Getting pesky high school athletes to talk (just a little!)

I'm young, too, and haven't had much of a struggle getting kids to talk. However, I'm willing to bet I've been more fortunate than good when it comes to interviewing. I've only had a few interviews where it felt like pulling teeth; a freshman, 103-pound wrestler comes to mind. In fact, young wrestlers have been the worst for me. But once they start winning, they open up a bit more -- at least from my experience.

Age might come into play -- they're going to be less intimidated by a 25-year-old kid than a man in his 40s.

 

why?

 

I am young to in a sense and I have had no problems talking to the kids, but I had more problems when my old High School coach hired me to do the PA and stats because I became a coach on the team instead of one of them.

But as a member of the media, I have never really had any problems talking to the athletes, but I also believe it has something to do with how I dress for High School games. I tried once to dress up as I did when I covered the Avengers, but that did not work out to well. So instead I dressed like they do and then they opened up because I was now one of them instead of an adult dressed up all professionally. Now for JC and College I always dress up but that's a professional place compare to a high school game and they know who I am and that they have to talk to me.

 

what in THE fuck are you talking about?

 

Ok, lets make sure everyone gets what I said above. Dress the part and they will be more confortable with you. Don't dress up for a High School game and just dress like the kids do.

 

I think a lot of it is just finding the right people...the superstars are sometimes boring, so you have to find another outlet.

I covered a pretty big girls basketball game last postseason that included a girl going for a career high and hitting a game-winning shot. I could barely get anything more than an "it's great" from her. So, the major quotes in the description of that final play (and the game in general) came from the point guard who got her the ball and a post player who was battling for position.

A lot of it is luck and familiarity, however. If you're stringing a game or covering a team you don't normally see, it's likely you won't get story altering quotes from anyone.

Also, don't ask a coach who a good quote is. Most of them will give you some garbage about talking to a senior co-captain or something, which mostly means someone who will say whatever the coach wants. I regularly cover a high school team whose coach makes Nick Saban look like a guy with good access. I swear he reads their quotes and then tells them what to say. He had a superstar point guard last year who was our player of the year who would always spout the most cliche answers about tempo, seeing the floor, et al.

Meanwhile, this year, there's a bit of a loose cannon who had some funny quotes after a game early in the year. I interviewed him again just a week or so ago and it was night and day. He said the same things about "playing their game", etc.

 

Not even the "kids" could understand what you said above.

 

insert pat benatar quote here.

 

"Hell is for children"?

 

During football season, I tend to go to practice for features and preview stories and I found the best way to get kids to open up, is to stand behind the play in a huddle of JV players who never see the field even in practice. Most of the time, those kids are freshman, maybe sophomores, and at small schools like the ones we cover, eventually those are the kids that end up starting two years from now.
So you end up shooting the breeze with them standing there talking about the NFL, the MLB playoffs, Breaking Bejamin, how much rap sucks ... anything and everything. By the time they become relevant to talk to, they're familiar with you and will treat interviews like you're just shooting the breeze with them.
Again, that goes back to just being familiar with the kids. I've been at my paper since I was 17. I'm 25 now, I love covering high schools because kids have interesting stories to tell because adoloscent kids are kinda weird. You just have to let them tell their stories.

 

Exactly. I do that sort of thing fairly regularly and it's never been an issue - mind you I'm also in a small community where they welcome me watching a full practice and interacting with the athletes at any point because the comfort level is there. For a beat guy at a larger paper who isn't around as much, I can see how that might look odd.

 

Wow. A four-year plan. Impressive.