Sports fans watch sports on TV and think how exciting it would be to work in the sports industry. Many say to themselves: if I could cover all the games and the great athletes, I’d be so happy. I’d have money, fame, and all that goes with being a sports personality.
What I’m learning as sports editor of The Hub@TTU is that nothing is easy. Look at this past week of my life as a graduate student and sports writer — how I’m preparing for my career as a sports writer and what I’m learning: I am taking nine hours of classes in my first semester at Texas Tech University; I’m a graduate assistant;l I teach two classes a week; I spend time preparing for classes, grading papers, and preparing for lab and lectures.
Friday is my day off until 6 p.m. when I drive two hours to Midland to work for the Midland Reporter Telegram newspaper.
I’m learning the ropes:
I answer phones from high school football coaches as they tell me key plays of their games. I make sure the names are spelled correctly, and make sure the down, distance, fumbles, interceptions and touchdowns are right. With this information, I may have to look up additional information a coach has left out on Max Preps or ask the sports editor. Alternatively, I ask any questions that need clarification — what comes to mind is six-man football, a sport I’m not familiar with.
Most high school football games start at 7:30 p.m., and are over with between 9:30 to 10 p.m.
Nothing is more hectic than coaches calling with their information — a coach may call and his cell phone may have static, or I may not be able to hear clearly, as was the case this past weekend. Once all the information is in, my job is to type everything up and write the game summary.
Usually around this time, the sports editor is starting to get nervous and anxious because deadline is no later than 11:30 p.m. All stories have to be proofread by copy editors and edited by the sports editor.
Once everything is done then I’m free to go home, which is anytime between 12 to 12:30 a.m., this past weekend, I arrived home at 2:30 a.m.
On Saturday, I covered the Texas-Texas Tech football game, which started at 6:30 p.m. Many people think a sports writer is just watching the game and having a good time. Not true, a lot of times sports writers are taking notes, keeping statistics, and writing highlights of the game as it happens, so when a writer goes to write the story after the game, it is easier and fresh in the mind.
Most of the time a writer cannot write the story until there is about six minutes left in the game, depending on the score.
Even though the Tech game was basically over in the third quarter, there is a press conference which includes a coach and two players from each team who are interviewed. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. After interviewing coaches and players, most writers go back to the stadium and write the story, or they are finishing their story.
Some writers may write a sidebar to the game or a feature on a player or coach. It’s possible one game could produce three or more articles.
Sunday morning I arrived home about 12:30 a.m. from the game. I was too worked up to sleep.
I had to get up early to cover NASCAR’s AAA 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. I left Lubbock by 4:30 a.m. to get to the race.
I arrived at Texas Motor Speedway at 9:30 a.m. to check in for a race that did not start until 2 p.m. I had to go through security and register my bags. Most of the time the press (radio, TV, the Internet, photographers) are going through their notes, interviews and getting ready for the race.
Most of this race was boring until the last 30 laps. Jeff Gordon ended up getting into a fight with Brad Keslowski, and a big melee ensued on TV.
What would have been a normal one-hour press conference turned out to be two. What a lot of viewers do not see at home on TV are all the interviews. In this time period, the press interviewed Kyle Larson, the top finishing rookie (seventh) in the race, Kevin Harvick, who finished third in the race, and Brad Keslowski the runner-up in the race.
Finally, winning crew chief Chad Knaus was brought in to be interviewed, and then the winner Jimmy Johnson came in.
While I was in the professional working environment of NASCAR, and I saw all the people I had watched on TV, I was excited that I was there standing right next to them and talking to them as a peer.
However, once you start asking for selfies and autographs; they know you are new, or you don’t belong in that environment. While I talked to numerous TV personalities about where the state of journalism and the broadcast business were going, the most profound advice I received was this:
“The advice I would give any person trying to break into this business (TV, journalism) is to work, write, volunteer at the local sporting event,” said Reuters NASCAR writer and former lawyer Lewis Franck, “Follow your passion and know the door is not going to be easy — you have to offer employers something they cannot get anywhere else. Make a niche, develop a niche market.”
Franck said this business is about networking, being visible, and continually updating your portfolio.
During this past weekend, I sat with some of the best sports writers in the business both in Lubbock, and nationally, and I tried to pick their brain as to what employers are looking for.
I also tried to network for my next job after graduation. I wanted to have a leg up on the competition in my field, which is why I chose Texas Tech University. At some point, the things I am learning will benefit me in the job market.
Graduate school is exhausting, and my weekend was busy, but when you’re doing what you love there is no such thing as work.
About J.T. Keith
