Favorite minor sport to cover...

Maybe it is because I grew up in Indiana where there are a ton of them but dirt track racing is always a great experience both as a fan and a reporter. Those short sprint races are awesome.

 

Boxing. Such an opportunity for something incredibly unexpected.

 

Rodeo, because the cowboys always have some good quotes.

(Soccer is not a minor sport!!!)

 

Loved covering horse racing. There are so many stories, so many issues, so much going on behind the scenes, and all kinds of personalities, in the horses and the people.

Really like diving, and swimming, too, once you get past the standard sport-related cliche-speak that the athletes tend to spit out like water. They're interesting sports, especially once you understand nuances, and the participants usually are intelligent and articulate.

Tennis can be good, too, for stories and issues.

For sheer fun, interest and enjoyment, as well as relative ease of coverage, however, you can't beat water polo and soccer, although it helps to have knowledge and appreciation of the sports.

Personally, I enjoy volleyball, too, although great stories on it are not always easy to come up with or write.

Yeah, I guess I've done a lot of minor-sports coverage.

 

Having spent most of my career at smaller papers, I've covered a little of everything. Love to go to boxing at the local Indian casino when there's a card out there, track, Saturday night dirt track races at the fairgrounds, kid baseball/softball and volleyball when time allows, but I'm going to go a different route for a favorite outside the traditional high school biggies: water polo! The rules are pretty simple, there's lots of action, and its usually over in an hour or so.

 

I'd love to give hockey a go...we only have a junior hockey team in the area, and it's not part of our regular coverage...the occasional feature is about it.

Thrilled that car racing isn't big in my neck of the woods...again the occasional feature, but not a regular beat...that's the one that would drive me bonkers.

 

We traveled to the season opener (which got rained out) and will travel for the playoffs, but that's it. One of the league opponents is less than an hour away, but we don't go to those games just because there's no sense in staffing a handful of road games if you're not going to do them all.

 

I'm fortunate too that I cover a High-A league that is a fast-track spot for a lot of future major leaguers. Plenty of good prospects to watch and cover, at least early. It tends to get a little sloppy come July, but at least in August, you get some of the high-end draft picks from that June's draft coming through.

As for another minor sport I really enjoy, I like covering local/state amateur golf. For one, we have a fantastic guy in Virginia in the state golf association office who is tremendously helpful with getting out scores, reports, etc., and setting up interviews. And most of the golfers you talk to are really easy to deal with. It's not the PGA, but it's not bad golf either.

 

Sign of the times:

We used to do the occasional regular-season road game for the AHL team, if the trip was within a three-hour drive and the game had some significance. Did all the playoff road trips.

Now, we're skipping some home games. It doesn't help that the team was out of it pretty early in the season.

 

Minor league hockey in the U.S. Usually cover about 2 games per month and the local franchise is located in about the last place you would expect hockey to be popular.

They fill a 6,000-seat arena on popular promotion nights, do a great job with entertainment during intermissions and always field a competitive team. Maybe I'm spoiled, but hockey guys have always given me interesting quotes. I have never encountered a minor leaguer who was full of himself.

It also helps when the local coach is a quote machine who has no problem ripping his team when they warrant it.

 

We treat our AHL franchise like holy bull said his paper used to. Our writer hits the road for any trips within three hours. And come playoff time, he's on the road regardless of where it is. Later-round series, we'll send a photog on the road too.

Of course, the local team's won the last two Calder Cups and averages 10,000 at home.

 

Softball, as long as the teams are decent.

I've always liked volleyball, but the level of play where I am now is just awful, so that takes away from the enjoyment of it.