Stories from the Beat: What are you doing here?

 (Note: This is a screenshot from a weekly prep football video we would shoot at SVM. Probably about 7-10 years ago. The photos in background were campus wraps for our yearly football preview section.)

On Saturday, October 30, 2021, I’ll return to the sideline to cover a high school football game. For those following this blog with bated breath, you might wonder how that could happen. Didn’t I declare just a month or so ago that I wouldn’t be covering a sporting event this fall. Well, things change, people come and go, and my old friends find themselves in an untenantable position heading into the IHSA football playoffs.

So, I signed on the dotted line to be a stringer (freelancer) for at least one more game. I don’t intend for this to be an ongoing thing, as I have come to value my free time. Plus, the weekday deadlines are so darned tight now that I just don’t want to put myself through that stress very often.

Game coverage is a unique beast, particularly at the high school level. I remember the first event I covered was a boys soccer match behind Challand Junior High in Sterling in the fall of 2004. The match was a lopsided loss by the home team, and about five minutes into it, I realized just how little I knew about soccer.

Afterward, I approached the coach, who happened to be a former P.E. teacher of mine. My reporting career started with a question – from my source. “What are you doing here?”

That’s the key question for every reporter on any story. “What are you doing here?”

Consider that, and keep in mind some of the items below, if you ever find yourself covering a game.

1. Be Prepared – Have an idea of what is at stake. Playoff games are easy. Midseason swimming meets or golf meets can be more challenging. Find out records, if possible, and if there are any interesting storylines heading into the event. That prep might provide the blueprint for your story.
2. Have a plan for keeping stats. Some schools and some sports provide all kinds of stats, but they almost all do so on their own timeline. In the prep reporting biz, that means you better be able to keep your own stats. That takes some thought, and every reporter I’ve met does it their own way. For football, I carry a clipboard with a stat sheet to track individual and team stats. I also carry a notebook where I keep a running play list. A good gamer should have some statistical backup. It’s a balance on how much. Learn to pick out the numbers that matter.
3. Always be thinking – “What’s the story?” or “What will people be talking about after this game?” Having edited dozens of other reporter’s stories, I know many fall into the trap of “This happened, and this happened, and this happened.” Maybe that sounds like crack reporting, but it’s the equivalent of watching paint dry when reading. Form the story of the game in your head. If the last play determines the winner, you better believe that should be a lion’s share of the story and the lede. I don’t need to know details of plays that had relatively little bearing on the result, I want to know why exactly Team A won and Team B lost.
4. Develop questions for your sources as you go. I admit that I am not always the best at doing this. Often, I just decide to wing it and ramble out something that sort of ends up sounding like a question. Still, it’s a great goal. Also, know who you want to talk to when that whistle blows, so that you can start lining the interviews up ASAP. Remember you are dealing with kids, who might have just lost a big game, or who might be nervous about talking to a reporter. You’re not trying to stump them, or catch them in some sort of drama, you just want them to provide information to the reader and you.
5. Have a plan for filing. Maybe you can drive to the office and write the story. That’s great. If not, know where and how you are going to file. I have filed stories from McDonalds, from the roof of my car in school parking lots, and a dozen of other places. Time is of the essence. Don’t get caught with no way to get your story from your computer to your editor’s computer in time. Also, check your technology that it is working properly.
6. Know your editor’s expectations for length and deadline. I preferred short gamers – 500 words or less. It’s my belief anything longer better be pretty darn important and top-notch writing. Most gamers are glanced at by readers who care and ignored by those without a stake in the teams playing. I always wanted space in my sections for feature stories, breaking news, and columns that might cast a wider net.
7. It’s not a phonebook. I’ve known reporters who try and sneak in as many names into a story as possible, and while that might be great for the scrapbookers out there, it almost always leads to bitter feelings because you can rarely, if ever, name everyone. It’s always the one that’s left out that you hear from. Tell the story and mention the names that need to be mentioned (and spell those names right!).
8. Assuming things is the fast lane to reporting hell.
9. Write clean. If you don’t know what that means, get an AP Stylebook, that’s a great starting point. Nothing worse for an editor than having to spend an hour trying to take a poorly written story and edit it into something presentable.
10. Finally, keep your ears and eyes open. There’s always the story in front of you, but likely a better one if you are really paying attention. Maybe you can gain some extra details for the story. Craft the setting for the reader. Or maybe, you’ll pick up a tip for a feature story.

I could probably list things all day, but I’ll stop there.  I’ve never considered myself a great game story writer. My strength was features where my creativity could be put to better use, and I thought I rounded into a pretty good columnist by the end of my run at SVM. I’ll talk about those forms another time.

Anyways, I guess I am back on the beat, let just hope I don’t get beat!