SPORTS
WRITING
“Sports do not build character.
They reveal it.”
-Heywood Hale Broun
How much do you know?
• If you are playing in one of the four Majors, what
sport are you playing?
• As a guppie, if you used a lift bag after blowing
bubbles, what sport would you be participating
in?
• If you are riding goofy, what sport are you
participating in?
• If people call you a Grommet, what are you?
• If you try to open up the passing lanes, what
sport are you playing?
• If you hit a chester, what sport are you playing?
The Answers
•
•
•
•
•
•
Golf
SCUBA diving
Snowboarding
Young Surfer
Football
Volleyball
Be Prepared
• Most people believe sports reporting is easy
because they have watched/played sports all their
lives.
• There is more to preparation than immersing
yourself in sports. You need the following:
– Psychology – competition pushes people to their
limits, bringing out their best and worst
– Sociology and history – sports has played a major
role in struggles for gender and racial equality
– Economics – sports, professional and amateur, is big
business
– Math – fans want to know player and team statistics
Be Prepared continued…
• Specific sport
– Know the rules, various strategies (and
reasons behind them)
– Get to know coaches and players
– Go to practice sessions as well as games
– Read other sports pages, watch sports on
television, participate in sports
– Once you have an understanding of the
sport and team, begin planning your
coverage.
The Pre-game Story
• Gather information
– Your coach
– Opposing team’s
coach
– Opposing team’s
sports editor
• Pre-game story content
– Time, date and place of
game
– Last year’s score
– Team’s physical condition
– Starting Lineups
– Comparison of records
– Styles of play
– Significance of game
– Analysis of individual
players
– Historical background of
rivalry
– Weather outlook
The Pre-Game Story
• You can also help present and future
staffs by compiling your school’s sports
history.
• Pre-Game coverage should also not
overlook related spirit activities: the
band’s halftime show, new
cheerleaders, pep assemblies, etc.
Game Story
• Develop a system of note-taking
– Recording play-by-play
– Recording statistics
• Watch for turning points in the game
– Fumble that sets up touchdown
– Bench player who leads the team
– Shift in defense that shuts down the other
team
Game Story
• You cannot be a cheerleader while you
are reporting.
• You can be partisan (rooting for a
specific team) but you can’t let that
interfere with the job of reporting.
• As a student reporter, be sure that if the
professional press has covered the
story, you find a new angle.
Interviewing for Game Story
• Be prepared to ask intelligent questions
– Don’t ask questions that point out the obvious (turning
point in game – interception for touchdown with 30
sec. left)
• Be aware of temperament of coach
– Don’t ask questions that will make coach mad/upset at
beginning of interview, but don’t throw out all ‘softball’
questions
• Have questions prepared – but be flexible
– Jot down notes and have questions prepared, but if
interviewee leads you in a direction, take it.
Following the game, continued
• Be observant
– Observing what goes on in the locker room (crying,
laughing, bewilderment) is just as valuable as interviews
• Check with trainer
– Check status of injured players
• Remember to talk with assistant coaches and non-star
players
– Have significant observations you might not have seen or
realized
• Phrase questions carefully
– Open-ended – gives coach room to maneuver and an
opportunity to give a lengthy response
– Close-ended – Only get one-word answers
Post-game story
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sports feature
Sideline story
Background story
Sports interview
Locker-room story
Can include the following:
– Spectator's actions during
the game
– Historical features on a
sport or rivalry
– Wrap-ups of the season
– Discussion of rule changes
• Untangle confusing events
that occurred during a game
• Update readers on scoring
records and individual
statistics
• New team standings,
awards earned because of
performance in game
Sports Leads that work
• Summary (AP)
– 5 W’s and H
• Narrative
– Appropriate on features
– Paints a scene
• The rusting wire fences
and crumbling graffiti
walls mark its entrance.
The faded lines of paint
on the dark asphalt
draw its inner boundary.
