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I am still working on compiling all of my articles for publishing on this site. I appreciate your patience. Please, continue to visit, and I will have my articles up ASAP. In the meantime, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
Here is a sample of one of my earlier pieces as a staff reporter at The Exponent. It remains one of my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Role brings former player closer to coach
By Rusty Barnes
Staff Reporter
Publication Date: 11/21/08
Coach Joe Tiller warms up for every football game with a race against a cowboy.
That cowboy is Andy Standifer, a former player under Tiller. But Standifer is not an ordinary cowboy, and he certainly doesn’t dress like one.
Standifer can be seen at every football game wearing a dark blue uniform with a badge, a radio and a holstered gun. He is a member of the Purdue University Police Department and has been Tiller’s bodyguard for the past four years.
“He’s one of my favorite people in the world, and I don’t know if anybody has noticed, but he and Joe have been having races onto the field this season,” said Arnette, Tiller’s wife. “I’m getting great stories about why Joe wins every week. Joe says he wins, but (Joe) kind of runs sideways to push Andy off into the pack.
“Andy’s like, ‘I can’t run with all of my gear on.’ It’s just been a standing joke all season.”
Standifer, a Purdue alumnus, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in law and society. He was a long snapper for the football team from 1996-99. He returned home after graduation and spent three years at his local police department before returning to his alma mater. He recently became head of the K-9 department with the PUPD.
Standifer said he and the entire Tiller family have become friends over the years. Arnette recalled Standifer coming out to Wyoming for a visit.
“He’s come out to Wyoming twice,” Arnette said. “We took him to Frontier Day in Cheyenne, and did the rodeo and the night show. He’s a cowboy. He rides rodeo and actually rides horses and stuff in Indiana. I think he’s finding that he’s a displaced person. Out in Wyoming is where he was supposed to live.”
Standifer said that his relationship with Tiller has developed over the years from just being a player and coach to something more meaningful.
“We’ve become friends over the years,” Standifer said. “I look up to him. He’s a great figure as far as Purdue, and also outside as somebody that you can look up to.”
Before and after games Standifer is very easy to spot when he is providing Tiller with protection to and from the field. Standifer doesn’t see it as anything special, though.
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