About me and my work
Welcome to my blog!
My name is Eddie Kerekes, and I am entering my fifth year at Case Western Reserve University, a research institution in Cleveland, Ohio. Though I may be studying chemical engineering, one of my passions is writing. I started writing for my high school newspaper and continued at CWRU, eventually becoming Executive Editor (read: Editor-in-Chief) for the 2018–19 school year.
I created this blog to document my summer road trip in July-August 2018, but I am hoping that it becomes my main platform for my work. During my trip, I will traverse 25 states, drive over 8,000 miles and see at least 10 baseball games across all levels. (Baseball is another of my passions, as you will see from my writing samples below.) I will see relatives, visit friends, eat a bunch of great local food and listen to hundreds of hours of podcasts and music.
Thank you for stopping by and reading about my travels. Below, you will find a sampling of my work from the past three years and places you can contact me. Enjoy!
The Observer (CWRU newspaper) — complete archive can be found here. The following are hand-selected pieces I would like to highlight.
My very first piece for the paper, a review of “Deutschland 83,” a German-language television show that premiered the summer before I started at school.
During the fall of my first year, I covered the volleyball team. For this piece, I talked to the senior members of the squad. The team eventually went on to the NCAA tournament and won the program’s first-ever tournament match.
Later on that year, I profiled the Case Kung Fu Club. It was a fun piece to report and had one of my favorite ledes.
During my spring semester, I took a theater criticism course and applied my knowledge to a review I wrote of a student production of “Rabbit Hole.”
The following year, I became sports editor for the paper and wanted to write a piece about the most popular intramural sport on campus: basketball. For a later story, I was in the intramural director’s office, and he had this story on his cork board. It was one of my proudest moments.
I later wrote about the fierce competition of intramural flag football. Along with the basketball piece, I wanted to tell the story of the students who played intramural sports, something that doesn’t get a lot of press.
Finally, what I consider my best article for The Observer, a recap of the regular season finale for the CWRU football team. This was my second year covering the team, and after just falling short the previous season, the team made the NCAA playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. Of course, they needed a miracle against their biggest rival to do it.
The Sports Quotient — full archive can be found here. During the summer of 2016, I wrote for The Sports Quotient website about professional baseball in a data-driven way. The following are a few pieces that I would like to highlight.
I wrote about Drew Pomeranz’s surprising start for the San Diego Padres, right before he was traded to the Boston Red Sox because I felt he wasn’t getting the attention he deserved.
I analyzed another Padre’s success a few weeks later: Wil Myers. I showed how he was finally living up to his top prospect billing.
Finally, I looked at the success of Seung-hwan Oh, a Korean pitcher at the time in his first year with the St. Louis Cardinals. Oh was putting up some pretty great numbers as a middle reliever for the team and I pinpointed exactly where his success came from. The article was named the top MLB article at the site for 2016.
Case Alumni Association — My fourth year at CWRU, I worked for the Case Alumni Association, writing student profiles and other feature stories for the website. No complete archive is available online, but I have selected a few pieces below.
Early on in the year, I featured engineering students who also are active in improv comedy on campus. It was probably the most fun interview I have done and also a fun piece to read.
I talked with a few members of the robotics team on campus and wrote a feature story on the team. After two consecutive top-five finishes, they are looking to win the NASA Robotic Mining Competition in 2019.
