I returned to the sideline on Friday night, covering a high school football game between Fulton and Galena High Schools in northwestern, Illinois. I covered a couple playoffs games last fall, but this was the first Friday night game that I had been too since 2019.
Because of the printing schedule, SVM has way earlier deadlines than when I left the Sports Editor position late in 2015. That being said, I asked not to be assigned games that would be included in the paper editions on Saturday morning. I have too many concerns with technology to be relied upon in that manner, which proved prophetic last night, as our internet service was slow and my emails were getting caught in SVM’s spam filter for some reason.
I’ve come into this season wanting to try some different things each game that I can include as blog posts. I thought last night I would try taking some photos. It turns out that there is a reason I’m a writer. I did get a few OK ones, the best I thought was this silhouette of myself. I had a few others, but I am having an issue getting them to load on our desktop today.
As far as the game story went, I struggled to come up with a lede. I have always been a strong believer in writing ledes that hook readers, and I couldn’t quite find one last night. I liked a quote one of the Fulton players provided about preparing each week for the team they wanted to be rather than the team they were playing. I wanted to build the story around that since while the Steamers won, they suffered a few stretches where penalties and mental mistakes cost them, including almost letting Galena back into the game during the second quarter.
As it turns out, I felt much the same about the story I put together. Ultimately, it wasn’t where I wanted it to be. Good thing it was the first week for me, too, and hopefully by the end of the fall, I’ll find my groove again.
Here is a link to my game story: https://www.shawlocal.com/friday-night-drive/news/2022/08/27/good-start-for-fulton-better-to-come/
No comments:
Post a Comment