Cherubs watch a game and run with it Lessons in sportswriting come from different outlets in the 2007 journalism cherubs program Alexandra Wildenhaus, a cherub from Ottawa, Ohio, realized she liked talking about sports at the age of eight. Wildenhaus and her father would sit on their family couch and cheer on the Cleveland Indians. Her father watched the game intensely and Wildenhaus mirrored his actions. When something good happened, her dad would jump up and she would follow right behind him. They would high five and then sit back down, waiting for the chance to jump up and cheer again. From watching baseball games with her dad, Wildenhaus realized she wanted to be a sports broadcaster. “The broadcasters would say things like ‘full count on Rodriguez’ and I would repeat it, even though I didn’t know what ‘full count’ meant,” Wildenhaus said. Wildenhaus came to NHSI aspiring to be a sports broadcaster. When she had the opportunity to learn more about sports writing, she was excited. “I want to be a sports reporter down on the field," Wildenhaus said. "I hope to interview players and give play-by plays." Wildenhaus and 18 other cherubs took part in a sportswriting workshop led by instructor Victor Chi, who as a reporter has covered everything from high school volleyball to the Super Bowl. In the workshop, the students had to write a story about a hockey game that was still in progress. Chi showed the group a DVD of the last five minutes of a hockey game that went into over-time. The students wrote a story as the action was happening, changing it as the game unfolded all while meeting their deadline. Chi said he chose to have the cherubs write a running game story because in sports writing, a lot of events happen at night and the reporters are always working late trying to get the story in the next day’s paper. “If you get into sports writing, a running story is something you have to know how to do,” Chi said. Katie Tang, a cherub from Buffalo, N.Y., liked writing the running-game story. “Victor taught us how to write about game endings that are unpredictable,” she said. The cherubs were also given the chance to talk about sports when Mike Wilbon, Washington Post sports columnist and a host for ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” came to talk to the group. Danny Daly, a cherub from Potomac, Md., enjoyed hearing Wilbon speak. He said he liked hearing from someone who wrote and talked about sports for a living. “It was cool hearing someone else’s perspective,” Daly said. “He showed us the multimedia aspect of journalism because he is on television and a writer too.” Daly also took part in the sports writing workshop with Chi. He said he wants to become a sports writer if he goes into journalism in the future. He said he thought the workshop and the program helped his sports writing. “Learning how to be concise about my writing has helped me become a better writer all around, especially with sports,” Daly said. Wildenhaus said she still wants to go into sports journalism in the future. She said she thought the sportswriting workshop helped her improve as a sports writer. “I've become more well rounded,” Wildenhaus said. “I knew a lot about football, basketball and baseball. But because of Victor’s workshop, I could write about a hockey game now.” |
Cherub Eryn Rogers poses with ESPN host Mike Wilbon. |
