1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

how do you deal with community stories

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by YoungGun7, Jun 13, 2007.

  1. YoungGun7

    YoungGun7 New Member

    i'm working on this story of a group of community soccer players that went and played in some big tournament in texas.

    any idea on angles?
     
  2. In Cold Blood

    In Cold Blood Member

    Tough to offer angles without some more background from you... are these guys elementary age? high school? senior citizens?


    talk to the guys (or girls) and see if they all have something unique in common... how did this team get started? why is Joe Blow coaching them? Ask them about their pregame routines. Ask about their offseason training. Ask about what they do for fun outside of soccer. Ask them why they're playing soccer and not XXX (insert random sport here)....


    In my (limited) experience, with stories like these, where its unlikely you know a lot of background info going in because its not something you regularly cover, I rarely have an angle picked out before the interview starts...

    just get them talking and see what comes out of their mouths. You'll find your angle somewhere in the transcript.
     
  3. Bob Slydell

    Bob Slydell Active Member

    Was it a pay-to-play team? If so, ask the parents why they paid so much for their kids to be on an "all-star" team.

    Otherwise:
    Did they do well? What they thought of the players from around the country they played with? I hate doing stories like that, especially if they just went and really didn't do much.
     
  4. pressmurphy

    pressmurphy Member

    Soccer? Do a photo montage of their green cards.
     
  5. Bob Slydell

    Bob Slydell Active Member

    Nice.
     
  6. Eagleboy

    Eagleboy Guest

    Why don't you talk to them and find out?

    Basics, folks. You don't need to have this wrapped up in one sitting, especially because you're going to be talking to more than one of them. Find out what the one player's story is, find the teammate, connect the dots.
     
  7. pressmurphy

    pressmurphy Member

    Thank you. Just spent three-plus hours sparring with the girlfriend, choosing my words carefully every step of the way to avoid a full-fleged argument. So I had to take it out on someone/something. Soccer's always an easy punching bag.

    BTW, what's an average score for a soccer game? Zero to minus-one.
     
  8. Bob Slydell

    Bob Slydell Active Member

    Just say, 'you're right' and avoid an argument. Because no matter what you say, they never forget and always turn it around on you.

    That average score sounds about right.
     
  9. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    not being mean, but who cares?

    somebody talked you -- or your editor -- into this story, didn't they?
     
  10. YoungGun7

    YoungGun7 New Member

    i'm just the intern.
     
  11. Mayfly

    Mayfly Active Member

    Have fun with it, work the angle that the coach is dealing child porn out of his basement.
     
  12. In Cold Blood

    In Cold Blood Member

    the child porn angle...
    just when i think I'm getting stuck writing the same story over and over again, sportsjournalists gives me a new way to tackle a feature...
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page