Graduation

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/05/28/rock-bridge-girls-soccer-season-ends-double-overtime/

This was my final story on Rock Bridge girls soccer.  It was challenging to come up with 4 stories about the team. I can’t imagine doing it for an entire season.  Although, even in the short week that I covered that team, I really felt like I got to know the girls personalities. These girls were clearly the better team and had the opportunity to win in on a penalty kick with 29 seconds left in the game.  The interesting thing about penalty kicks is that the pressure lies on one girl.  In this case, it was a junior named Carmen.  She missed the penalty shot and her team went on to lose in double overtime.

Losing is always bad, but in double overtime just makes the pain worse. It was the seniors last game ever for their high school and many of them had played varsity for three years.  They turned the soccer program around.  They won three straight District titles, but never made it past the final four.  With a strong senior class, this was their year.  As the ball crept past their goalkeeper, tears went streaming down all the girls faces, not just the seniors.  Then, I had to approach them.  It was clear I was the last person in the world they wanted to speak with at that moment.  Obviously I was going to ask them about the game they just wanted to forget about as soon as possible. I was determined to speak to some of them.  I started with Carmen and asked what went through her mind as soon as she missed the penalty kick.  Tears went streaming down her face.  She could barely get the words out at one point.  I felt like I asked the wrong question at the wrong time, but I needed to put it out there.  I needed to try and get my story.  It was so hard to stand there and watch her cry.  I wanted more than anything to tell her just to forget it and we can talk about this later or never.  I’ve been in their situation.  A horrible loss, seems like the worse thing in the world at the time.  Often you just want to be alone.  It took a lot for me to convince myself that I need to approach these girls instead of giving them the space I believe they deserved.  No one turned me down when I asked to speak with them.  This taught me a lot.  Even though I really didn’t want to approach any of them, once I did, despite their state, they were still willing to speak with me.

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http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/05/26/rock-bridge-girls-soccer-super-fans-aid-team-moral/

Heading to yet another girls soccer practice with no clue on what my story, that needs to be done in a couple of hours, will be on is completely frightening to me.  I am not so sure that I will get over that feeling.  When I need to make a story from photos, I feel like a good photograph lends itself to a story.  I am having a hard time coming up with a story on the same group of people.  Luckily with the game Saturday, it will give me a chance to include some results.  I hope to gain more confidence going into situations knowing that I will come out with a story.  I know everyone has a story, I just need to work and approaching those people and asking the right questions.

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Double, triple check everything

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/05/25/rock-bridge-girls-soccer-take-glendale-saturday/

I thought this would be a simple fast brief on the upcoming girls soccer game.  I had found the time and place on two websites and called the school to confirm this.  Then, right before I was ready to send in my brief and I decided to double check my details.  Within the half hour I hung up with the school to write my brief, the time had been changed for the game.  Facts can never be checked too many times.

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Not an average sports day: off to Sedalia

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/05/25/sedalia-tornado-leaves-homes-destroyed-some-injured/

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/05/25/photo-gallery-tornado-causes-damage-sedalia/

When I woke up yesterday, I had a day plan.  I was going to write a soccer brief, go to soccer practice, get a story angle for my article for Friday’s paper.  All basic sports stuff.  Until a tornado touchdown in Sedalia, Mo.  My father texted me wanting to know everything about the weather as you could imagine his concern.  I reassured him that I was safe in the newsroom basement with the rest of the reporting staff.  He instructed me to stay inside and be safe.  Shortly after I was on my way to the site where the storm had touched down.  (Obviously didn’t inform my parents of this until after the fact.)

This was the most surreal experience of my life.  Seeing photos and hearing the stories in no way could replace seeing it first hand and even begin to do this catastrophe justice.  I learned so much from the experience.  I may have hesitated at the idea of heading to a damaged town and speaking with people whose homes haven’t even been destroyed for even 24 hours.  The emotions were all fresh.  We were trying to catch a press conference at 4 p.m.  The entire ride to Sedalia was filled with mixed feelings.  We had no clue what we would be approaching  or where to go.  No editor could have possibly prepared or guided us through this story.  It was completely up to us to decide where to take this story.

After the second press conference I was so ready to head home.  It was almost 6:30 p.m.  I hadn’t eaten since 9 a.m. and I had to pee for the past four hours.  We didn’t quit there and luckily.  We went back into Brentwood where the tornado had touched down.  This one decision was the reason we found our lead.  We climbed over fences through people’s backyards, little streams and muddy fields to reach families clearing out the remains of their homes.  Stumbling upon the bus barn made the reality of the tornado damage seem so real.

