Nick Scarfo is seemingly just another average UNE student. He is a quiet and reserved man, almost stoic at times. He’s been a leader on the football team, one of the minority of communications majors at this school, a commuter as a Junior, and a member of the Bolt. I would like to use this as a chance to highlight someone in the UNE community who I think deserves some credit for a pretty consistently loaded plate always being on his hands. I think I’ll be able to take it from “home” to “school” to “how college has changed him and helped him grow. I also kind of want this piece to have the tone of “you never know who you’re passing in the street” type of vibe, and get people thinking about the complex lives of the complex people surrounding them.
Where are you from? (how did that influence your choice of UNE?)
How long have you attended UNE? (Have been on the football team the whole time?)
How has your experience been playing football at UNE? (what drives you?)
What is it like to be a communications major at a med-bio school? (why did you pick this major?)
You recently joined the student newspaper, correct? (how has that experience been?)
What is one thing you feel like the world should know about you that it may not?
Rough Draft (200):
Nick Scarfo is seemingly just another average UNE student, but like a Transformer, he is more than meets the eye.
He’s been a leader on the football team for 3 years, one of the minority of communications majors at this school since his start here, a commuter as a Junior, and a member of the student newspaper, taking part in the recent rebranding as The Bolt.
Nick is a quiet and reserved man, even almost stoic at times. He hails from Londerry, New Hampshire, located about 45 minutes North of Boston and affectionately known by some of the older Football players as L-Town. He attended Mathew Thornton Elementary before attending the Londonderry Middle and High schools. Their mascots were the Storm and Lancers respectively, sporting a patriotic red, white, and blue color scheme.
From a young age, he’s loved sports (particularly football) and sports journalism. He was a defensive force for his team in High School, as well as a member of the student newspaper, focusing on sports. These were heavy influences on his choice of UNE and the major of communications.
Rough Draft (600):
Nick Scarfo is seemingly just another average UNE student, but like a Transformer, he is more than meets the eye.
He’s been here at UNE for “three years. It feels like an eternity, but three years.”
Nick’s been a leader on the football team for those 3 years, one of the minority of communications majors at this school since his start here, and, more recently, a member of the student newspaper, taking part in the recent rebranding as The Bolt.
Nick is a quiet and reserved man, even almost stoic at times. He hails from Londerry, New Hampshire, located about 45 minutes North of Boston and affectionately known by some of the older Football players as L-Town.
He attended Mathew Thornton Elementary before attending the Londonderry Middle and High schools. Their mascots were the Storm and Lancers respectively, sporting a patriotic red, white, and blue color scheme.
From a young age, Nick’s loved sports, particularly football. He was a defensive force for his team in High School, and this put him in the position to be recruited by colleges. This love of sports also expanded to an interest in sports journalism. Nick joined the Londonderry High student newspaper as a sports writer his junior year.
As he recalled his choice of UNE as a college he explained “part of it is location. I didn’t want to go too far from Londonderry, but I wanted to get some distance. I also didn’t want to go somewhere that would be complete culture shock for me either.” We also discussed football as a major factor driving him to the University.
From talking more with him, I’ve learned he has some trouble with choosing things though.
When I asked Nick one thing he thinks the world should know about him, after having trouble deciding on what it should be, he came to the conclusion that “I’m an indecisive person. That’s what you should say, because anyone who knows me, if you ever ask what I want to do, I literally say ‘I don’t care’ because I can’t decide what I want to do.”
Nick had no trouble in deciding he wanted to go play football at UNE though. He was very interested in starting a new program and the idea of “forming the foundation” as Head Coach Mike Lichten always likes to put it.
Nick has been on the team since its first year as a club team in 2017. Coming off of sitting out his sophomore season due to shoulder surgery, he came out his junior year swinging, looking to earn back a starting position and rejoin his brother on the field of battle.
When I asked Nick about his experience with UNE football the past three years, he responded with “Honestly, it’s an experience I’ll never forget. It’s something I’ll take with me, and the lessons I’ve learned being a member of the UNE Football Team I’ll carry on into my work life and many other aspects of life after graduation.”
