Many people would assume an assistant coach for a college women’s tennis team would be a petite, young lady wearing a polo shirt and a skirt with a high ponytail.
That’s not Charles Anyanwu. Charles Anyanwu is a tall guy who walks around campus wearing hoodies, jeans, and a buzzcut. He is Nigerian-American and studies Mass Communications at Delaware State University as an aspiring news anchor.
I had the chance to interview Charles Anyanwu at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Center at the university.
Q: How did you start your journey as an assistant tennis coach?
A: It actually started from when I was playing tennis when I was younger around six or eight years old, and as I progressed, I eventually worked my way up as a player first, and then once I got into my freshman year of high school, I joined a local tennis club, Dover Indoor Tennis. My coach, and owner of the facility offered me to somewhat coach some of the younger kids at the facility, and that’s how it got started. I just started teaching elementary school kids the fundamentals even though I was relatively a young player myself.
Once I got into college, tennis kind of stopped for me in terms of competition. I didn’t have a way to get involved into tennis until a member of the Dover Indoor Tennis Community reached out to the coach here and recommended me.
Q: Why did you choose to study Mass Communications?
A: I want to be a journalist for sure. In the future, I want to be a reporter for hopefully a big news network like ABC, NBC, or CNN. They are prospects for me I want to work at and WBOC is a good place to start.
The major life goal is to be a nightly news anchor. I’ve always admired anchors like David Muir and Lester Holt. Those type of guys are the kind I want to be in journalism.
Q: I notice your last name is African. Can you explain your heritage?
A: Yes, I’m mixed. My mother is Caucasian, my dad is Nigerian. So, I have an interesting perspective. I have a lot of family from back home in Nigeria who I am in contact with.
I was born and raised in the US, so I don’t have a secure connection because of how far they are. It’s still kind a discovery thing for me at this point.
Q: Do you have any advice for students in university?
A: Good advice would be to definitely get ahead early. I had the opportunity to start school early during a summer program.
Another piece of advice would be to stay on top of your work. Don’t procrastinate because eventually it’ll keep piling on. The sooner you start early, the better it will be for you down the road because senior year will come quicker than you know.
Q: What sparked your interest in journalism?
A: What sparked it for me was definitely David Muir, specifically the way he tells stories and reports it is very eye-catching to me. He makes it very personable, so it’s not just skimming though a story like some new anchors do. He makes it more relatable in a way that establishes more of a connection with his audience, which makes me want to emulate it.
Q: What’s your favorite memory of coaching so far?
A: Our second tournament of the fall season at the Loyola Invitational. That was definitely a great feeling because I finally got to be part of not only a college experience, but of winning with a team at D1 level.
Q: What type of person do you want to be when you graduate?
A: I want to have grown more as a person by that time. I want to have grown more intellectually by getting more involved in my career field. I want to take the skills I have learned and actually apply them, so I want to be involved as much as I can reporting stories on campus for The Hornet newspaper. Personally, I also want to network so I can take that with me into the real world.
Make sure to check out Charles Anyanwu’s published stories on The Hornet Newspaper website.
Comments