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Jude Banihani:
Welcome back to the podcast! This week, we interview Najeeb representing the Jordanian Student Association.
Joahan Lopez:
Also, State Press Sports Editor, Jack Barron, talks with us about ASU sports and the season to come.
Jude Banihani:
I’m Jude Banihani.
Joahan Lopez:
I’m Joahan Lopez, and this is State Press Play.
Jude Banihani:
Hi everyone, I’m here with Najeeb Khasawneh from the Jordanian Student Association. So, Najeeb, why don’t you introduce yourself a little bit to us?
Najeeb Khasawneh:
Hi thank you Jude for having me first. I’m Najeeb Khasawneh. For those who doesn't know me, I'm the founder and the president of the Jordanian Student Association here at ASU. And I'm an international student, sophomore in industrial engineering, and I'm excited to share everything I know about ASU and Jordan and how to be an international student here.
Jude Banihani:
So tell me about your experience being an international student in America from Jordan
Najeeb Khasawneh:
Well, as international students here in the United States, the experience is exciting, but at the same time, it's a bit hard. Changing from Jordan, from all the culture, change to the food, to the people, to the tradition, was actually a big change for me and any other Jordanian international student. Feeling away from home, at the same time, different environment, different culture. It was actually a bit exciting to see all the new people, or the new tradition or the new culture, but the same time, it was a bit hard for me.
Jude Banihani:
And with that, what made you want to start the Jordanian Student Association?
Najeeb Khasawneh:
Well, coming here as a Jordanian international student was, as I said, a bit of a nice experience, exciting and a bit hard. So I wanted to help the other Jordanian students who are coming here, since there's no Jordanian club or anything, to get the Jordanian people together. Since all of Jordanian share the same tradition, the same culture, let's say, the same food, the taste, and all of that stuff. So I wanted to do something to get the Jordanian community here in ASU together to help the new international student, to get the Jordanian who already live here as a citizen or to set their own home.
To hear more from Najeeb, please tune in to State Press Play.
Joahan Lopez:
Hello, hello and welcome, and we are here with Mr. Jack Barron, KC native, Sports Journalism major at the Walter Cronkite School, and also sports editor at the State Press. Jack. Thank you so much for coming. How are we doing today?
Jack Barron:
Doing great. How about yourself?
Joahan Lopez:
I'm doing amazing that you're here, man. All right, so now we're going to talk about ASU football. Obviously, this year was spectacular. It was a Cinderella story. Obviously they, you know, I'm sure we were, you know, this is probably one of the greatest seasons ever, in my opinion. I'm from the Bay Area. College Sports isn't the biggest thing over there, but for me, made a lifetime fan out of me as a ASU student, ASU fan in general. So let's talk from the beginning, though, going into the season against Wyoming, what was your thought process the sports editor at State Press?
Jack Barron:
You know, I don't know. We just kind of taken it day by day, game by game, we are hearing from what we heard from our writers and stuff, what they had seen at practice and stuff, and, you know, not going to lie, it was kind of like, I don't know. We'll see how this year goes. We might be like six and six, you know, who knows, once we get into the big 12? Because at the time, our schedule looked like pretty tough, you know. And then we got into that Wyoming Game. They won pretty good, you know, we're like, okay, okay, we're kind of nice. We're kind of nice, but especially a guy like Sam Leavitt coming in, you know, red shirt freshman. I mean, nobody saw, especially from the outsiders perspective, right? Like Dillingham, all the coaches will say, like, we knew Levitt was our guy when we saw him at Michigan State. But like, outsiders perspective, like, our writers were not talking about dude, Sam Leavitt, gonna be nasty this year, you know. So, like, that first game against Wyoming was such a treat. And I don't know how you felt, it's like a fan? but like that was, I was like, we're kind of nice, because we just came off a year we won three games,
Joahan Lopez:
You know, yeah, no, going to that game. I was like, I had no expectations whatsoever. Obviously, I'm just basing off, you know, I thought Dillingham was still cleaning up Herm Edwards mess that he left, right and all that. But, like, I was just happy we won, you know, that first game. And it was a blowout, to the point that I'm pretty sure they got mad that everybody left early because, like, they wanted, they wanted the fans to still be there but there's no point. It was 48 to something, it's, you know, it was a full on blowout and all that. But this takes my next topic. What was the signature win to you that kind of showed you, like, Oh, dang, this football team is for real. Sam Leveatt, is that dude? Like, what was that signature win, that's so many, by the way, you could pick from many.
Jack Barron:
No, I know, like every game at its classic moment. I think the one that stands out to me the most was I went to the game. It was ASU versus Kansas. You know, in Kansas, Daniels, their quarterback, threw a bomb with like, two minutes left. You know, it was like a 60 yard pass. And everybody around me was like, oh, oh, like, why'd they just give that up? That was terrible. And I was telling them, I was like, Guys, we have two minutes on the clock, and we have Cameron scattebo, And we got Sam Levitt and Tyson on the team, like, relax, we'll be fine. And then they had a game winning drive. They marched down on the field, and that's how you knew, because I was, like, still kind of early on in the big 12, right? That was before they played like Utah, before they played BYU, obviously, before they went to Iowa State, you know, to play Iowa State in the big 12 championship game. But like that game, I was like, This team's got some grit, you know, like, that game woke it up to me. And also, I'm from the Missouri, Kansas area, so I was really happy to watch Kansas lose. I was like, Thank God, ASU. It made me very happy. Like, especially when you're there as a fan and not as a sports editor, you can actually be like, This is awesome. I just watched the Jayhawks lose. Like, I can't be happier, and my team won. So that game. I was like, Oh, crap. Like, this team's here, and this team is, like, gonna win a bowl game. I didn't think they're gonna go to the culture ball playoff, but like, Damn man, I What a year.
To hear more from Jack, please tune in to State Press Play, and check out more of our sports coverage on statepress.com.
Jude Banihani:
And that’s all for this week’s State Press Play. I’m Jude Banihani.
Joahan Lopez:
And I’m Joahan Lopez. State Press Play is produced by our podcast desk editor, Kylie Saba. Our original music is by Ellie Willard and Jake LaRoux.
Jude Banihani:
Special thanks to our managing team, Morgan Kubasko and Matthew Marengo.
Joahan Lopez:
You can check out all these stories and more on statepress.com. See you next week.
Jude is a junior studying finance. This is her second semester with The State Press.
Joahan is a senior studying sports journalism. This is his first semester with The State Press. He has also worked at The Cut Network, Inferno Intel and Fox.
