GSPA

I attended the sports writing seminar during the Thursday session of the GSPA conference. Ed Morales, sports editor of the Red & Black, hosted the event and discussed basic tips for high school sports writers. Although the theme of the lecture was basic, Morales gave great insight on how to appeal to your audience and become a better writer. He also provided interesting criticisms of high school newspapers coverage of sports. Although my adolescent days were long ago, his examples reminded me of my high school paper, which was guilty of many of the mistakes he warned against. Some of Morales key tips to improve your paper's sport section were:

-Plan short previews for each issue concerning top players, games, analysis, etc.

-Do lots of profile pieces. Athletes, coaches, even equipment managers. Feature the subject on and off the field. There are always interesting characters on every campus.

-Question and answer forums work well.

-Every high school has a famous former athlete to some degree. Find out their story.

-Do stories about sports that all students do - such as PE.

-Don't recap games that previously happened. By the time the paper comes out, its old new. Instead give summaries, analysis and predictions.

-Cover all sports at your school, both boys and girls.

This last tip was probably the most important. Morales stressed to write about what you cover. A high schools paper's audience is its student body, so the sport section needs to relate to high school sports, because that is what they cover. A story about the cheerleading team better fits the paper then a story related to professional or collegiate sports.

Overall, I found the lecture entertaining and Morales' advice to be informative. I planned on next attending the "Tips for photojournalism" at 11:30, but had to unexpectedly skip because of an urgent call to come into work early.