As an undergraduate, I had the relatively unique opportunity to write for the sports section of a regional newspaper. I started as a stringer, taking calls from coaches who were reporting scores and typing up agate. After a few months, I asked if I could cover a game. Sometime in the summer of 1999, I got to cover a Mankato Twins game. It was just an amateur, town-ball league game but I remember being nervous and anxious about whether I'd get the details right, if I'd figure out which player to interview, and if I'd even have enough to say when writing up a game story (under DEADLINE!)
The first paragraph from the first game was a beauty. Elaborate, setting the stage, providing readers with a glimpse into the national past time and the sights & sounds on that field that night. Then one of the senior writers helped me review it. He took one look and said, "Might be a little much. How about 'It was a beautiful night for baseball...' and then don't forget to put in the score." Solid advice for a rookie.
I got better with practice and covered dozens and dozens of games over the next 4-5 years. I covered Minnesota Vikings OTAs at Winter Park, Gustavus athletics, Minnesota State-Mankato events and something at just about every high school in a 30 mile radius. I even managed to squeeze 15 column inches out of a 0-0 tie in a U15 girls soccer. I loved writing and it gave me a more enjoyable outlet than English major-required papers about the Bronte sisters.
I gave it up when I moved away from St. Peter but I never lost the itch to write and to cover events. I missed watching events with an eye toward human interest story lines, unique statistics, etc. Writing has always been enjoyable for me and certainly came to me much more easily than math equations or biology.
The introvert in me struggles to interview others, but I've found that most people will be more engaged and respectful in dialogue when they have something to gain by being appropriate and thoughtful. The natural impulse for most people is to simply be waiting for their chance to speak when engaged in "dialogue." But when I'm interviewing someone, my question and line of inquiry dictates the conversation - others are waiting to be sure they know what I'm asking before they blurt out their quickest response. I like that.
So I stayed in touch (primarily through social media) with connections at the Mankato paper and in May, the sports editor called asking if I'd be interested in writing as a freelancer. Absolutely. I miss writing - I've written academic papers and emails over the last decade, but nothing that was what I consider fun. So I said yes.
My first assignment: North Mankato Triathlon. I was extremely nervous before the race - almost as nervous as some of the participants, I think. The same fears as I remembered from more than a decade earlier - would I miss a detail? Would I have enough to write? Fear of not performing is what scared me, but it's what motivates me to try to write well.
As I watched the event and took notes, it started coming back to me. I wasn't so scared and I started running through potential ledes and looking for potential human interest parts of the event. Pretty soon I had enough to fill 15 column inches. The enjoyment of covering an event and creating the words to tell a story was definitely something I missed.
I'm happy to be back in the game - even if it's only an occasional game story.
The story didn't run on the Free Press website, but Angie snapped a pic of it:
