Monday, January 17, 2011

Life as a Journalist

After producing an article on the Major League Soccer SuperDraft late last week, and easing into a routine as a Lantern reporter, I feel like a real journalist.

It was quite a thrill to finish my piece on the draft selections of Konrad Warzycha and Matt Gold into MLS (by Sporting KC and Toronto FC, respectively).  I streamed the first three rounds of the draft at my home work space, and after debating skipping Comm 423 for the purpose of having a close beat on the story, headed for campus. I continued to check up on the draft throughout class and saw that Matt Gold had been taken in the third round by TFC. I flipped out and headed across the hall to the newsroom. I tried to call Matt but I had taken his cell number down incorrectly and now had no way to contact him or Konrad.

I stuck around after class and finally tracked Konrad down. Talking to an athlete after a big moment in their career... its a feeling of accomplishment as a sports writer, to say the least. If you manage to get in touch with that athlete, its like reaching an island oasis or something- you know that you're in the place, right where you need to be, and that's all! You're golden. Konrad and Matt are both class acts, aside from being great value as third-round picks for their new clubs. They've both been of a professional mindset since their freshman year when they played in the College Cup finale and I really believe that they could have promising professional careers in front of them.

I think I'm going to send everyone involved in the story a fruit basket, including Alissa Clendenon, the men's soccer Sports Information Director. Never again will I ever hunt down a story like this and find friendly, trusting people at every turn like I did with Konrad, Matt, and Alissa. Konrad gave me Matt's phone number and I went ahead and called the Canada-bound boy. If I were to say that Konrad was friendly and professional during my talks with him, than I'd have to say that Matt was damn near the nicest guy ever. So I got quotes from him and two hours after the draft had ended, my story was up on the The Lantern's website.

As an interesting side-note, I also talked to Devin Barclay for this article. Barclay was the place-kicker for the Ohio State football team, and is a former MLS man. He played for the Tampa Bay Mutiny, or something haha.

It was a good experience but reassuring for me since I hadn't had anything published for weeks. I bided my time and that was a good decision. Worth the wait.

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