When a feature story turns very serious

If I say yes are you going to ask me for the secret password or secret handshake?

 

nope. just pee on your leg.

 

Sorry guys, not done yet. My deadline is Tuesday, but it's a flexible one.

They want to run it on Sunday (as in next Sunday). I have a photographer that has been there every step of the way with me, so we have a ton of photos that we are going to turn into a pretty nice spread. She was even in the room when they pulled the respirator and let him pass away. I mean, it was unbelievable, powerful, tragic stuff. I finally got to see some of the photos and I couldn't hold back the tears.

Yesterday, the coach's team, and the opposing team, held a pre-game ceremony to honor his dead son. They put up a little jersey on the right field fence with the kid's name on it, spray painted his initials in foul territory, stitched his initials in their hats. I mean, wow. There wasn't a dry eye in the place.

I'm pretty much spending the whole weekend working on this and getting it done. I'll post it in the writers' workshop before it goes to print. This is probably the biggest story of my career, so I want as many people to edit it as possible.

Thanks for the interest guys. Seriously, everyone's advice has been great through this. It really changed and improved my approach to this.

 

putting aside that you never wish tragedy on anyone, every journalist should get to write a story like this.

when i was a sports writer i wrote a story about a high school football player who collapsed and died during a game. i was uncomfortable and afraid it would be assigned to me. i was dreading it.

anyway, they assigned the story to me. so yada yada yada, less than 24 hours after the kid died, i find myself sitting in the kid's tiny bedroom, with his dirty laundry still on the floor, textbooks piled on his desk, posters still on the wall. his dad an i sat on the kid's bed and talked about him. at that moment he and junior had been scheduled to be at a local county fair grilling at the jaycees (or lions club or something) booth. when his dad, this huge tough guy who was a machinist, started bawling, i almost lost it.

 

It's the responses you get to a story like this that makes you feel as though you are doing something more than just reporting the scores.

 

Jesus ...

Ty, I've been covering crime and courts for more than a decade, seen a lot of shameless and tragic shit, but I can't think of anything I've been through first-hand that compares with that. Having a kid of my own, I'm not sure I could have lasted through this.

Seriously, good luck with this story.

 

Wrote a high school football preview piece on a kid who was about to break his brother's school rushing record. Brother dies in drunk driving car accident in the early hours of the morning the story was published.

 

Ok everyone, the first, rough draft of this story is done and is posted in the Writer's Workshop under "Coach's preemie story."

I've already seen a few places I want to work on, but please don't hold anything back. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty determined to make this a story that the family will be proud of.

Thanks to everyone who has given me some advice on this one. It has really helped me get through a very heavy assignment. The advice I've gotten and the interest in my story I've seen here are the reasons I love this site.

 

Ty,
I saw you're signed on to another thread right now and wanted to ask to hear another update on your coaches' preemie story. Did you get the story done, re-edited and finished, particularly in a way that leaves you satisfied and happy? Is it still scheduled to run Sunday?

Also, was curious how the edits went after you considered, used and discarded some of our suggestions, ideas and questions? And what version you ended up with that will be used.

Did you get any feedback from your own editors in your office about the story?

I know you worked hard. I hope it went well, and that you're pleased with the final product, or soon will be.

 

I had only briefly glanced at this thread, so I didn't think about it when I read the story a little while ago. Fine work, sir. And give props to your photographer as well. The image of the little guy looking up at his dad is simply beautiful, in a heartbreaking way.

 

Posted this over on the writer's workshop page...thought I'd post it here too for those that hadn't ventured over there...

I doubt the writer of this great story will mind this, since he mentioned not minding the outing...

Here's the link to the final product on the Web site. Be prepared for tears.

http://onlineathens.com/stories/050408/news_2008050400179.shtml

 

My gosh. The ad embedded in the story, when I first loaded it, was for some sort of Athens health care facility for children.

A little too targeted right there.