He digs deeper sharing “overall, meeting all the boys, like you, like Haelin, like Mitch, from day 1. And then just all growing up together, and like Coach always says, ‘banding together to accomplish the same goal’ has been the best part of being on the UNE Football team, maybe even of UNE in general.”
Safe to say Nick is very happy with his choice to play football at UNE, but when it came to picking a major, his indecision worked in his favor too.
We discussed his choice of Communications as a major, and Nick remembered “three years ago, I still had aspirations to be a sports journalist, but wasn’t a hundred percent sure how realistic it was for me. I liked how broad Communications was, and how it touched on aspects of business, marketing, public relations, and many other things, so it felt like I could really keep my options open.”
Final:
Headline: UNE’s own human Transformer
Sub: Nick Scarfo is seemingly just another average UNE student, but like the theme song of the 80’s cartoon says, he is more than meets the eye.
Nick’s been here at UNE for “three years. It feels like an eternity sometimes,” he says through laughter, “but three years.”
Nick’s been a leader on the football team for those 3 years with “football being probably the main thing that drives me here,” as well as one of the minority of communications majors at this school, which has offered him “a less demanding schedule compared to other majors here” in addition to “the chance to build a strong rapport with the communications professors, which has been helpful and gotten me very engaged in the classroom.” More recently, Nick has also become a member of UNE’s student newspaper.
Nick is a quiet and reserved man, even almost stoic at times. He’s from Londonderry, New Hampshire, located about 45 minutes North of Boston and affectionately known by some of the older Football players as L-Town.
From a young age, Nick’s loved sports, particularly football. He was a defensive force for the Londonderry Lancers, and this put him in the position to be recruited by colleges.
This love of sports also expanded to an interest in sports journalism. Nick joined The Lancer Spirit newspaper as a sports writer his junior year.
Looking back, as he recalled his choice of UNE as a college he explained that “part of it is location. I didn’t want to go too far from Londonderry, but I wanted to get some distance. I also didn’t want to go somewhere that would be complete culture shock for me either.” He also discussed football as a major factor driving him to the University.
Digging deeper, he further explained how he has some trouble with decisiveness though.
When asked one thing Nick thinks the world should know about him, after having trouble deciding on what it should be, he came to the conclusion that “I’m an indecisive person. That’s what you should say, because anyone who knows me, if you ever ask what I want to do, I literally say ‘I don’t care’ because I can’t decide.”
Nick had no trouble in deciding he wanted to go play football at UNE though. He was very interested in starting a new program and the idea of “forming the foundation” as Head Coach Mike Lichten always likes to put it.
Nick has been on the team since its first year as a club team in 2017. Coming off of sitting out his sophomore season after shoulder surgery, he came out his junior year swinging, looking to earn back a starting position and rejoin his brothers on the field of battle.
When describing his experience with UNE football the past three years, he said, “Honestly, it’s an experience I’ll never forget. It’s something I’ll take with me, and the lessons I’ve learned being a member of the UNE Football Team I’ll carry on into my work life and many other aspects of life after graduation.”
He digs deeper sharing “overall, meeting all the boys, like you, Haelin (Roberts ‘21), and Mitch (Hennings ‘21), from day one. And then just all growing up together, and like Coach always says, ‘banding together to accomplish the same goal’ has been the best part of being on the UNE Football team, maybe even of UNE in general.”
The appreciation and respect is very mutual. Junior Football player Haelin Roberts is close with him, and has lived with Nick since sophomore year.
He has nothing but praise for him, stating of Nick, “He’s just a very genuine guy! I know if I ask, he’ll help me out and that he’s got my back.” He went on saying “not to mention, he’s always down for a good time.”
Safe to say, Nick is very happy with his choice to play football at UNE, but when it came to picking a major, his indecision worked in his favor too.
