As I polished off my thesis in between gulps of my local brew of the week, I found an opportunity to break from line edits and sprung rhythm to reflect about my time as an editor and writer for The Cavalier Daily. No, I’m not going to get sentimental, because that’s not my style; but I would like to discuss some pros and cons of being a young sportswriter.
A nose for facts: I thought I had a handle on sports before I came to college, but covering sports gave me a look at the range of fans and athletes. It doesn’t help my fantasy baseball team that I know, offhand, the names, positions and years of some of the most invisible athletes in college athletics, but at least I’ve begun to forget the lyrics to those mediocre alt-rock songs I learned on the bus to school. And this “skill” makes me feel like if there’s some fact hidden away on the Internet, I can find it, and without searching on Google.
Sideline interviews: I always enjoyed walking down onto the pitch at Klöckner Stadium, but because I imagined the way the lights held the night back was the same as the view from Ray Constanza’s ball field at the end of “Field of Dreams.”
Some reporters relish the thrill of covering upsets and championships, but for me, there’s much more to the season (Yes, I never covered basketball or football, and thankfully). For instance, I had the pleasure of interviewing a high school teammate who now pitches for Virginia. Even though the game lacked drama, I wrote an article about someone I knew, and I relished the opportunity to cover his first collegiate victory.
Picking up the paper the days your article has been published: This can be as satisfying as chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. Other days, the article just doesn’t read as well on the page, as if you were drunk when you wrote it. These best of days come when you see someone reading your article on a bench, or a friend sends a quick e-mail or text wondering just how you decided it was a good idea to try and rewrite “The Waste Land” as a sports column? I think seeing my work out in the world gives me more pleasure than writing it because the hope is that you will inspire someone to keep playing.
Coaches who love to talk: Even though coaches may take a backseat to players when it comes to being overt publicity, they make their way into more articles because coaches understand the game better and probably affect a game’s result more. And, from a reporter’s perspective, where some athletes can be terse and inarticulate from a lack of experience at times, coaches generally will say what’s on their minds, and in no uncertain terms.
Now, whereas some coaches can talk and talk without saying anything of substance (as I found out late one Tuesday morning last fall), others like wrestling coach Steve Garland have the gift of gab. I wrestled for two years in high school, and interviewing Garland twice a week for a semester almost made me want to wrestle again. Well, not really, but I usually listened to about 20 minutes of tape for each article, and I swear the guy only took two breaths the whole time.
Actually finding a story worth reporting: Yes, I know how recycled our coverage can become. To brag about something utterly worthless, unless you read every single Cavalier Daily sports story during the last three semesters, I read more (not exactly a feat to write home about, but I do know good sports writing when I see it now). And when a story does come along worth our ink and your time, probably not listening in class, the competition for the story gets dirty quick. I’m talking “Anchorman”-type throwdowns, and yes, Ben Stiller does show up, even though we ask him not to. So, if you come across something creepy or mischievous, give us call. We’re probably just sitting the basement of Newcomb, watching “PTI,” thinking, if only that could be me...
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