Best way to get your subject to really open up

Very true. That's when you need to talk to coaches, teammates, family members, and anybody else that can give you a picture of the guy. We've all written stories on people like that at one time or another. Hell, some of the best stories I've ever written were about dead people.

 

I covered a team once whose coach was a dream. He had no filter, so he said what he was actually thinking most of the time rather than talking in BS coachspeak. I remember once when he walked up to a group of reporters after a practice and I offered a standard small-talk greeting: "How's it going?" He responded with a five-minute State of the Team address.

 

We had one of those this year on a high school team. I'd ask him a general question, like what went wrong in that inning where Shelbyville scored five runs, and he goes off on a long tangent about his stud pitcher being a dipshit who was shaking off the coach's pitch calls and throwing whatever he wanted, another senior (and two-year starter) who didn't understand the signs or some pretty basic strategy concepts, and a few other players who were just being whiny about playing time or whatever.
It was enlightening, and nice to know he trusted me like that, but I kind of came to dread talking to him postgame because every interview lasted 20 minutes.

You have to be careful in situations like that. In the pros and college, anything goes. With high school coaches, you could cost them their job printing some of that stuff (or at least make your job more difficult when you put it in a story and the coach gets pissed at you). I know "everything is on the record," but at some point you need to recognize when a frustrated guy is just venting about his job.
Knowing what to write and what not to write, or how to ask a follow-up question about the general dysfunction of the team that doesn't necessarily call any one player out, is a useful skill. So is filing that stuff away in the mental file and using it down the road in a more obvious situation.

 

As you can see, there's no one way. A lot of the suggestions here are good, especially getting them in there element (dugout, etc..) And for most people if you get them away from their teammates its better, because a lot of high school athletes fear their teammates may laugh, or whatever at them during an interview. And sometimes it actually helps to have them there with a good friend when you have one that doesn't like to open up. They may be more willing to talk real to their best friend than to you. Coaches (usually assistant coaches) can give you a good feel for how a player may be in an interview.
Small talk is good, especially if you have done your research on the subject and can talk about a specific game, heck even a teach or the school.
Lastly, if there's anyway at all for you not to make it look like a formal interview than do it. In other words, many kids freak with a microphone or recorder in their face, or someone writing down everything they say. I used to have a recorder I could stick in my shirt pocket and it would pick up our conversation without problem and never be seen. It died about a year ago and I have yet to find one that works as well.
I'm not saying to mislead them. Make sure they know you are a reporter interviewing them, but it's all about psychology

 

Check this one out. It does a great job both picking up sound and filtering out background noise. The band playing during football postgame has never been a major issue with this recorder in my experience. I think a lot of people in the business use these. The biggest downside is you can't transfer audio files to your computer.
It's also cheap. Looks like about $60 on Amazon, but I think I paid $40 for mine at Best Buy.

 

Thanks Batman. My old one was a Sony too, so this may be a good replacement.

 

Gotta find a way to relate to the subject on the topic at hand.
Did a story on a kid who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 16. My wife is a Type 1, so by introducing her in conversation, he understood that I had an idea of what he was going through.
Had a feature on a kid who weighed 400 pounds as a freshman. All he wanted to do was play football but he was too fat to play. He conditioned himself enough so byt he time he was a senior, he was still obese - 330 - but he was doing better with his weight and it was because he wanted to play football. I threw my weight issues in conversation and it made it easier for him to open up.
Girl lost half a mouth of teeth after getting hit in the face with a field hockey stick. Wrote a feature on her the following year when she returned to the field. Everything I said included me talking about how I couldn't deal with the pain and it loosened her up seeing how amazed I was that she didn't cry like I would have.
Doing an interview is like hitting on a chick at the bar. You just have to find anything they can relate to and go with it. Then the subjects won't see you as a reporter; they'll see you as a person.

 

Ditto what Rhody said - you want to connect with the interviewee. Sharing some of you stuff makes it easier for another person to share their own stuff. Also, it's always a good idea to build relationships and talk to people when you you're not looking for a story with a notebook in your hand. Get them used to opening up to you.

 

As Rhody31 suggested, share a bit of yourself with them. Be an example, to some extent, of what you want them to be and do with you.

Ask them what one or two words they would use to describe themselves, and why that description is pertinent/meaningful to them. It's a question that's helpful to you perhaps not because it necessarily relates directly to the main issue you want to discuss, but because it tells you what kind of person with whom you may be dealing. That's information you can use in interviewing, both the subject and other sources with regard to the subject.

Be patient but gently, periodically persistent if the reason for the story is particularly personal or could be potentially embarrassing or difficult for the subject. I had a top player on a team once who had an obvious and severe stuttering problem and refused interviews for three years before finally agreeing to a sit-down as a senior. It was the fruit of four years of cultivation of a subject and other closely related sources, and ended up being a great topical human-interest story that could be broadened and built upon.

 

Lots of good pointers in this thread. Working with high school kids, I know how tough it is to get them to open up. But the best way I've found is to take time to get to know them before you actually interview them.

And, as others have pointed out, it helps if you have something they can relate to. Did a feature about 10 years ago on a kid who's dad left him and his family when he was really young. Having gone through the same thing with my dad, it helped him be at ease talking to me about it.

 

Tell them their mom is a crack smokin' bitch that gets around. That should get them talking.