lead because my interview with Damien ended up going really well. I think this is also a testament to the learning we’ve had in this as we all learned how to interview better. The profile was definitely a good way to wrap up our writing this semester and put all of the skills we’ve learned into one last project. I’m super happy with the outcome.

PHOTO