H.S. Wrestling Coverage

I've been assigned the high school wrestling beat this winter and I was looking for some advice or tips as far as coverage goes.
I'm not going to be covering every dual meet or tournament, just the major tourney's. Like county, region and state.
I'm planning to do a weekly notebook, but I'm not sure what it will include. Any suggestions here would be great.
In addition to a weekly feature on a wrestler is there any thing else I should think about it?
The paper is in the South and basketball is the major sport in the winter. The coverage area has about 18 schools with a lot of good wrestlers and teams, so I think there is an opportunity for plenty of coverage, I'm just not sure how to handle it.
I was hoping someone from the Midwest or the North where wrestling is extremely popular could help me out.

Thanks.

 

At first glance, you seem to have the basics down. If there's a national issue or story that can be done at the local level (rules against extreme weight loss, the difficulty of getting a wrestling scholarship when colleges are dropping their programs), then that would be something else. But unless you get a major news story (Hometown High's wrestling program engages in full-on gay butt orgies every Friday night), I think your plan should work just fine.

 

Keep records, as much as you can.

Wins, losses, falls, major decisions, superior decisions, fastest fall.

When you're doing a roundup off call-ins, these may be the only thing you have to spice things up, rather than saying who beat who.

 

Hmmm...I wonder what you think of wrestling...

 

I've covered it at every stop on my journey, so I have no beef with wrestling. I just like to talk about full-on gay butt orgies, just like every other red-blooded American. USA USA USA.

 

If you get a chance to watch Mount Anthony (Bennington, Vermont), I highly suggest it. They go to all the big national tournaments. They've won 17 straight state titles. You look at their kids and they don't look like much and then you see them on the mat and they're phenomenal. For one of the schools in your coverage area you could do a first-person piece by wrestling the guy who's about the same weight as you. It's been done at other places I've worked. As long as you don't break your neck it can be a humorous piece.

 

I did a story about wrestling in college this summer and I'm working on a story for the preview section about the state's new weight rule, so I guess I have those bases covered.

 

I've thought about doing this. Unfortunately, I'd have to wrestle a kid in the heavyweight division.
Do you have any links to stories like this that have been done?

 

Stories that are based on a sports reporters taking on high school kids is played out, and I think it's actually fairly stupid. Unless its golf, because there's always good banter on the course. But wrestling some kid for a story? Well, let's just hope that won't be one of the clips someone would send if trying to get a job. If it was sent to me I would read it, mock it, and then run off copies for my co-workers so they could read and mock it.

 

Are they the ones who had a kid choke his opponent unconcious at the New England meet a few years back?

 

I'd tend to agree with this.

It's ok to do in certain sports, like golf, or maybe stand in against a softball or baseball pitcher, but anything else isn't really a good idea.

 

100 wins are usually important.