Well last week I made my way out to the ESPN Dream Job tryout tour as it made its way to my home state of Michigan. How did it go?

It went quite well, in my opinion.

My one fear going to the tryout was that the line would be so long that I wouldn't get a chance to show what I can do. Fortunately for me, even though there was a line, it wasn't that long. In fact, it took me about an hour and a half for me to make my way inside.

As I was waiting in line, I got to talk with several others who were shooting for a shot at the ESPN job as I was. Some were close by, while there was others who came in as far as Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, and Columbus looking for a shot. Some were about the same age as me, some were younger (one was 18, the youngest one can qualify to participate0 and others were in their early forties. They worked in the same jobs as me, others were school janitors, worked at places like Ford and GM (in fact, one I talked to called someone on his cell to get to change his meeting at GM to a later time so that he could stay in line at the tryout), others were just high school and college students. The attire ranged from the business suit and tie, like I was, to casual gear to golf shirts and jeans. A few even put on anything that had "ESPN" on it.

We were all shooting for the Dream Job.

As I was waiting, a couple of TV stations and someone from the local newspaper stopped by to film us or talk to us. They didn't talk with me, I didn't feel like being interviewed anyway and I'm sure I made the local newscast as well, but I can't tell you if I did or not.

Finally, after that hour and a half wait, I made it in after filling out forms in the line. Me, along with seven others, were seated at a table and filled out yet another form, this time filled with all kinds of sports trivia in a timed test. Some of the questions I knew, like what Tiger Woods real name was (Eldrick) and what was Columbus' Major League Soccer team was called (Crew). There was some that I didn't know till after the test was over, like who was the coach of USC's football team( I had Pete Carroll's first name but couldn't remember his last0 or who did the Yankees beat in the last World Series they won(I had the Braves, but it was the Mets in 2000.)

After the test, we were then brought to another room where we all took part in a roundtable discussion about our sports knowledge. We talked about everything from who should win the Heisman in college football to who should get the AL MVP to the NFL. It was a good chat and I guess the ESPN guys wanted to see how much we knew about sports.

After that, it was over and we were let out as another group of eight came in for their turn. It took about almost an hour for the whole tryout and I came out of it hoping that I'd at least make it to the next round of the tryouts. They told me that they'll let everyone know in about a month if we made the cut.

Wish me luck.

(UPDATE: Jan. 12, 2004 -- I didn't make the cut and from what I gathered, neither did any of the others that I saw at my time at the tryout. I was disappointed, of course, but as my brother told me, it was a good lesson on the process of interviewing for a sports broadcasting job. Anyhow, The "Dream Job" show airs in February on ESPN. Good luck to the people who made the finals. )