I decided to write about the defense sort of last minute, but got Coach Rudy no problem. The problem came when I realized I needed a player interview and it was the night before my story was due.
I called Jillian (Media Relations) to see if she could set me up with Melissa Toulouse from our class and instead received a call from another Media Relations guy, Justin. He told me the whole situation was kind of iffy and he would call me back if this didn't work.
I was planning on watching TV the rest of the night because I figured Justin would call at some point telling me that Mel either wouldn't be able to do an interview or it had to be done Tuesday afternoon (hopefully at a time I don't have to cut class).
Instead, Melissa called me and I had to think of an interview on the spot. I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted to ask so I thought of a few questions and yelled at my roommate to turn the TV down as I situated myself in front of the computer with the phone on speaker.
I felt that it was a good interview because I got some good information on the defense and she got right to the point. A lot of times I'll hear about how the team works really hard in practice and everyone plays as a team and they'll stop there.
That's unbelievably cliche and it gets annoying because those two traits are something you would hear from just about any team. In fact, if it wasn't the case, I'd probably write a big story on that.
Mel talked about what actually was going on during practice and what the defense does on the field to ensure that the offense stays away from the goal. It's always nice interviewing a journalism major.
2 comments:
If the SID route did not go as you wanted it to, you could have commented on her class blog. That would have surely gotten her attention!
Nice piece.
Too bad beat reporters don't get to travel with the team. I remember covering some sports for my college daily (including soccer) where I had to get players and coaches to recap the game for me since I was not there to see it. A tough way to report, for sure. But it can only help you interviewing skills!
That's true, although that would most likely get me on Media Relations' bad side (although I do get to call Rudy without the intermediary).
I actually can travel with women's soccer if I want to although with the higher beats you have to travel with your own money to go. The problem is there hasn't been an away game that makes sense for me to go to or matches up with my schedule.
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