Having spent this past summer interning as a sports reporter for the Atlanta Braves, Carlos Collazo hits the ball out of the park as this week’s UNC Campus Cutie. When he isn’t busy sitting in the press box at the UNC-Duke game, he’s kicking it with friends and doing pretty much anything sports-related.
Hometown: Sanford, North Carolina
Year in School: Senior
Major: Communication Studies
Hobbies: Watching baseball, or just sports in general; destroying my friends at FIFA; getting destroyed in Halo; Twitter (I tweet way too much)
Favorite song: At the moment, it’s probably “Re: Stacks” by Bon Iver, but this is a pretty fluid category for me. I’m also a big fan of “Scar Tissue” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and John Mayer’s live version of “Free Fallin’.”
Favorite Movie: Moneyball, Friday Night Lights, The Sandlot
Relationship Status: It’s complicated [Ohhh, mysterious]
HC: Describe your ideal girl.
CC: A good sense of humor is essential, and I’m a frequent user of subtle sarcasm. So if you can pick up on that and play off of it [sarcasm], you get bonus points. Someone who’s pretty chill and easygoing would also be nice. This is a pretty tough question to answer because I feel like it all depends on how you click in-person. Nice eyes can only help though.
HC: What is your favorite thing about UNC?
CC: The opportunities that the University offers are awesome, and the amount of highly competitive sports teams we have is also a big draw (shoutout women’s soccer), but the friends that I’ve met here are definitely the best part about UNC for me.
HC: So you’re a sports writer for the Daily Tar Heel. What’s your favorite part of the job?
CC: We get a lot of free food in the press box? No, but seriously, it’s really cool to be able to get to know the athletes that we all watch on TV. I get the opportunity to talk with them and get their perspective on a semi-regular basis, and go to some really cool places when we get to travel for basketball and football. I’ll be going to Cameron [Indoor Arena] for the UNC-Duke game this year too, so if you ask me this question after March 5, that’s probably what it would be.
HC: You interned with the Atlanta Braves this past summer…impressive! What was your position title?
CC: I interned for MLB.com as an associate reporter covering the Atlanta Braves, which was an amazing experience. I grew up watching the Braves on TBS and I always wanted to play for them as a kid. So being able to show up to Turner Field, hang out in the clubhouse, dugout and press box every day (and get paid for it) was a huge blessing. I learned some real, everyday reporting skills from Mark Bowman, who’s one of the best writers in the country.
HC: So two of your best friends have already been Campus Cutie. Are you excited that you now get to become a part of that “exclusive” group?
CC: Honestly, it’s an extremely humbling experience. I’m thrilled to be among the likes of Thomas “OVO” Blount and Forrest “@Freynolds” Reynolds. Have you ever hung out with those guys? Studs.
HC: What is your dream job?
CC: My dream job post-graduation would be anything where I get to write about baseball.
HC: What advice would you give an underclassman who wants to get into sports journalism or just a sports-related career in general?
CC: If you’re trying to get into sports journalism then I’d say you need to be writing as much as possible, and reading the people who you look up to in the professional field. The one sure-fire way to get better is to just write all the time, and it also shows potential employers that you’ve got a good work ethic and you don’t lack for clips. You should always be looking to stay knowledgeable in whatever field you’re trying to get into, and I don’t think that’s any different with sports. There are a lot of breakthroughs and advancements going on with advanced statistics and analysis at the moment, so if you can wrap your head around those and make them useful in some capacity, you’re going to put yourself in an advantageous position.
Carlos definitely isn’t striking out of our hearts! “You’re killin’ me smalls” [Sandlot reference circa 1993].