Kevin, along with an NBC camera crew from Charlotte, arrived on campus around 10:30 am this morning. Cheyenne was meeting with her tutor at the time so Kevin and his crew sat in my office as we looked through pictures of Cheyenne.
Thanks to both Ken Bennett and Brian Westerholt, we had a plethora of pictures to search through. The guys especially liked the photos of Cheyenne when she was first swinging a club as a young lady. Those photos, along with a couple of pictures of her with her Uncle Tiger and her Grandpa Earl, were sent to me by her mother Susan.
After I burned them a CD, we met Coach Dianne Dailey and Cheyenne and went over the schedule for the day. After the debriefing, we were off to the team's workout.
Strength coach Kelly Zarski put the team through what they called a "light" workout but to this out-of-shape SID, I can say my legs were sore just watching. The workout was full of squats, lunges, pull-ups, and hang cleans. Even though the workout only lasted 40 minutes, these ladies worked hard.
The carema crew was there to document the entire thing and had Cheyenne miced-up the entire time. I don't know how the microphone and transmitter stayed in place the whole time with all the movement but my guess is this wasn't the first time this sound crew has done this kind of thing.
After the workout, the crew followed Cheyenne to her Library Science class, which as you could have guessed, was in the library. The looks we were getting from other students as Cheyenne walked into Benson Hall to get a drink was priceless. Some people played to the camera, like the guy in who walked back-and-forth behind Cheyenne smiling with a "Hi Mom" smirk on his face. Others whispered to each other "Is that Cheyenne Woods?" and seemed to be nervous at the sight of a large camera and a big guy with a boom mic.
The crew got a little b-roll (a term I picked up today to make me sound like I know what I'm talking about) of Cheyenne as she sat in class. My guess was that was riveting stuff. The rest of us chatted outside of the classroom as we waited for the class to end. I don't think I have been in a library since I finished my masters last May and I can say, I don't miss it at all.
The class, which seemed to last half the day, was merely an hour long and once it finished, we headed to The Pit for lunch. Again, as we walked into the building, heads turned and people began to stare. Two students, even pulled up Cheyenne's bio page on their laptops and were glancing at the screen and then at her to see if it was indeed Cheyenne Woods.
We had a good lunch and it served as a good opportunity for Peter and Kevin to get to interact with teammates Natalie Sheary and Allie Bodemann, who had joined Cheyenne for lunch.
After lunch, the three athletes and crew headed out to the quad to get some shots of them walking around. I feel like every TV crew that comes to Wake Forest gets the "Quad Shot" but why wouldn't they. On an absolutely beautiful sunny day, I don't think you could have found a better spot.
A quick glance at his watch showed Peter that it was time to get moving. He and Kevin both had flights to catch and there was still a lot more to shoot.
We left the quad and all decided to meet over at the golf complex for some more b-roll of her hitting balls. Cheyenne headed to her dorm to change (which was not filmed) and the rest of us went to find our cars.
I stopped by my office to pick up a few things and by the time I made it to the golf complex, the crew already had the camera in Cheyenne's face (a familiar spot today). She was hitting balls with such ease despite a camera man and a boom mic dangerously close to her. The camera man got every shot possible -- low-angle, high-angle, 150 yards away, 2 inches away and even watched her hit a shot or two as he laid on the ground.
Everyone has seen the commercial with Tiger bouncing the ball on his club and then smacking it down the fairway. Of course, the crew asked Cheyenne if she could do the same and without missing a beat, she grabbed her wedge and immediately starting bouncing the ball between her legs, around her back and off the grip of the club. She then bounced it up and took a swing. The contact wasn't quite as smooth as Tiger's but it was still impressive nonetheless.
After about 20 minutes, it was time to head to the course. We pulled into the Old Town Club at about 3:30 pm and met up with Allie Bodemann, Natalie Sheary and Dolores White. The foursome hopped out onto the fourth tee and began practice as normal (as if anything was normal today).The crew just wanted to watch a hole and see what they would be able to get as far as footage. On the par-4 fifth, the crew followed Cheyenne off the tee and down the fairway. They then watched as she knocked her second shot to within an 1/8 of an inch of the hole for a tap-in birdie.
The par-3 sixth was just as impressive as she hit it to five feet and rolled the putt in for her second-straight birdie. Peter, who was also miced-up at the time, walked with Cheyenne from the tee and asked a series of questions. He did the same for the next few two and if I were coach Dailey, I may think about asking the crew to stick around for the regionals. Cheyenne, and the other three players for that matter, all seemed to be unfazed but the cameras.
Once the players got done with the ninth hole, Cheyenne, Natalie and coach Dailey all stuck around to do one-on-one interviews with Peter.He asked Cheyenne a full range of questions from her first tournament win at the age of 10 to her relationship with Tiger.
He also asked her why she chose Wake Forest and what her future plans were. Of course she wants to play out on the LPGA Tour as I think her quote was "I can't think of anything better to do than play golf for a living." Don't we all want to play golf for a living?
Natalie Sheary also got her chance in the hot seat. Peter asked her about her relationship with Cheyenne and also about her winning the ACC Title last weekend. Cheyenne has obviously had experience in front of the camera but Natalie, despite what some may think, is a natural in front of the lens.Coach Dailey capped the evening with a quick interview. All in all, it was a beautiful day, but a long beautiful day. Everyone was a bit exhausted at about 6:30 pm as trunks slammed and Kevin and Peter raced off to the airport.
Right now, I am still waiting confirmation as to when the final piece will air. It looks like we may do a live shot with Cheyenne Sunday morning sometime between the 8 and 9 am hour on the NBC Today Show. They would also show a short clip in the morning and the full package on the NBC Nightly News Sunday night. Stay tuned to WakeForestSports.com for official word on the air time.
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