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Tips for covering football practice

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Shifty Squid, Aug 13, 2009.

  1. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    We had a similar thread or threadjack last year. Might want to search for it. There was good stuff on it.
     
  2. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    Where I am -- and Johnny can surely relate to this -- there are 15 minute windows where the media can attend practice.
    During that time you can:
    -- Sort of take roll. See who's missing, so you can ask about them.
    -- See who's in "don't hit me" jerseys. Those off-color jerseys you see quarterbacks and kickers wear during scrimmages. If you see a linebacker or a running back in a "don't hit me" jersey, it means he is exempt from full contact because of some minor injury. That's a note.
    -- Look for linebackers all of sudden grouped with the defensive ends or running backs lined up in the slot as receivers, etc., etc.
    -- During drills, look for the first (starting) team doing a drill as a unit at each position. Take note of who's in the unit. You'll often notice surprising fluctuations.
    -- In limited availabilities, I try to avoid too many observations about performance. I hate to dwell on, say, a receiver dropping a pass when I didn't get to see the last two hours of practice when that receiver was catching everything in sight. But there are some observations you can make that are useful, just be selective about it. And if you get to see the whole practice...well I just feel sorry for you.
    -- Try to think of broader storylines that can be introduced through the notebook. Nobody cares if Joe running back looked good catching passes in a drill, but it might be a chance to get quotes from Joe about how he caught 50 passes as a sophomore in high school before moving to running back. You can turn that into a 200-word notebook lead.
     
  3. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    One of my first assignments on my first internship at the Knoxville News-Sentinel was to cover the first practice for the freshmen at UT.

    I wrote a nice little color feature on the players and how they felt about beginning their college careers, being on the field at Neyland Stadium, etc.

    Next day, got all these calls... How was Smith's knee? How did Jones look? Was Evans working out at defensive end or tackle?

    Moral if the story: How to cover practice depends entirely on whose practice it is. You know your audience better than us (hopefully).
     
  4. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    I just recently went to the local college's first couple of practices. (Once to shoot, once to shoot & find a feature).

    I chose to do a feature on what training camp means to different members of the team. Talked to the head coach (He was an assistant last year, asked if he felt his role was different this year), talked to the Strength & Conditioning coach (Asked what camp meant to her, how close she was watching for injuries), talked to the running back coming back from a season-ending leg injury, talked to veteran wide receiver to see if he's just counting down the days to the opener and talked to the returning TE who is suddenly in a position battle.

    The moral of the story is, talk to as many people as possible. When I came up with the idea of the feature, I didn't know where it was going to take me and talking to five different people gave me five different stories and made the feature (somewhat) enjoyable.
     
  5. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Not for much longer, from what I read and heard in the last 24 hours.

    :)

    I did read one account that said it will be the first time the program has closed entire practices to the media in about 10 years, but that's not true. The current coach kept the media out of practices for roughly the second half of the 2006 season.


    By the way, I found the thread I mentioned earlier. It wasn't as old as I'd thought.

    http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/68668/
     
  6. Den1983

    Den1983 Active Member

    How'd it go, Shifty? I'm interested to see what approach you took and how things turned out for ya.
     
  7. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    Wear shorts, of course.
     
  8. Del_B_Vista

    Del_B_Vista Active Member

    Always, always, always take roll, as mentioned earlier. Always. I know the board likes to bash Peter King, but I'm not doing this to bash him, only to point out the importance of taking roll. You know who was the pool reporter for Raiders practices for Super Bowl? King, and he missed Barret Robbins missing practice. I can only assume he didn't take roll.

    Always take roll.
     
  9. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    I'd be happy if they just closed practice, both from a practical standpoint -- I feel like a yo-yo during camp. Go to morning practice. Leave. Go to player availability. Leave. Go to afternoon practice. Leave. Go to coach availability...yada, yada, yada.
    Close practice and simplify it with coach's availabilty and player availability in the same trip (Like coach from 12:15-12:30 and players from 12:30-1 p.m.).
     
  10. Shifty Squid

    Shifty Squid Member

    How would you go about taking role, especially if you're not the normal beat guy? Seems like it could be tough to recognize if someone's missing if you aren't especially familiar with their faces, etc. Might be able to cross-check numbers, but will that even necessarily work with practice jerseys? Also, it looks like only the first 15 minutes are open to the media, so that's what I'll get.

    Den1983 - Thanks for asking. The practice is actually today, so I haven't done it yet. I feel pretty good about it, but it's always better to prepare as best you can when doing something new, I think. And this thread has definitely been helpful.
     
  11. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Copy and paste a roster off the official site, then manually separate guys by position groups. Then just go position-by-position and check guys off. If distance is a factor, take a pair of binoculars. If you don't recognize the guys on the team by face/body type, learn them.

    And most teams will have the guys in their game numbers for practice. It helps the coaches identify them as well, both during practice and in film review.
     
  12. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    Fuck yeah.
     
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