Catching up with Kyle Whitehead
It’s been only four years since Kyle Whitehead walked off the stage at Huntington High School with his diploma in hand. But, in many ways, it’s an eternity ago. He has built on the foundation laid in his hometown and grown into a fine young man with a bright future in an exciting profession.
“It seems like centuries ago when I left Huntington High to enroll at Northwestern University in the fall of 2005,” Mr. Whitehead said. “I've changed so much over the last four years. Most of that change I credit to my incredible experience at NU, and that opportunity never would have been available to me were it not for my educational foundation built by everyone at Huntington High School.”
“I firmly believe Northwestern was, is and always will be the place for me,” Mr. Whitehead said definitively. “Its unique size, location and population make it a perfect fit. I've met so many different types of people and been exposed to so many different perspectives and ideas. I've become familiar with one of the nation's most exciting cities, with Chicago just a half-hour train ride away. I've formed relationships I'm confident will last for the rest of my life.”
“The environment at Huntington High School prepared me well for what came in college,” Mr. Whitehead said. “Not all high schools and towns embrace diversity like Huntington does, but they should. These are the types of places that foster true social and intellectual growth. It wasn't necessarily easy growing up in a place with so many different types of people, but I believe it made me a better person.”
At Huntington, Mr. Whitehead was very well liked by his teachers and classmates. A top student, he was closely associated with The Dispatch, the high school’s student newspaper and also with the Blue Devil marching band. “Obviously much of what I'm studying to this day is closely tied to my time with the paper,” he said. “In my senior year we as a staff built that paper from very little to a product we could be truly proud of. It remains to this day one of the most enriching experiences of my life. The leadership experience was invaluable as I still find myself going back to lessons learned that year.”
His marching band experience also proved fruitful in a variety of ways. “Other than a whole lot of fun, my time in the marching band taught me the value of teamwork and hard work,” Mr. Whitehead said. “Watching us grow as a band from the parking lot at band camp to the bright lights at championships never got old.”
Even far away from home, Mr. Whitehead has a clear recollection of where he came from. “Lots of teachers played a role in making me the man I am today, many of them at Huntington High School, but two stand out above the rest,” he said. “The first is Mr. [James] Graber, who served as advisor to The Dispatch my senior year and taught me AP microeconomics. Mr. Graber treated us like adults. He respected us and therefore we respected him. He put complex concepts into clear and understandable terms, a hallmark quality for teachers at that level. He genuinely cared about his students and took interest in our success not only academically, but in life. The time he put in outside the classroom for The Dispatch and econ was remarkable.”
A veteran faculty member was a second teacher to make a lasting impression. “I had Mrs. [Kathleen] Aufiero for math my freshman year and again for pre-calc my junior year,” Mr. Whitehead said. “It never was my favorite subject, and still isn't, but she created an environment in her classroom that made learning fun. She also took a genuine interest in her students: who we were, what we were doing with our lives and where we wanted to go. Her dry, harsh, classic east-coast sense of humor could put a smile on my face no matter how I was feeling that day. It's hard to connect with a more experienced teacher as a teenager in transition in high school. That was never a problem with Mrs. Aufiero.”
At Northwestern, the Huntington alum wasted little time diving into college life. “One of the first things I did when I arrived on campus was look for an extra-curricular to latch onto,” Mr. Whitehead said. “As a journalism major and diehard sports fan, the sports department at WNUR, the nation's largest student-run radio station, seemed like a natural fit. It was. We cover Wildcat athletics of all types across several platforms, focusing especially on play-by-play of the football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball and lacrosse teams.”
Mr. Whitehead has learned the broadcasting business from many angles. “I've played basically every role, from color analyst for a non-conference women's basketball game to lead football play-by-play man during one of the most successful seasons in the history of the program,” he said. “I worked my way up the ladder in a variety of roles, culminating with sports director last year. I managed a 30 person staff, a $3,000 plus annual budget and a $10,000 plus endowment.”
The Huntington grad’s work at WNUR is “big stuff” on the Northwestern campus and his voice is well-known by legions of Wildcat fans. “For most of our sports, we cover all games, home and away,” Mr. Whitehead said. “Looking back at some of the work I did as a freshman, it's amazing to see how far I've come as a broadcaster. The personal highlight for me was calling the Alamo Bowl against Missouri last December. Spending four days in such a fun city surrounded by the biggest Northwestern fans on the planet was an incredible experience. Heavy underdogs in the game, we came up just short but the team's performance went a long way to solidifying the program's national reputation. Calling Big Ten athletics is not something many students have an opportunity to do and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity.”
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