Discussing his choice of Communications as a major, and Nick remembered “three years ago, I still had aspirations to be a sports journalist, but wasn’t a hundred percent sure how realistic it was for me. I liked how broad Communications was, and how it touched on aspects of business, marketing, public relations, and many other things, so it felt like I could really keep my options open.”
You can take part in Nick’s aspiration by looking out for his articles on The Bolt at https://noreasternewsune.com/ and catching him at UNE Blue Storm Stadium next Fall!
Profile Story Reflection:
The profile experience was bittersweet under the circumstances. I missed the dynamic that came from being inside of the classroom, but still enjoyed making the most of the situation the best I could. As an editor, I missed the roundtable in class and the dynamic of people actually getting to play off of each other. I liked the idea of the journals and feedback being the uncut or untainted (by everyone else’s opinion), compared to the classroom where we brought some of those ideas together, while also playing off of each other’s thoughts and ideas. This was definitely an aspect that I missed in workshopping. As a writer, I still had a fairly enjoyable process. I interviewed Nick over facetime and gather some other quotes via text and email. It was very cool and very fun to write a profile piece on a close friend. I got to get to know him a lot better, and then share some of the really great things about him. It was very cool highlighting him and all he does/ just how generally awesome of a person he is. I’ve spent a lot of time with him since our start at UNE and I knew that he was a fairly quiet, under the radar type of guy. This presented me with a really cool chance to show the world what you see with Nick Scarfo once you get to know him: someone very genuine and who has your back as Haelin put it. So with this in mind, when workshopping my piece, I wanted to take in the feedback I received, and make sure I was putting out a story that would do Nick justice. I got an additional quote to add some depth and give the view of someone he’d known and been close to since his start at UNE, worked on integrating a lot more of what he had to say and paraphrasing of his quotes throughout the piece, and generally tried to work my piece around the best I could to put something I would be proud of and hopefully he would be too.
Workshop Experience:
When workshopping piece, I appreciated everyones feedback, but found it all kind of pulling me in different directions. For example, some people didn’t like or get the transformers thing but Jesse said he loved it and encouraged it. Things like this made it hard to workshop at times. I felt myself being pulled in a lot of different directions. I got kind of mixed signals from the group as a whole, but knew that I owed it to Nick and myself to try to take as much of the feedback into account as I can, while trusting my gut. I kind of had to realize that end of the day, I’m the writer and it’s my piece. People can give you feedback and like or dislike aspects or even all of it, but you just have to take what you can and leave what you can’t. I knew what my piece was meant to be and where I wanted to take it, so I focused on applying the feedback that fit this vision. At the end of the day, I worked my hardest to put forth a piece that did both me and Nick justice and accomplished my goal of profiling UNE student Nick Scarfo.
Editorial team reflection:
This was definitely a different editorial experience for the class with COVID-19 and everything that t brought. We got into a groove as a class and the in person group sessions were super helpful. This made it a somewhat easier but mostly harder transition I feel. It was easier because I felt we had all built a mutual respect and rapport that allowed us to be a lot more critical of each other’s pieces than if we had never met in person and the class was fully online. On the other hand, this in person aspect that makes this easier is also tough to lose. When you’re writing the feedback letters on the site, it’s just you and your personal opinions and views, untouched by the rest of the class. But with that in mind, when stuff is in writing, you’re curetting it very well and trying to make sure your language stays neutral as to not offend someone about their piece due to the lack of tone; this is compared to our in class workshop discussions where you have your voice and intonation that allows you to be more forward and direct when used well. On top of this, in person, we could all piggyback off ideas and you could crowd source which was really nice, compared to just reading everyone’s comments. I know a lot of mine were helpful, but contradictory of each other at times which almost confused me more. Honestly, this was a tough loss and challenge to face, but I think the class tried to rise to the occasion. You could tell we wanted to be straight up and keep it real with each other which was good. I know I personally tried to get pretty in depth with my comments because I knew I wouldn’t be able to explain and clarify in person, and I think a lot of the class tried their best to do the same.
