« More than one hoops game | Main | Watch out Olney and Windthorst »
A day in the life
February 18, 2008First off, I cannot complain about my job too much. I cover sports for a living.
I could be spending my days building business proposals or doing construction, so I know I do not have it too rough.
But sometimes I think the general perception is that our jobs are a piece of cake. Just write about a game -- how hard can that be?
Well, I am here to tell you about a day in the life of a sportswriter, one that includes covering two games and racing to beat deadline.
On Friday, I drove to Mineral Wells to cover the Olney and Windthorst girls basketball games.
Olney tipped at 6:30 p.m.; Windthorst at 8 p.m. I needed to have those stories in by about 11 p.m.
Generally, my only main concern is finding a place to file my story. I have my computer set up to either use a live phone line or wireless internet to send my story to the paper.
After talking with the Mineral Wells AD before the game, I was told this would not be a problem. At worst, I can drive to a nearby hotel and send both stories together afterward.
Well, the Olney girls games goes as planned, except I get a call from the office saying because of bad weather, my deadline has been pushed up nearly an hour.
By no later than 10:15, both stories have to be in. Or they will not get in the area editions.
I write the Olney story in 10-20 minutes, in between and even during the Windthorst game. While doing this, I am also keeping stats for the Trojanettes.
My Olney story is done, and I need to send it to the paper at Windthorst's halftime. Only problem is no one with Mineral Wells knows the password to get on the wireless internet.
I have to race to the assistant principal's office, where both of my e-mail websites are blocked. Awesome -- school security at its finest. I cannot get the phone line to work either.
Finally I suggest to this principal that she e-mail my Olney story using her e-mail. I quickly save my story to a flash drive and away it goes.
Meanwhile, I am missing the third quarter of the Windthorst game. Luckily, I saw a guy who knows how to keep stats -- Mike is our Windthorst football stat guy -- and he is nice enough to help me out for three or four minutes.
Mike also tracks down rosters for both teams at the half, since no one provided programs for the second game.
This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves -- showing up at a game without any rosters. You usually have to track down coaches (who are too busy to talk to you) before the games and get them to write/read off their players’ names.
So one story is done, but this Windthorst game is kinda dragging. It started a little late, which did not help. And now there are a lot of free throws, which is delaying the inevitable Trojanette win.
It's about 9:40 when it ends. I have already decided I am going to send my second story from a hotel, so I need to leave ASAP.
I get a couple of quotes, total up the stats, and haul butt to the Best Western a couple of miles away. In the parking lot, I frantically write the rest of my story with my overhead light on.
I sprint into the hotel, get connected to the Internet (if that had not of worked, there may have been no story in the next day's paper) and e-mail the Windthorst story.
At 10:13 p.m., the office confirms they got it. My job is done, and I can finally unwind.
I stop at Braum's and get a burger, and as I start to leave, the sky opens up and a downpour begins.
For the next 2 hours, I drive in a massive rainstorm, one in which I hydroplane a couple of dozen times. At some spots, I was going only 40-50 mph and can hardly see.
To make matters worse, I realize outside of Mineral Wells that I had planned on getting gas on my way out of town. Buy I was so eager to get home, I forgot.
Luckily, I stopped at a station in Jacksboro with the empty light on, and I made it home safely at about 1 a.m.
Basically, I got the job done, despite a few obstacles.
All in a day's work.
Posted by trn-admin at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
