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It's My Turn To Say Thanks

bwworgull
I wanted to be respectful of Jon's announcement to the board and to this community he has so faithfully served for over the last 18 years before I chimed in with my two cents of gratitude to both Jon and to the members of this site, as well as my update.

Subscribers would assume that Jon and I have talked constantly between the time he asked me to fill in on a part-time basis in December 2019 through what will be a five-year partnership ending with Saturday's grand finale. While it is true that Jon and I have routinely messaged back and forth with all things site related, we have spoken on the phone just once (which occurred earlier this month) and never got together for a sit-down summit.

Unorthodox? Maybe, but it speaks to Jon's trust in me to cover the day-to-day grind of a beat reporter without hovering over me. He never asked me to write a specific feature, give me a deadline, travel to road games, or change something I was doing because he knew from my BadgerNation past that I would do what was best to deliver what we both wanted - inside access to Wisconsin Athletics. Because of this, I have never had a better boss.

Moreover, when balancing football, family, and my other job became too much after the COVID year, he gave me his blessing to focus solely on covering men's basketball full-time and drastically reduce my workload from May until October. I never had a contract with Rivals or Jon, just a handshake agreement between him and me based on the trust that I'd deliver quality content telling the story of Wisconsin Athletics (which I hope I did more often than not). I truly appreciate him for all of it, as it was much better working with him than against him.

That said, I am unclear about my role or if I have a future with this site as we move into the great unknown with this merger. I am hopeful that whoever comes along will want to have a seasoned reporter around to cover UW hoops, but I am a realist when I say that might not be a possibility.

So, while I still can, I want to thank all the great people associated with this site that I've either worked next to or worked with, especially my good friend and road trip co-pilot, Dan Sanger, and my co-hoops beat reporter, Donnie Slusher. I had a serious health scare the night of the Washington-Wisconsin game in February that prevented me from covering practices and games in person for the rest of the season. Donnie and Dan helped things move forward smoothly and seamlessly while I tried to do game stories from a hospital bed. They are two true professionals, and I'm glad I am associated with them.

Lastly, thank you all for reading, commenting, and welcoming me here. It truly is a fantastic community of diehard Wisconsin fans who have been great to be around.

Like Jon said, thank you for supporting this site over the years and supporting local journalism.

Hopefully you'll see my byline again.

With gratitude ~ Benjamin Worgull
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