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!

Tips for reporting on high school athletics

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by newinthefield, Jul 14, 2010.

  1. BillyT

    BillyT Active Member

    There's not much left to recommend.

    This is great stuff.

    Someone mentioned the pre-research part.

    I think that beyond records, you need to go into a game knowing what each team played last week and how it did and who it plays next week (I am in football mode here). Also know last year's results or if there's a seriously rivalry.

    If it's a playoff or tournament game, know who is playing in the game that will decide who the winner of your game plays. That's vital for the story. If it's at the same time, make a pre-contact with a sports writer covering that game or have someone at your office chase it.
     
  2. CR19

    CR19 Member

    Also read newspapers on neighboring schools routinely. You'll have an idea on both teams when they face each other in a game rather than scrambling at the last minute. Your perspective on the game will also be of greater value.
     
  3. JoJo

    JoJo Member

    For those interested, here are the tips in this thread condensed into a helpful list:

    Tips for the high school beat

    General information:

    * You're a young guy. Don't be afraid to use that to your advantage (in a non-sleazy way). Go to baseball practice and, if the team is just taking batting practice on a slow day, bring your glove and shag some flies in the outfield. Take a round of BP if they'll let you. Show up 30 minutes before basketball practice starts and shoot around with a few of the guys while you chit-chat. High schools are fun to cover because they're much more accessible than college or the pros. There's times you can go sit down with a coach and just shoot the shit for 30 or 40 minutes, or even take part in practice. That stuff pays off big-time later on. Reporting, especially on this level, is all about letting people get to know you and vice versa. If players and coaches see you're not a pretentious dude who only shows up to ferret out a story they'll be more likely to open up when you ARE trying to ferret out a story.

    * Basically, put down the notebook and talk to people. Especially when you're starting in a new job, don't be afraid to spend a few hours a week just being a fly on the wall. Not everything you see and hear has to be a story right now. A lot of high schoolers play more than one sport. You might hear a nugget about a backup on the football team, then use it six months later for a feature when he has a breakout season in baseball.

    * Get to know parents as well as players and coaches. On an individual level they'll often know more -- and tell more -- about what's going on with some of the players than coaches do. Or, at least, they're more willing to tip you off about it even if they don't realize they're doing it. People love to talk about their kids, especially if they're helicopter parents. It might mean getting trapped in a boring 30-minute, one-sided conversation from time to time, but you can pick up a lot once you learn to separate the bullshit from the important stuff.

    * If you end up just covering a couple of schools be sure to go out and talk to head coaches during the school. Just let them get to know you. You'd be surprised how much that helps you. If they know you and you have a working relationship with them sometimes they will give you information others don't get. Also they will talk to you more candidly. Plus head coaches become good sources when other things happen at a school, like another coach getting fired. Even another coach at another school in the district. One more good person to make friends with is the head trainer and the main secretary. It's amazing how much secretaries know. I guess this is really basic stuff.

    * Don't try to make a name for yourself being "Mr. Journalist" right out of the school with your scalding pen. You're a sports writer. Enjoy it.



    Before games:

    * Keep stocked up on equipment. Handy equipment to have: extra pens, extra pencils, extra notebooks, a cheap calculator, a cheap fold-up umbrella/poncho and cheap pair of fold-up binoculars.

    * Call the athletic director a couple days ahead of time to say you're coming. Especially in football, call both schools and get rosters faxed/e-mailed ahead of time.

    * Know where you're going. Don't just get an address and plug it into your GPS or Google Maps.

    * Eat before you go. You don't want to wait in line at halftime to get a hot dog. You'll need that time to get your notes straight.

    * Scout out a place with Wi-Fi to send from beforehand.

    * Make sure you pee before the kickoff/tipoff/faceoff.

    * I also like to get to the stadium early to stake out a seat in the press box. Get there early and you don't have to worry about a seat or an electrical outlet.

    * Before the game, introduce yourself to both coaches. Ask if you can speak with them after the game, and if you can speak to a couple kids.

    * Get there early, talk to people (not just players and coaches), make sure you have rosters, ask about number changes, take multiple pens (the four-color ones are great) as well as a mechanical pencil should the pens freeze/dry up, bring a big plastic bag to cover your clipboard or notebook if it rains or snows, know your deadline and approximate length (if available) before you leave the office, and don't miss deadline.

    * Get rosters on your own. Don’t rely on Maxpreps. Maxpreps is a secondary source for this info. Kids will always forget their uniform and may be wearing a different number one night. In the playoffs, coaches will call up kids from JV by the dozen.

    * If you're shooting a game as well, take a snapshot of the scorebook or lineup card to be safe. It's only a small file that you're gonna delete anyway eventually, so unless you have a ridiculously small memory card, it's a good safety valve.



    During games:

    * Always, always, ALWAYS keep your own stats. You can doublecheck with the kid or parent doing it for the team if you're not sure, but most of them are pretty clueless.

    * Learn to take play-by-play and keep stats and practice it.

    * Think long and hard about how you want to keep your stats and notes. It can take a while, but you'll develop your own stat and note-taking systems. Some people like to use printed stat forms, others, like me, have found convenient ways to break up notebook pages. Either way, you need to develop something you can read quickly and accurately without ever wondering, "What the hell happened here?"

    * Pay enough attention that you're confident in your own stats. Don’t pull all our trust in high school stadium announcers.

    * High schools are a lot harder than colleges. You're not getting stats sheets, quote sheets, pre-arranged interviews and a press room. You've got to keep it together.

    * For football and basketball, add your stats up at halftime. Makes things easier after the game, when you might have less than an hour to get quotes, add everything up, find a place to write, come up with a coherent lead and story, and then put it all together.