In its purest form, the
game of basketball
belongs to the city.
• Descriptive
– Usually run longer,
immediately thrust
readers into the action
• When Roger Clemens
toes the mound, you
can’t take your eyes off
him. Standing erect, he
exhales deeply as his
empty right hand falls
politely to his side. Like
a chubby-cheeked
choirboy lifting an open
hymnal, he raises the
black Wilson mitt on his
left hand to a resting
place in front of his
solemn face.
Sports Leads continued
•
Contrast or Comparison
– Effective in stories that establish a
relationship between “close to
home and far from home” and “that
is how it was and this is how it is”
angles
• Almost three years ago, the
Atlanta Hawks were looking for
a center whom they hoped
would make the big shots and
big plays for them. So they
signed Moses Malone after
deciding that Bill Cartwright,
whom the Knicks were offering,
was no more than a secondstring center who had about
two years left in him. But
Friday, with Malone watching
from the bench, where he was
for most of the night,
Cartwright hit the big shot for
the Bulls, that enabled them to
defeat the Hawks 99-96.
•
Background
– Used when the background to a
significant story is nearly as
noteworthy as the new
development itself.
• They had lost an NCAA-record
34 straight games. They were
1,106 days removed from their
last victory. Each loss, the
players said, put another
monkey on their back.
Northwestern’s football team
was living on the Planet of the
Apes.
Sports Leads continued
• Staccato
– Giving information in
short, rapid-fire bursts
• Bodies ache. Adrenalin
flows. Mouths thirst.
Breathing is hard.
Sweat is dripping.
Players count the days.
Fourteen to go.
State University opened
fall football camp today
with 33 lettermen
reporting.
• Literary
– Sometimes
circumstances in sports
will parallel a literary title
or reference
• The USC running back
situation now reads like
the plot from Agatha
Christie’s mystery
novel, “Ten Little
Indians,” also titled
“And Then There Were
None.”
Sports Clichés
• Sports fans want stories they read to reflect the
tension, color, excitement, joy, or sorrow of the
game.
• Writers often relay this by overusing clichés and
slang.
• Don’t sway from good English!!!
• Sports writers need figures of speech, but they
should be bright and inventive:
– (Good) The USC varsity hits the field like a broken ketchup
bottle. They’re not a team; they’re a horde. You can’t beat
them; you must dismember them.
– (Bad) The Centerville High School Tigers clawed their way
to the Intercity League football championship Friday with a
14-0 shellacking of the Anytown Cougars – who played
more like kittens.
Sports Features
• It’s hard for scholastic publications to compete in
timeliness with daily newspapers, so most sports are
featurized because the outcomes are already known.
• Finding feature ideas
– Look for the losers – losing may not build character, but it
certainly bares character
– Look for benchwarmers – player who has spent four years
practicing but never gets in the game, you might find people
who both love their sport and understand it more than the
stars do, you will find more humanity
– Look beyond the crowds – Title IX
Sports Features continued
• Minor sports/participant sports (noncompetitive) are largely untapped sources of
good stories.
– More people watch birds than play football, more
hunt or fish than play basketball, and more watch
stock-car races than track meets
• These sports, if covered, are usually by
newest or least talented reporter…
– Get out of the press box!!!
– Drop by bowling alley, skeet-shooting range,
Frisbee-throwing tournament…. Find stories
there, and maybe some of the athletes you are
already covering.
Sports Features Activity
• With your group, examine the piece of
information provided.
• Brainstorm at least 3 feature ideas from
the information.
• Be prepared to share with the class.
BE CREATIVE!!!
In-Class ASSIGNMENT
• Using the 3 sports stories from newspapers,
magazines and credible online sources.
– Identify what type of story it is (pre-,post-, feature,
etc.)
– Identify what type of lead is used
– Identify any clichés used
– Pick ONE story, rewrite the first four paragraphs
to create another possible lead, using factual
information in the article.