Nov. 24, 2010

By Samantha Franz
Athletic Communications contributor

Having covered everything from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to the Ryder Cup, Joanne Gerstner is the ultimate living proof that hard work pays off. But she credits her time as a tennis player at Oakland University for really helping her carve a niche for herself in the sports journalism world. But before she would go on to cover some of the biggest events in sports, she would first have to pick a college and for Gerstner, Oakland seemed like the perfect fit.

"It felt a comfortable place for me," she said. "I wanted to try and play tennis in college and Oakland had a really good journalism program and a great student newspaper with `The Oakland Post.' Coming from a small high school (Our Lady Star of the Sea in Grosse Pointe Woods), I didn't feel really comfortable going to a big school, so Oakland seemed like a good middle ground. It was big enough to have opportunities, but not too big to the point where I would be in a lecture hall with 800 people."

So Gerstner was able to walk on for the Pioneers and played her first season of tennis in 1989. When asked about some her fondest memories as a student-athlete, she laughed and referred to a vehicle every student-athlete at OU has been a passenger in: the white van.

"I just remember those road trips to the Upper Peninsula from when Oakland was in the GLIAC (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and we played Lake Superior State and Northern and being stuck in those white vans for hours and hours," she said. "The one thing with tennis players is that we have a lot of stuff, with all of our rackets and bags, so we were crammed in there. I learned really quickly to call shotgun. If I could get in the passenger seat, I would have some room to study, but if you were stuck in the back of that van, it wasn't so fun."

Sadly, Gerstner suffered a setback her freshman year when she injured her knee while going for a volley against Wayne State. She didn't realize it at the time, but she had torn about half of her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). She tried to play her sophomore year, but the constant pain made her revaluate her priorities.

"At that point, I had started to become really involved with The Oakland Post and my studies and I had to make a decision of school or sports," she said. "It was hard, but I let tennis go and opted to really focus on school."

Gerstner went on to receive her bachelor's degree in journalism and subsequently earned her master's degree at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. "From what they told me, I was only the second student from OU to attend there and I was so proud to have been part of that program," she said.

From there, Gerstner went on to work for to The Cincinnati Inquirer, USA Today, The Lansing State Journal and The Detroit News for 10 years, where she covered everything from the World Cup, to the Olympics, to Michigan State basketball and the Detroit Pistons.

"I've done just about everything except see the Lions win a Super Bowl," she joked. After leaving the Detroit News in 2009, Gerstner founded her own media company, Gerstner Media, and currently writes for The New York Times with her blog `Off the Dribble.' She is also a contributing writer for ESPN, the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Miami Herald and other publications. She has also taught classes at Oakland and offers courses at the University of Detroit - Mercy.

"I work really hard and take nothing for granted," she said. "I really try to be the best at everything I do and I think that goes back to being an athlete. I know what it is like to work hard and be focused. I don't want anything with my name on it to be shoddy work and will do everything in my power so it is not. I was instilled a strong work ethic from my parents and it had been enhanced with everything I have done over the years."

From playing floor hockey with her fellow journalism students on production nights at the school paper to creating memories with her fellow teammates on long road trips, Gerstner is very grateful to Oakland and though her time donning the Pioneer white, black and gold was brief, Gerstner chalks up her success as a sportswriter to her time as a student-athlete.

"I'm glad I played college tennis," she said. "It was a wonderful experience and I still play tennis to this day. I love it. If I could do it over again, I probably would have treated my knee differently, but back in the day, the whole concept of the ACL surgery and rehab was a lot different. But my purpose of going to Oakland above all was to get my degree and start my career. Being a competitive athlete has really helped in my career as a sports writer because I get it. I understand practice, the pressure, winning and losing."

When asked what her advice to future student-athletes would be, Gerstner urges them to look beyond being an athlete in regards to their future.

"Being on the other side of this now, I talk to so many athletes and many of them feel that their job is to be an athlete and they don't see anything else outside of the sport," she said. "I would urge them to think of whatever sport they play as something that they are talented at, but they need to develop other skills, too. I see a lot of people that go through a career-ending injury or their eligibility ends, and then they are stuck. They get used to being a star and a lot of hard work goes into being an athlete, but the bottom line is that, most of us will not go beyond the college level and need to find another way to make money. College is an awesome time to figure out what is next and they should take advantage of that."

• For a look at the New York Times article that Gerstner wrote after Oakland made 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament, click here.
• Company website, go here

-OAKLAND-