    * If it's football, walk the visiting sidelines if it's not raining or too cold to write. You'll capture the emotions of the game. Why the visitors' sideline? So you're close to the chains. Plus, conversations with the chain gang usually are pretty interesting. If it's raining or too cold, sit in the press box (remember to make arrangements, especially if it's the postseason and the state association's rules are tighter).

    * In basketball/volleyball, sit near or at the scorer's table. You can hear what's going on with both benches, and when the basketball refs come over to signal fouls, check on timeouts, etc., you know exactly what's happening.



    After games/writing the story:

    * Don't try to be fancy at first. Keep it straight.

    * Don't write in chronological order. No one wants to read that play by play. Hit the highlights.

    * The story shouldn't be about play-by-play. Yes, there obviously will be some in your story, but the focus should really be on things like a player's reaction to the big play or how this affects the league standings or how the kids enjoy the rivalry (if it's a rivalry game) - something along those lines. There are storylines in every game, even preps. Find them beforehand.

    * While whatever game's coming to an end, make some quick notes of questions you'd like to ask the coaches and players (if any) that will help form your story so that when the time comes minutes later, you're ready to rock.

    * In football, grab the players/coaches quickly after the game, especially if they are on the road. They may just get on the bus and go.

    * Make sure the guy you quote as the coach is really the head coach. Don't know how many times that stringers have interviewed an assistant they assumed was the head coach but never asked.

    * For football, try to grab whatever players you need before they hit the postgame huddle -- especially if it's the road team. Like Ace said, a lot of teams hit the bus and go. One of our local schools, whenever we cover them on the road I'm usually talking to the coach as he's walking to the bus -- about five minutes after the final whistle.

    * Talk to the visiting coach/players first after the game since they've got to get on a bus and the other coach/players aren't in such a hurry.

    * Be quick to get quotes. Because so many teams are out of the county with 10 minutes of the final whistle, know who you need to talk to, know what you're going to ask and be efficient about it. If you're waiting outside a locker room, you don't hear a coach yelling and it just feels like you've been standing there a little too long, look for a the locker room's back door and then the team's bus because that's where they probably are.

    * If a team or player sucks, don't say that. Don't sugarcoat it, but don't emphasize the negative. The kids are just that - kids. These aren't full-time coaches, either. They're people who care about kids and care about the game. They're certainly not in it for the cash.

    * A good rule of thumb on how to write a kid who makes a bad play: you have to write the truth, but you also don't want to send the kid to a psychologist.
     
  4. CR19

    CR19 Member

    A perfect recap on all of the tips.
     
  5. CA_journo

    CA_journo Member

    Something else I've picked up... if you don't have to shoot photos, it's fairly easy to rig up an automatic-counting statbook with Microsoft Excel. I had a system set up where it would add the yardage as I went. I'd keep a notebook by my side to write about scoring plays or anything else I want to remember that's not really fit for a spreadsheet. I'm not sure if anyone else has done this, but it has worked really well for me.
     
  6. EagleMorph

    EagleMorph Member

    I do a variation for football. I do a play-by-play in Word, and during stoppages in play, I tally the latest chunk in an Excel spreadsheet that functions as a stat sheet.

    Saves me a ton of time at the end, and if something comes out wrong, I can double check with my play-by-play.

    Basketball's different - I keep a scoresheet for the basic stats, but just have notes on certain plays/streaks/observations rather than a full play-by-play.
     
  7. hackcrack

    hackcrack Member

    For stats, I use a pen and a spiral notebook, left page first half, right page second half. Pretend the page is folded in half. One side is Team A, the other B. Top two-thirds of the entire page is play by play with the individual stat counts across the lower third. As long as you cross-check (don't put a second-down carry by No. 8 for 12 yards on the play by play but leave it off the running individual counts) and can read your own scribbling, it works. Team glance and scoring plays goes on my laptop and I update the penalties yards, punts and fumbles as I go on that. First downs are marked on the play by play by a star. I update those at the half.

    I would never go to forms even though I've seen some impressive ones. I've done this so long it's about muscle memory.
     
  8. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    Know both teams' records, overall and in league play, going in (and verify them with coaches in pre-game talks), and write them down somewhere, so that you don't have to remember to check on that afterward when you'll have enough other information to gather.

    Then, adjust them accordingly depending on the outcome.

    This is an important little fact that should be in every story but also one that's easy to overlook or forget to check if you don't make it a habit.

    Records may also change occasionally without your knowledge if teams forfeit or gain victories as a result of late-week ineligibility rulings or some such thing that may not have been released or reflected in any standings yet.
     
  9. newinthefield

    newinthefield Member

    First off, once again thanks to everyone who has contributed. I will feel 100 times more comfortable the first time I go to cover a high school game now.

    In response to the Excel idea, I just wanted to mention that if you are unfamiliar with how the program works, simply type what you want to know into Google, and you will know what you are doing in less than five minutes. I have some extensive personal research on Excel that I started when I had no clue how to put a formula into the program. Now, I run it with ease. There's a lot to learn but don't be intimidated by it.
     
  10. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Over/under on how many days another thread like this shows up.
     
  11. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I'm gonna start a "Are shorts and sandals OK to wear to work?" thread first.
     
  12. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    One thing I forgot: Carry a clipboard. If you are keeping stats, that will be 1 or 2 sheets and you'll probably have a legal pad for play-by-play/running/interviews.

    A clipboard helps keep them organized and keeps them from falling. It's essential if you walk the sidelines and nice even if you use the pressbox because it will come in handy to help write down quotes.

    Plus you can use it as a weapon, a dinner plate and a rain shield.

    I never went to a prep game without one, though I never carried one at a college or pro game.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page