sports writing handout

A Sports Story Brainstorm Talk to coach Talk to at least three players Decide on story topic Attend practice Talk to at least two coaches Talk to at least ďŹ ve players Compile quotes Get stats Write story Insert quotes Double-check stats/names Send through editing process

Checklist

A Sports Story

Try talking to...

Assistant coaches still coach.

The reason most head coaches know so much about their players is because their assistant coaches told them. You can get the basic stuff from the head coach, but every other publication covering that team has the same stuff you do. If you really want to know more about the players as people as well as athletes, find the assistants.

They do play another team, right?

Why is it we always try to get all sides of a story except for when we cover a game. So many times we see quotes from OUR team, but what about the other people that were on the court/field? Maybe they saw something your team didnʼt. Maybe they can give you details even your hometown paper didnʼt get. But simply: Itʼs.Just.Good.Reporting.

Donʼt forget the role players.

We always hear the praises of the pitch hitter that gets a clutch hit once a month or the offensive lineman that comes to work everyday and never complains. Why we donʼt see them quoted in the stories about their team? Donʼt just get the player that spikes the ball through the other playersʼ chests. Talk to the person that set her for that spike.

There are coaches in the stands as well.

Whether itʼs 7 a.m. practices or traveling to three different states for four different club tournaments, parents are just as influential in a playerʼs life as any coach. If you focus on a player, donʼt forget to talk to the people that have spent their entire lives focusing on that player as well.

Is there a doctor, or someone who wants to be one, in the house?

Coaches may be many things, but very few of them are actual doctors.

When youʼre looking for some injury information, talk to the trainer.

Thatʼs where the head coach gets his/her injury info anyway. Do this little thing called reporting and get it straight from the trainer.

A Sports Story

no-nos

1. Cheering

Under no circumstances whatsoever are you to cheer for a team. If you want to paint your face or scream at a referee, then donʼt cover the event. If the other reporters are worth the paper theyʼre printing on, then theyʼll throw you off press row before the ushers can.

PS-This applies to photographers as well...

2. Cliches

If you ever get a chance to watch Bull Durham thereʼs a classic scene where “Nuke,” the young-punk pitcher, gives an interview spewing all of the sports cliches his mentor “Crash” told him to use once he got into the major leagues.

It goes a little something like this: “Yʼknow, Iʼm just happy to be here and hope I can help the ballclub.

I just want to give it my best shot and good Lord willing, thingsʼll work out... gotta play ʻem one day at a time, Yʼknow...”

Point is, if you start to hear an athlete sound a little like this, change the topic faster than Iʼd change the channel on Ryan Seacrest. People have heard all of this before, and your social studies teacher can testify as to how hard it is to keep peopleʼs attention when they already know what has been said.

3. Opinion

How do you know the team “played its best?”

How do you know the team wants to “win for pride?”

How do you know the players “surprised the crowd?”

Unless you have someone making these statements, then itʼs just your opinion inserted into a sports story. And do you want to know a secret?

EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A SPORTS COLUMNIST. PROBLEM IS, NO ONE NEEDS THEM! There is a reason why there are more beat reporters than columnist. Newspapers want writers, so the better you can get at simply writing and leaving your opinion out of your story, the better youʼre going to get at being a sports reporter.

4. Game Wraps

There are only a few lucky student newspapers that get to come out once a week, much less every day. Most of us publish every three weeks to once a month if weʼre lucky.Therein lies a problem for sports journalists: The event you just covered is going to be over for a month before it gets printed. The people that actually cared about the game already know the result BECAUSE THEY WERE THERE! Youʼd better be focusing on something more than the final score if you decide to write about an event more than a month old.

A Sports Story

What you need to know