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Lopsided GBB game- is my article too short?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by schiezainc, Jan 29, 2008.

  1. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Ok, here's the situation. I go to cover a Division I girls basketball game tonight between two teams that are clearly not on the same level. The home team (which isn't in our coverage area) is far superior than the visiting team (which is the local girls team for our paper). Home team wins by 43 points, our team shoots 13-45 from the field and commits 21 turnovers.

    My interview with the coaches after the game goes like this: Home coach-"We were good tonight because practice was good yesturday". Visiting coach (verbatim)- "They beat us in all aspects of the game, we were never in it...We just didn’t play well, they’re much better than we are, they’re a great team, that’s all I got."

    So, my story comes out to 437 words. My question is...with a box score, is this too small to be the main story in this week's paper? I can't really think of what else to put into this piece because it was a truely terrible game. Wondering what you guys think.
     
  2. Don't worry about a word count. If you've said all that needs to be said, you're done.
     
  3. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    That sounds like about the right wording.
     
  4. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    I wouldn't torture the hometown readers by fluffing it up more. Though I would try to find another main story if possible.
     
  5. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    If you're writing for a weekly, and you know the game's gonna suck, why do you still bank on it as your main piece for the week?
     
  6. zebracoy

    zebracoy Guest

    I still have no idea why in the world weeklies are writing gamers ... and why you didn't get some kind of feature (at least the old fallback of "learning experience") out of it.
     
  7. sportsnut

    sportsnut Member

    That same thing happend to me as well just I was lucky that the team I was there for was in our coverage area. But i remember the coach's comments.

    Coach for the winning team
    |"I am very proud of my girls, they played the game the way its supposed to be played" "The defense will take us to the championship"

    Losing Coach "We got out played" then he added "They came to play we did not" then before i could say anything else he ran away.

    But I would not make the cover story for your paper that the girls team lost the game by being crushed by the other school.

    500 word's can't really be a cover story, but that's just my opinion.
     
  8. John

    John Well-Known Member

    Use big pictures.
     
  9. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    Everything else that happened happened this weekend, and we don't have any really decent art for it to justify main story layout. (Writers have to shoot their own stuff) and we're focusing on game stories now because I'm anticipating this school's teams are all going to tank come playoff time, ala we won't have anything to write about but features for the three or so weeks before spring starts.

    I got the story up to 600 words by the grace of god. it should be good enough.
     
  10. Trey Beamon

    Trey Beamon Active Member

    You could always talk to the players, too ...
     
  11. Smallpotatoes

    Smallpotatoes Well-Known Member

    It seems like our readers demand it.
     
  12. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    My shop (a twice-weekly) is over an hour away from three dailies, so we're in a coverage hole, so I'll echo smallpotatoes. If any of the three dailies began to cover the area sports-wise, then I would probably be able to change my focus a little.
     
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