1,656 miles driven in 24 hours. That was the drive that Gray Nocjar, The Observer’s managing editor, and I, photo editor, made to Storrs, Conneticut to cover the Notre Dame women’s basketball match-up against the Huskies on Jan. 19.
The plan was always there to go to Storrs for the game on my part. Unfortunately, I waited too long to buy a flight, and by the time we returned from break, flights had increased to $900. The new plan was made 12 hours before we left.
If you know anything about the two of us, we are willing to do anything on very short notice, which is one reason I believe we get along so well.
Gray booked a car and hotel at 5 p.m. on Saturday. I called my parents to tell them, and much to their dismay and persuasion, we left at 11 a.m. the next morning. We decided to rent a car and split the drive, six hours each.
To me, this was a big matchup for the Irish; the storied rivalry between UConn and Notre Dame dates back to the 1990s, when Muffet McGraw was still head coach for women's basketball. I grew up watching these matchups, and the most memorable one I remember is the 2018 National Championship win with the last-second buzzer-beater from Arike Ogunbowale.
Once we were on the road, it was quite smooth-sailing to get there, only stopping to get gas, food and use the restroom. Conversations and music were flowing through the car; Gray later learned it was a terrible idea to let me connect to the Bluetooth to play music. Through our conversations, we also acknowledge the fact that Gray does not have the best track record of traveling for The Observer, such as his trip back from Arkansas. But we thought nothing of it and hoped that I would be good luck for the trip.
The first challenge came after we switched drivers and stopped for gas. While ordering sandwiches from Subway, Gray told me that the car rental place overcharged him $200. Gray decided that he would call them first thing once we got back, which offered certainty for next steps.
As we continued the drive to Hartford, Connecticut for the night, we talked on the phone with fellow editors and my aunt, who was tracking me and asked what I was doing in the middle of Pennsylvania on a Sunday. The drive went by fast once we got through a little snow flurry in New York, and as soon as we knew it, we were in Hartford.
Once we touched down in the Constitution State, we made a beeline for the hotel, and that's when the second challenge appeared. The reservation for the hotel was for February … it’s still January. The hotel had no more rooms; we had to find the next best option, which was a Best Western a couple of miles away. After arriving at the second hotel, we were golden for the night and prepared for the day to come.
Gray and I made the decision that we would drive the 45 minutes to campus in the morning and then explore the campus. After making our way to campus and stopping at the bookstore to get coffee to start our day, we found ourselves wandering over to the campus newspaper building at UConn.
The Daily Campus at UConn publishes five times a week and is most likely one of the few campus papers in the country that still does. After exploring and walking around campus, we stumbled across a little building in between apartment complexes. The Daily’s office is a quaint, two-floor building. We, of course, knocked on the door and were greeted by their editor-in-chief and photo editor, who were more than happy to show us their office and trade advice.
Their office gave much of the vibe of our late office in the basement of South Dining Hall, littered with papers and memorabilia. It was easy to say that I became jealous of their office very quickly, especially since their photo editor has his own office. They were also very kind to extend an invitation to us to stop by their production after the game. After staying there for a bit and learning how they run their paper, we headed off to our next adventure: shooting and covering the game.
There is a reason that UConn’s nickname is the “Basketball Capital” of the world. UConn has beaten us twice in the National Championship, and growing up as a women’s basketball fan, especially a Notre Dame fan, I despised the program. No other women’s basketball program has 12 national championships, and as much as I hate to say it, I have to admire the program. So walking into their stadium and seeing all of their accomplishments really took me back for a second.
Going into the game, I held hope that Notre Dame could pull off the upset of the century by beating the number one team in the nation right now. As soon as the game started, my nerves were drowned out by the loud crowd, but my hope stayed until the third quarter when UConn took the lead very quickly. Once it became abundantly clear that Notre Dame would not pull off a win, I turned my mindset to get as many amazing photos as possible to make the trip worth it.
After the game ended, we decided just to head on the road and get back to campus instead of heading to UConn’s paper production. Once we got on the road, another challenge appeared out of thin air … “600 miles till service was needed.” This message appeared on the dashboard when we still had over 700 miles left in our journey, but as college students who had class the next morning, we dismissed the message and continued on our way. At a McDonalds, another sign appeared: “Oil Change Needed.”
At this point, we started to worry about how we would get home for class and school, but continued on our way after a conversation with my roommate, who owns the same car. Thankfully, the rest of the way back to Indiana was smooth and filled with multiple stops at gas stations, good conversations, calls to Observer editors to fill time and belting out Hamilton in the car.
We got back to campus around 7:45 a.m. after driving through the night, with many looks of sheer concern from people we met on our journey, friends and family. I can undoubtedly say that even with the outcome of the game, this trip to Storrs was very worth it, and the experience that I gained through it was unmatchable. So, I apologize to my parents for the last-minute trip and “taking 10 years off their lives,” but I would do it again in a heartbeat, only when I have saved up enough money, because when else can I do something like this, other than in college?
