As manager of his high school basketball team, James Lipscomb used to tell his friends that if he had to sneeze, he would wait until a time-out because he couldn't afford to miss a play.

"It was a lot of pressure," he said. "You just can't mess up. If you do, everyone knows. If you didn't turn the game clock back on, you'll make all the coaches and the players mad. You must be perfect. You have to always pay attention."

A native of the Bronx, N.Y., Lipscomb is a communications major. He hopes to pursue a career in sports broadcasting.

"Since I was little, I loved to watch sports," he said. "Basketball, baseball, football…I could watch them all day."

His father is a huge sports fan; his mother is not. "I've gotten my mom to know enough about football that she can watch the Super Bowl and know what's going on," he said.

As a high school student, Lipscomb was involved in student government and the campus ministry board. He also played intramural basketball for four years, served on the Dean's Council and performed in two school plays.

Lipscomb also exceeded the school's 75-hour requirement for community service. He helped run a food drive and worked in a soup kitchen. But his favorite experience was tutoring second- and third-graders.

"It was one of the highlights of my senior year," he said. The experience led him to a summer job at a day camp.

"I loved it because it allowed me to be myself," Lipscomb said. "When I'm not serious, I'm a little kid. You can't get fired for singing songs and being animated-the stuff you can't do in school."

Lipscomb applied to Penn State University, Hofstra University, Iona College and Xavier Ohio. His guidance counselor mentioned Quinnipiac about a month before applications were due.

"It sounded like a really cool place with a great education," he said. "I decided to come here before I even visited the campus. I used to joke with my friends that I had applied to 'that university with the name I can never pronounce!'"

His biggest adjustment to college?

"Getting used to the small space of a dorm room," he said. "But I have extremely cool roommates."

But they don't agree on everything: He is a die-hard Yankees fan while his roommates prefer the Red Sox and the Mets. "We've already decided not to fight over sports," he said.

In addition to playing dodgeball and flag football, Lipscomb has joined three broadcasting clubs on campus.

"People keep telling me that college is the best time of your life," he said. "High school was pretty fun, so I'm really looking forward to this. I feel like I'm going to find out more about myself during the next four years."