Having the courage to speak with these people’s whose homes are now inhabitable was key to succeeding.  One of my favorite moments is when we hopped this family’s fence in their backyard and they were all standing in their kitchen where the roof had been blown off watching us do this.  Once we made it to their now outdoor kitchen, we overheard some great conversations.  They were all just hanging out and drinking beers like a tornado didn’t just hours earlier destroy their house.  The husbands wife was pregnant with a baby that was due any day and they now didn’t have a home to raise their first baby.  One of their friends walked over to the garbage to throw his empty beer can away and someone goes, “the kitchen looks like this and you throw a beer can in the garbage.”  The wife also made a point to inform her husband not to worry because she had saved the beef jerky.

These stories would have not been the same had we not made the drive down to Sedalia.  I was solely working on adrenaline.  When we got back to the newsroom completely exhausted, one of the editors informed us that we had an hour to write this entire story.  There was so much more I had wanted to include, but time just didn’t allow us this.  This was the most intense day of my life followed by an incredibly tight deadline.  This all was possible by me being in the newsroom at the right place at the right time.  As anxious as I was about producing a story to do this town justice, thus far, it has been one of the best learning experiences of my life.

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Second story, same team

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/05/24/rock-bridge-girls-soccer-advance-quarterfinals/

Covering the Rock Bridge girls soccer team back to back days worried me.  I had a hard time finding a first story about this team, but here I was trying to find a second story already.  At least, there was a game and facts about the game that needed to be included.  This gave me hope that the game itself would provide me some information, but I was still concerned working on a strict deadline since we wanted to get the story in the morning’s paper. These past two stories are the first I have ever written on such a strict deadline.

Before the game started, I went behind Rock Bridge’s bench and never left.  I found it helpful to hear the coach’s talk to the players when they came off the field and see the girls interact up close.  I most definitely wouldn’t have seen this perspective had I been sitting in the press box with the rest of the press.  Although, I definitely considered it, but I wouldn’t have written the story I had.  The man that gave me my story idea was also on the field behind the bench.  Opening up my mind on what game coverage means helped me question the man behind the bench.

Next game, I hope to make it over to the stands.  I would love to hear about what some of the fans have to say and overhear some comments that I can question people about.  Perhaps this would give me an angle that hasn’t been covered about this team and give a variety of different people a voice.

I was lucky enough to have these stories fall into place, but having to write a third story on the same team is making me nervous.  I plan on going to practice today, but have not the slightest idea of a unique angle to have done for Friday’s paper.

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My first Columbia Missourian published article

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/05/23/rock-bridge-girls-soccer-team-knows-boys-are-bad/

My first article was a struggle to say the least.  I was coming into the beat at the end of the season knowing very little about the team.  I read every article the Columbia Missourian had written on the team as well as everything the Columbia Tribune has written.  I called the past beat writer and it helped to talk to her about some of the past work she had done.  I realized, that the best move I made was going there.  Being at practice made all the difference.

By being at practice, I was able to see the players interact with each other and get to know the team much better.  I overheard the coach’s conversation with the girls at the end of practice and this later became my main focus of my story.  Had I not stayed the entire practice, I would have missed this completely.  At first, I didn’t think anything of his talk.  I only had time to speak with one player after practice and left not really sure of my angle.  When I made it back to the newsroom, I was very concerned.  Grant started asking me all these questions and I realized, I didn’t have a story.  I had cliche facts about a high school athlete that could be so many people on the team.  I realized I needed to do more reporting.  I quickly turned around and headed right back to Rock Bridge.  Here, the team was getting reading to attend the Spring Sports Banquet.  This is when I investigated what one of the coach’s had said in practice.  When asked, “What is the No. 1 rule of soccer?” by the coach, the girls all replied in unison.  I wish I investigated this sooner.  When I went back to the high school to inquire more, I didn’t anticipate the response I got.  At first there was a couple girls talking about the topic.  I found it challenging to keep track of names with comments, but then, even more girls joined in on the topic.  I really felt like I was  having a conversation with the group.  Going back to inquire more was key to having usable quotes and was definitely worth my time going back to the school.  Thanks to my initial struggles, I think it has helped me to be more observant to my source’s actions.

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