Sports Writing

Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on sporting topics and games. While
the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy
department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious'
topics covered by the news desk, sports coverage has grown in importance as sport
has grown in wealth, power and influence.
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_journalism

There are lots of different kinds of stories you can write on the sports beat, but probably
the most basic is the short game story. A short game story, usually 500 words or less,
follows a straightforward format that can be applied to any game you cover. Here’s the
format:

The Lead

The lead of your story should include the final score and some details about what made
the game interesting. Generally this means focusing on the efforts of an individual
player.

Let’s say a team’s star athlete is injured and a previously unheralded player comes into
the game as a substitute. Not much is expected of this rookie but he defies expectations
and plays a great game, leading the team to victory.

Example:

Second-string quarterback Jay Lindman, who had never played a down for Jefferson
High School, came off the bench after star QB Fred Torville was injured Friday night
and threw three touchdown passes to lead the Gladiators to a 21-14 victory over the
McKinley High School Centurions.

Or maybe the game is a close, seesaw battle between two evenly matched opponents,
and is won in the final seconds by an especially dramatic play.

Example:

Second-string quarterback Jay Lindman threw the game-winning touchdown with just 12
seconds left to lead the Jefferson High School Gladiators to a 21-14 victory over the
McKinley High School Centurions Friday night.

Notice that in both examples we focus on the efforts of an individual athlete. Sports is all
about the human drama of competition, and focusing on a single person gives the game
story a human interest angle that readers will enjoy.

The Body of the Story

The body of your story should basically elaborate on the lead. If your lead was about the
benchwarmer becoming the game’s star, then the body should go into more detail about
that. Often a simple chronological account works best.

Example:

Torville’s ankle was sprained when he was sacked in the first quarter. Lindman came
into the game with low expectations but threw his first touchdown pass in the second
quarter with a high, floating ball that receiver Mike Ganson snagged in the end zone.

In the third quarter, Lindman was forced to scramble out of the pocket to avoid the rush
but managed to fire a bullet to receiver Desean Washington, who made a diving catch
at the goal line.

The Wrap Up

The wrap up or ending of your story usually centers on quotes from the coach and
players gleaned from post-game interviews or press conferences. Getting great
quotes for sports stories can sometimes be tough – coaches and athletes often speak in
clichés – but a snappy quote can really be the icing on the cake of your game story.

Example:

“I knew Lindman could play but I didn’t know he could play like that,” said Gladiators
coach Jeff Michaelson. “That was one heck of a game by a young guy who showed a lot
of heart.”

Washington said Lindman exuded confidence even in the huddle before his very first
snap.

“He just said, ‘Let’s do this to win,’” Washington said. “And he went out there and did it.
That boy can throw the ball.”

Different Kinds of Sports Stories

1. The Straight-Lead Game Story The straight-lead game story is the most basic story
in all of sportswriting. It's just what it sounds like: an article about a game that uses a
straight-news type of lead. The lead summarizes the main points - who won, who lost,
the score, and what the star player did.

Here's an example of this kind of lead:

Quarterback Pete Faust threw thre touchdown passes to lead the Jefferson High School
Eagles to a 21-7 victory over crosstown rival McKinley High.

The rest of the story follows from there, with an account of the big plays and
playmakers, and after-game quotes from coaches and players. Because they often
focus on high school and small-college teams, straight-lede game stories tend to be
fairly tightly written.

Straight-lead game stories are still used for coverage of high school and some college
sports. But they're used less nowadays for pro sports. Why? Because pro sports are
seen on TV and most fans of a particular team know the score of a game long before
they read about it.

2. The Feature-Lead Game Story Feature-lead game stories are common for pro
sports. Readers usually already know the score of pro games as soon as they're done,
so when they pick up a sports section they want stories they offer a different angle on
what happened and why.
Here's an example of a game story feature lead:

It had rained all that day in the city of brotherly love, so when the Philadelphia Eagles
took the field the ground was already a soggy mess - much like the game that would
follow.

So it was somehow fitting that the Eagles would lose 31-7 to the Dallas Cowboys in a
contest that was one of the worst of quarterback Donovan McNabb's career. McNabb
threw two interceptions and fumbled the ball three times.

The story starts out with some description, and doesn't get to the final score until the
second paragraph. Again, that's fine: readers will already know the score. It's the
writer's job to give them something more.

3. Delayed-lead game stories tend to be a bit more in-depth that straight-lead stories,
and as a result are often longer.

4. Profiles The sports world is full of colorful characters, so it's no surprise that
personality profiles are a staple of sportswriting. Whether it's a charismatic coach or a
young athlete on the rise, some of the best profiles anywhere are found in sports
sections.

