Timpton Tips-off In Central New York

    Story and photograph by Jonathan Singh.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- From dominance on the court, to excellence in the classroom, India Timpton says she is exactly where she wants to be. The North Carolina native is one step closer to living out her dream.

The former University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNGC) basketball star, was looking to take her talents above and beyond the court, once she realized her playing days were over.

“The next go around with sports I think one of the biggest thing for me is I want to give back to the game,” she says.

Broadcast Journalism was something that was floating in her mind, but was unsure on how to make a career out of it. Timpton then started the application process to a few schools around the nation. The next thing you know, Timpton is traveling to Central New York, to Syracuse University, without any whistles being blown.

This was a big transition for the former Division I basketball player, as she needed to rebound hard, coming into a program without any prior knowledge of the industry. Her hard-work and desire to succeed come from the court. “A force that can be reckoned with.” Is what the confident communicator sees herself as.

As Timpton strives to pursue her goal, she is aware that the competitive field she has just entered takes no prisoners. She plans to keep working hard and hopefully, find herself Sportscasting at ESPN and reporting on the game she loves so dearly. Fouling out is not an option, and Timpton knows its her versus the buzzer.

A transcription of my conversation with India Timpton is scripted, you can also listen to the audio version here

Jonathan Singh: What made you choose Newhouse?

India Timpton: For undergrad I went to a school called UNCG (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and that is only an hour and a half from my house and, other then that I have really never spent much time from home. So when it came to the time for applying to grad schools I only applied to Syracuse, Miami, and Southern Cal. And I know one of those places was going to be far away and that any of them were going to be far, but I wanted a change and those were the three different environments completely. When it came down to it, it was either between here and Miami and I picked here over Miami. The reputation for the school spirit, and I’m big on school spirit, and I don’t think you can get much better then the Orange, so that was a big reason why I wanted to come here to.

Jonathan Singh: So change, you said you wanted a change, change of what?

India Timpton: People, you know, if you go to a school close to home, you run into a lot of the same people from High School, Middle School, things like that. Also being from North Carolina, I was always India the basketball player. There was pretty nothing other then that. I have a sister who is 13 months younger and everyone always says we look a like. So its always India and Saudia, its never just us separately. She went to Davidson, and Davidson is all but 40 minutes from our house, so we both to school in the state. We were both so close together, she would come up, I would come down so we would spend a lot of time together too. So a change of seeing the same faces and also standing on my own and kind of creating the person I will be now without having basketball.

Jonathan Singh: So what is the person you want to be now?

India Timpton: Academic driven instead of athletic, being a part of a team is a great thing but I also know that’s a crutch, because with having teammates you don’t have to spend as much time making friends and branching out, getting involved and things like that because you always know you have a group of people that are going to be right there with you all the time. So that is different as well. I want to do better with meeting people and making friends outside of athletics. Also getting my career in order I know down the road, I would love to be a co-host for my own television show on ESPN, so you know being here would be a great way to get that started and all that.

Jonathan Singh: So obviously you have a good amount of background within sports, and your specific sport, basketball. How do you bring what you had on the court; your competitiveness, as like trying very hard to succeed and win into the classroom? Does it correlate with each other, very similar, or is it different?

India Timpton: Yeah, I think one of the main things is I learned in school at UNCG was time management. Not getting things done and not getting things turned in is not that big of a deal when you are in High School and Middle School, but in college they don’t really care if you’re an athlete or not depending on the professors. A lot of the professors don’t like having athletes in there class because they think you think you are going to get a pass anyway, I think that correlates to the classroom. Getting things done on time competiveness in a program like this where I think everyone is fighting for pretty much the same positions, I think that is key, But at the same time, understanding how to lose, as I think that is something that sports has told me as well, because everyone cant always win, understanding how to lose, looking back and seeing what you did wrong, and see what you can do for the next time, and then swathing up what ever needs to happen to be successful. The next go around, with sports I think one of the biggest thing for me is I want to give back to the game. So in reporting I think I will be able to do that, because I went back and forth a lot between wanting to be a reporter and coaching, and down the road I still may end up coaching, but I mean basketball forwarded me so many opportunities with going to school for free in undergrad, teammates, friendships, coaches that will be lifetime mentors and friends, so many different things so I want to do something where I can give back to the game in a positive way. Maybe be a force that can be reckoned with that can help women get the equal rights they deserve and in all sports not just basketball.

Jonathan Singh: Yeah so you see a lot of reporters who were ex-players, they are either in the booth or on the field, and they are giving back. Any reporter commentator or host, journalist that you look up to. Once a former player, someone that you inspire that played the game that you look up to as a journalist.

India Timpton: Well my article last week or the paper, I did mine on Jemele Hill, she’s pretty much exactly what I want to do and co-host a new show. Bringing a new flair to ESPN.

Jonathan Singh: What does she do?

India Timpton: She is the co-host of “The Six.” She is like “his-and-hers.” But yeah hosting her own show with a lot of personality, talking about sports and then also social issues, race issues, like anything that is going on they put it all together and it comes together quiet nicely in my opinion. So I definitely look up to her and Lachina Robinson. She reports more for WNBA specifically, but she played at Wake Forest and I actually had a chance to meet her and have lunch with her last summer, and she’s just one of those people. She was just like a great person to talk to and to see that being a reporter is just not all about the fame and stuff, that they are normal people who like to sit down and have lunch, and talk about there past and future, and joke around and that its not just all about facts a figures and thinks like that so I really respect her a lot to her as a reporter.

Jonathan Singh: So where do you see yourself coming out of Newhouse, not specifically later down the line, but coming out of Newhouse? Maybe your first entry-level job in the field of journalism, where do u see yourself?

India Timpton: I didn’t really have a lot of interest in writing sports news until we had to look into them last week. But I definitely won’t be opposed to doing something like that right out of school now. I’ve taken more time to learn about it and look at it because I had no experience reporting, broadcasting, cutting tape or film or anything like that from undergrad, so everything for me here is pretty much brand spanking new. So im really open to doing pretty much anything coming right out of school. Writing is definitely something that has come up more just in being here the last two weeks.

Jonathan Singh: So you were never really a big writer until you actually started writing more?

India Timpton: I really don’t mind writing but my biggest thing is that in sports writing, you lose yourself in it, as far as the writer-reader goes. They are just seeing your words. They don’t get your personality and feeling.