Any advice for this?

Try to get the discussion working amongst the athletes themselves, as opposed to you being the centre asking all the questions.
Introduce some controversial, or even philosophical, topics - such as academics vs athletics, etc.
We did this with some Olympic athletes in our area and once the discussion got going, it went in myriad directions, mostly because of their thoughts.

 

Do what ESPN the Mag does and bring in some B-list singer or rapper to "vibe" with the athletes. It'll be great.

Oh, and ask 'em if they watch the Wire.

 

I was hoping to be the first one to go there.
Honestly, I might ask them something along the lines of what position they would most like to try if they weren't a quarterback. Most high school males would love to be the starting QB, but these guys must have something they wish they could try that they haven't yet.

 

Something completely off the wall, just as an icebreaker or to end on.
In news, we used to ask political candidates what their favorite Christmas present was when they were a child.

 

Yeah, that's a good idea. Just do whatever you can to avoid:

"Well, my team worked hard this summer and we're really focused."

"Well my team REALLY worked hard and we're REALLY REALLY focused."

"My team is going to be giving 110%."

"The Cougars over here, we be ready AND focused."

 

Ask whose got the best dance moves on the team.

 

god damn. tell me you forgot the blue font.

 

I understand why you'd want to do this -- they're a captive audience -- but with all due respect, I think this is really a bad idea that you ought to forget.

You've kind of acknowledged that already -- what do I ask these guys? -- but I don't think it's going to result in anything readable. You might be able to do a roundtable with seven coaches or even seven teammates, but seven kids who don't know each other well is going to flop.

If you press ahead, please don't ask them shit like, "What's on your iPod?" I've seen these done, and they're just awful.

 

"Have any of your linemen stopped using steroids?"