Here's an example of a profile lead:

Norman Dale surveys the court as his players practice layups. A pained look crosses
the face of the coach of the McKinley High School basketball team as one player after
another misses the basket.

"Again!" he shouts. "Again! You don't stop! You don't quit! York work 'till you get it right!"
And so they continue, until they start to get it right. Coach Dale wouldn't have it any
other way.

5. Season Preview and Wrap-up Stories Season previews and wrap-ups are fixtures
of the sportswriter's repertoire. These are done any time a team and a coach are
preparing for the coming season, or when the season has just ended, either in glory or
infamy.

Obviously the focus here isn't a specific game or even individual, but a broad look at the
season - how the coach and players expect things to go, or how they feel once that
season is done.

Here's an example of a lead for this kind of story:

Coach Jenna Johnson has high hopes for the Pennwood High School women's
basketball team this year. After all, the Lions were city champions last year, led by the
play of Juanita Ramirez, who returns to the team this year as a senior. "We expect great
things from her," Coach Johnson says.

6. Columns A column is where the sportswriter gets to vent his or her opinions, and the
best sports columnists do just that, fearlessly. Often that means being very tough on
coaches, players or teams who don't meet expectations, particularly at the pro level,
where all concerned are being paid huge salaries to do just one thing - win.
But sports columnists also focus on those they admire, whether it's an inspirational
coach who leads a team of underdogs to a great season, or a mostly unheralded player
who may be short on natural talent but makes up for it with hard work and unselfish
play.

Here's an example of how a sports column might begin:

Lamont Wilson certainly isn't the tallest player on the McKinley High School basketball
team. At 5-foot-9, he's hard to spot in the sea of mid 6-footers on the court. But Wilson
is the model of an unselfish team player, the kind of athlete who makes those around
him shine. "I just do whatever I can to help the team," the ever-modest Wilson says.
Source:http://journalism.about.com/od/writing/a/sportsstories.htm

TYPES OF SPORTS REPORTING

1. PLAY-BY-PLAY ACCOUNT demands close observation and ability to work at top
speed. Knowledge of the game is necessary. Sportswriter should know the rules, and all
the details regarding the players, past records, officials, and plays.
2. LEAD STORIES- centering on the highlights and more important plays only such as
scoring, plays, the crucial games and the star performers of both teams, especially in
newspapers where there is not much space for playby-play reports.
3. BRIEF SPORTS STORIES- center on straight news reporting, but with a sports
flavor. Stressed the score, winner, outstanding incidents, and how the outcome of the
game affects the season’s standing of the teams or individual players.
4. SPORTS FEATURES- help brighten up the sports page. Have broader range of
subject matter. Greater freedom of presentation, and the writers can use the creative
approach.
5. ADVANCE SPORTS STORIES- give backgrounders, some unusual and exciting
games the teams have played before games. May report the records of the teams or
individual players in the current season, their physical and mental condition. May touch
also on lineups, playing styles, crowd situations, statements by coaches, odds, other
interests, and angles. Must talk with the coaches and players of the team before the
start of the game. Should see both sides in action, lot of background information so
could make certain predictions.
6. FOLLOW-UP STORIES- furnish post- mortem analyses. They may discuss the
condition of players injured or the psychological aspects of the game; or they may take
up statistics and their significance.
7. THE SPORTS COLUMN- written from the angle of the reporter’s opinion. However,
the writer should confine himself to fair and constructive comments. He may call
attention to the performance of certain athletes. If he wants to make predictions, these
must be kept within the limits of probability.

WRITING THE SPORTS COVERAGE

1. The sportswriter must always be punctual in covering sports events so as not to miss
the sidelights during the opening of the game.
2. The reporters need to gather the reaction of the crowds and the cheers of the many
competing teams or groups and the members of the team as well as the supporters.
3. The reporter must get the following facts for his in depth sports story:
 The score of outcome ( Who won? Should it end in a tie? A riot or be called off
on account of heavy rain, the outcome is always important for the readers.)
 significance of the outcome ( Was the championship at stake? Do team
standings change? Who gets the cup?)
 spectacular plays ( Tell about the last minute fumble, the three-bag that won
the game or the basket from mid-court.)  weather conditions (If outdoor, Mud,
sunshine, heat, cold or wind may be important)
 size of spectators ( Don’t forget the spectators. Was it a record crowd? How did
the spectators behave?)
 individual stars (Who were the stars and how did they star)

 comparison of the team (How did the weights compare? Were the visitors
better trained? In what departments of the game did the winners excel? Where were the
losers weak?)
 coincidences, if any WRITING THE SPORTS NEWS

 The sports writer must be guided by the 5 W’s and the Inverted Pyramid Style
in writing the sports story.
 In writing sports news, the reporter uses short words, short sentences, and
short paragraphs. However, he has more freedom in his writing style than the straight
news reporter. His writing has more pep, more enthusiasm.
 While the news reporter is not permitted to write his own opinion about
persons or events, the sports writer can do this to a certain extent. He can even use
slang which is discouraged in the news page. He even use figure of speech more freely
than the news writer.

