About 20/20 Sports

About the Author:

Ever since spending the better part of a night sobbing after the classic 1992 Duke-Kentucky game in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, sports have been a major part of Patrick Southern’s life. He was just a six-year-old kid living in Lexington, Ky., when Christian Laettner’s turnaround jumper fell through the hoop as the clock hit triple zeros that night, but the moment made an impact.

Southern quickly found that his own athletic gifts were lacking, but he had a knack for writing. Combining an almost unhealthy love of sports with his talent as a wordsmith, the now 22-year-old senior at West Virginia University has begun to forge a promising career in sportswriting.

He is in his third full year of writing for WVU’s independent student newspaper, The Daily Athenaeum. While working for the paper, he has covered women’s volleyball, women’s soccer, as well as men’s and women’s basketball. In addition to writing his weekly column, Southern currently covers the nationally-ranked Mountaineer football program. He has also worked as a contributor to WVSports.com, the online home of the West Virginia Sports Report on the Rivals.com network.

Born and raised in Charleston, W.Va., he enjoys playing and listening to music, playing various video games (he’s equally terrible at both console and PC games), cooking, and following politics. Southern currently resides in Morgantown, W.Va.

About the Blog:

20/20 Sports Blog is the result of Southern’s desire to occasionally go beyond the scope of his newspaper writing and express opinions on sports on the local, national, and perhaps even international levels. The blog is the brainchild of Southern and his friend/technical genius Roy Shillingburg.

As the blog is focused largely on reaction to the stories of the day, the title comes from the old saying, “Hindsight is always 20/20.” It’s also a tongue-in-cheek reminder that it’s easy for critics in the sports world (Southern included) to sound intelligent when they’re writing reactionary pieces about games that have already been played and decisions that have already been made.

The blog features a healthy mix of college and professional sports, with a slant towards the coverage of West Virginia University sports, thanks to Southern’s particular expertise and experience in this area.

Special Thanks To:

  • Roy Shillingburg, for his extensive help in all aspects of the creation and maintenance of this site as part of his role as webmaster.
  • WordPress theme site ThemeLab for the layout theme, Techmania, which was modified for the design of this site. Kudos to the designer, styleshout, for an excellent job.
  • And most importantly, the readers of the blog, for your interest in the subject matter and your support of the blog. Thanks for reading.