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What it's like being a sportswriter

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 3:28 pm
by Ed Dantes
This guy NAILS it.
So I'm sitting in my lovely hotel room in Southeastern Indiana tonight and suddenly I realize I just wasted two days of my life. Those two days were spent covering the opening round of the riveting 2A sectional round of the girls state basketball tournament. I drove nearly two and a half hours, checked in to the local Holiday Inn Express and covered two games in two days for the newspaper I work for. It's late Wednesday night, I'm done with the work I have to do here and have to checkout by noon tomorrow so I can race back home to cover a boys game. Tomorrow my assignment is to make the match up of an 8-8 team and a 4-13 team sound interesting.

Yes, this is my life.
http://sportsyenta.blogspot.com/2008/02/on-road.html

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 4:09 pm
by LUconn
Stop whining. I'd like to see this guy sit at my desk for a week.

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 4:32 pm
by bigsmooth
waaaaah.......give me a break!

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 5:07 pm
by hype22
o darn, I get paid to watch sports. I'm a communications major with a sports journalism focus who fully expects the start of my career to be very similar to that.

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 8:44 pm
by Ed Dantes
hype22 wrote:o darn, I get paid to watch sports. I'm a communications major with a sports journalism focus who fully expects the start of my career to be very similar to that.
Read the whole article...

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 9:02 pm
by RubberMallet
it was womens basketball....i understand...

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 10:39 pm
by Sly Fox
Worse, Mallet ... small town Girls basketball.

The great thing about being in television is that I don't have to sit through entire games. I get my highlights and then move onto the next one and wait for the coach to call with the final.

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 11:24 pm
by Cider Jim
I get my highlights and then move onto the next one and wait for the coach to call with the final.
Sly, that's exactly how it worked for the guy taping our Quiz Bowl tournament on Saturday: he came, he shot some footage, and then he left before the champion was determined. But come Monday morning for "90 Seconds at Liberty," he had a film clip of LU's team and declared us as BSC champions.

Posted: February 7th, 2008, 11:56 pm
by Sly Fox
That's our secondary coverage in a nutshell.

Posted: February 8th, 2008, 12:09 am
by whmatthews
How bout he be a recent college grad who can't find a full-time job, working at a paint warehouse busting your tale on grunt work for 8 bucks an hour.

If I had the chance to be a sports-writer, I'd jump all over it.... anyone got any contacts or connections for me?

Posted: February 8th, 2008, 12:22 am
by Sly Fox
Just be prepared to be dreaming of $8/hr jobs once you start. :wink:

It is all about living the dream despite the sacrifices when you first are starting out.

Posted: February 8th, 2008, 1:30 am
by Hold My Own
I bet he wont have a job much longer....

Posted: February 8th, 2008, 8:20 am
by Cider Jim
Hold My Own wrote:I bet he wont have a job much longer....
Warehouse managers don't take off for spelling, HMO.
working at a paint warehouse busting your tale on grunt work for 8 bucks an hour.

Posted: February 8th, 2008, 12:18 pm
by kel varson
I did the sport writing thing for three summers as stringer in Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Interviewing for jobs after graduation I realized I would barely be making a living wage. Working late into the night trying to beat deadlines (at least w/ news writing you can get some work done during the day light hours.) was not something I really enjoyed. (at least where baseball was concerned). I continued to interview but when another opportunity came up (outside the newspaper biz) I took it). I have not regretted it. One thing I did like was writing feature articles, that weren't so deadline oriented.

Its not that I don't love sports, and maybe had my health been better I could have hacked the crazy hours, but what this guy writes is largely true. Now, if you are the sports editor, at a small town paper, you can pick and choose what you cover. That would probably be a little better, but covering Valley League Baseball is the pits.