PARTS OF A NEWS STORY

 Because a sports report is news, it must have the part of a news story namely,
the headline, the lead, and the body.
1. HEADLINE- Use the appropriate sports lingo. Don’t forget the total score.
Undesirable: Mindanao State University softball players defeat Holy Trinity College
softball players.
Preferred: MSU sluggers rips HTC batters, 15-5

2. THE LEAD- Like any other news reports, a sports story has a lead and a body or
text. The sports lead is the attention getter- the news in a nutshell. It uses sports lingo
and contains the total score of the game. The sports lead may be one of the following:
a. The Classic “5 W’s”
b. The Key Play Lead
c. The Outstanding Player Lead, and
d. The Analytical Approach Lead

a. The Classic 5 Ws Lead- It answers, 1) Who won?, 2) Against whom?, 3) By what

score?, 4) Where?, 5) When? And 6) How?
Examples:
1. SKSU poured 10 baskets in the last three minutes to edge out the SMIT, 65-63 at the
opponents homeground yesterday afternoon.
2. The Philippines fought with steel nerves and refused to be crushed by a giant’s 55
points might to rip favored North Korea, 97-96 in its biggest triumph yesterday in the
Asian basketball tournament.
b. The Key Play Lead- It starts with the most exciting parts of the game where a certain
team scores more points. Examples:
1. The Aquino NHS sluggers bombed the Marcos NHS batters with six runs in the third
inning to subdue a nerve-fuzzling Marcos rally 14-12 as they clinched the invitation
games here in connection with the celebration of Sports Week.
2. Foreign Philippine masters champion George Olayber birdied two of the last three
holes for a four-under par 67 yesterday and a one stroke lead over Robert Pactolerin in
the opening round of the P500,000 Philip Morris Long Golf Classic.
c. The Outstanding Player Lead- It features a favorite, outstanding player. It is
sometimes called the hero of the game lead. Examples:
1. Warner Cruz of SKSU, after almost four hours of battle over the chessboard copped
the most coveted YMCA trophy after outwitting SKEI chesser Christian Manuel in 27
moves of a Sicilian defense.
2. Ace Striker Rossel Filamer slotted home the priceless marker that lifted that multi-
titled Kiwanis Team over hard-fighting Cebuana Lhuiller 1-0 to capture the Fourth Cong.
Pax Mangudadatu Football Cup before a big enthusiastic crowd at the Sultan Kudarat
Gymnnasium in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat
c. The Analytical Lead- The outcome of the game is the result of a particular key plan
in action - Analyze the game. What made a certain team win? What advantages has it
over the loser? What techniques did they use?
Examples:
1. Riding high on sizzling spikes and tricky placings, the NDDU netters blasted RMMC
killers in the crucial third set to win 15-10, 11-15, 15-7 in the Inter-Collegiate Meet,
September 21 at the Acharon Sports Complex to celebrate the Education Month.
2. Pumped-up Purefoods played solid defense to frustrate Diet Sarsi, 115-105 last night
and arrange a winner-take all, Sunday for the PBA All Filipino Conference crown at the
Ultra.
3. The Body- After the lead comes the body composed of the other elements arranged
in descending order or decreasing importance. If it were a basketball story, report it
quarter by quarter; if a volleyball story, set by set of frame by frame; if a softball/baseball
story, inning by inning; if boxing, round by round, etc. in narrative form. Follow these
with their respective scores.
TIPS FOR SPORTS WRITERS
1. Be minor sports enthusiasts. (Know about basketball, baseball, and all the games
your going to write about)
2. Write for the average reader. (Write simply with no unusual and technical terms)
3. Use the active voice.
4. Write with vigor. (Use strong verbs but not murderous)
5. Be fair. Don’t take sides.
6. Be constantly on the lookout for unusual incidents and angles.
7. Describe the players.
8. Get additional facts from the players, coaches, and spectators. Support your story
with quotes.
9. Be careful with the statistics. (scores, league standing)
10. Never use ten words when seven will do.
11. Read the best sports writing in the dailies. ( Study and analyze the techniques of
outstanding sports writers)

WORKSHOP
Write a story based on the following facts:
Last night,
September 28, 2019
SKSU Gymnasium
The last games of the elimination round of the 23rd SKSU Inter-Campus Basketball
championship.
Results:
-ACCESS Campus vs. Tacurong Campus: 102-57 (This was an expected win.)
-Isulan Campus vs. Lutayan Campus 96-89 (Lutayan was favored team before the
game