High School Roundups

I cover sports at a surburban high school. We put out a weekly newspaper, and I write a round-up based on all of the sports. Given a 600-word limit, how would you organize the round-up? Thanks for all and any help.

 

Most important things at the top.

 

RCC,

I'd break it down by sport, obviously, and when writing it, try to find some nugget of information that makes the item better than just a golf match or a softball game or whatever.

If someone set a school record, extended a hitting streak, team won Xth game in a row, beat big rival, etc. Look for those things beyond just a dry recap of the scores.

And, yeah, put the most interesting stuff on top. Don't need to do it alphabetically or anything.

 

Use the first section to feature the most important news. Treat it like a 300-word story and try to get quotes.

 

Get as many names as possible in it.

 

This.

And as TwoGloves said, get as many names as possible in. Can't go wrong at all there.

A lot of names. Possibility of records. Perfect roundup.

 

And don't forget the JVs ... they try hard too.

 

We do separate roundups by sport and separate boys from girls sports, and keep them brief -- two or three grafs each. The key is to try and put in info that you don't find in a boxscore (game-winning scores, etc.). We also rank them in order of classification from top down.