Name: Derek Phillips High School: Gaffney High
School
City/State: Gaffney, SC Favorite Music Group: I like all music. Favorite Food: Pizza is awesome! Favorite Book: Friday Night Lights Most admire person and why: My dad because he’s pushed me when I wasn’t pushing hard enough. Committed to a college/university after graduation? Yes If yes, which college/university: University of South Carolina Course or study/major in college: Broadcast Journalism Favorite athlete and why: Steve Smith. Prime example of showing size doesn’t matter. Greatest personal achievement: Writing for The Cherokee Chronicle Greatest compliment a person could give: "Great job. Keep up the good work." What do you see yourself
doing 10 years from graduation from high school? If you could play in the
NFL, what team and position would you want to play? As a child, I grew up with a passion for sports. That’s how my life cycled. When I was younger, I was the biggest NASCAR fan ever. My favorite driver was Ernie Irvan. My Dad always brought home a paper on Sunday mornings and read. Sundays meant that it was race days and Ernie Irvan was going to be taking his bright yellow and orange number four Kodak car on to the speedway. Not in school as of yet, I would always ask my dad where Irvan was starting and he’d always tell me that I knew what number he was, look it up. And that’s where it all began… Reading became easy for me and I became more and more interested with sports. I remember having an oval-shaped rug at our front door and I would always race my toy cars around the rug while doing my own commentary. Also, I would play Madden football on the Nintendo and turn the volume down and call the game as I played. Dad and Mom looked out for me and didn’t want me to get into football because they grew up and worked with guys that had ruined their knees and couldn’t walk for the rest of their lives. Since I couldn’t play, I still found a way to be just as involved. When I got into high school, sports journalism became a big deal to me. I idolized Gaffney broadcaster Fabian Fuentes and former Carolina Panthers broadcaster Bill Rosinski. I figured since I wouldn’t be on the field, I could do just as good by discussing it. When I realized the school had a Broadcast Journalism class, I jumped straight in. The tenth grade year wasn’t too much fun because we mainly had to learn about camera work and how to write scripts. However, it paid off in the long run. My eleventh grade year rocked. I was the sports anchor on our weekly television show and it was the greatest thing to me. It was awesome to see students younger and older than I to walk up to me and say, "Great job, Derek," or "Hey, you’re the guy on TV!" As the year progressed, my Dad finally made it onto the sidelines taking pictures of the team. With his photography skills and my journalism skills, we created a Gaffney Indian Sports website for the community. There, I was enabled to write summaries and recaps of games, and also feature stories on athletes. As that went on, I also received an internship writing for The Cherokee Chronicle, a local newspaper in Gaffney. I wrote sports recaps and feature stories for it as well. Growing up, I’ve always been interested in the Shrine Bowl. Seeing all of these great athletes from South Carolina play in this special game has been a unique experience to follow. To be a correspondent on the sidelines would be an awesome honor. With my future hopefully heading to the University of South Carolina for Broadcast Journalism, this would be an outstanding opportunity for not just my transcript, but for my family, friends, community, and high school. I, Derek Phillips, will proudly represent Gaffney High School as a cooperative senior correspondent. By far, this would be the best thing that’s happened in my Journalism career and I hope that I can learn from the best! Derek Phillips
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