Assessment-Peck

The JRN 336 Sports Reporting class has been a tale of two courses: Sports and Reporting. At the offset, class discussions focused on sports. The steroids scandal in baseball, conversations with athletics department officials, etc.

 

By the end however, reporting was king. The profile pieces that capped off the semester could have been written for Harvey and Irene’s feature reporting class just as easily. If Prof. Pessah has taught one thing over the course of the semester it’s that reporting sports can be an effective gateway into reporting anything else.

 

Examples of this were bountiful in Gary Smith’s collection of articles that served as our textbook for the year. With stories about tragic death and remarkable lives, Smith used sports not as the focus of his pieces so much as the lens through which to observe otherwise ordinary lives.

 

It was a technique brought to life in the classroom as well. Guest speakers, many of who have been on the other side of the reporter’s notebook, revealed unique insight into the world of journalism. One, Matt Zash, revealed a side of journalism that is frequently cited as unethical, immoral and unnecessary. Zash was one of the Duke lacrosse players when the team was charged—falsely, as it turned out—with gang rape and hate crimes. Journalism, argued Zash, did not do its duty to accurately report the story. Nancy Grace, who went on nightly tirades at any guests who dared to defend the lacrosse players, embodied journalism’s overboard coverage of the story.

 

Prof. Pessah meanwhile served as shepherd to the class, guiding his students through obstacles of reporting. His insight provided fresh angles to storytelling and narration. If a reporter does his or her job correctly, we learned, a story should write itself.

 

Overall, the class was very rewarding. Lessons I have learned over the last few months will likely carry over into other reporting classes next semester and beyond. And while I likely won’t end up covering sports in my career, Sports Reporting has provided me with skills that translate into any field.

Shadow of the nation- cooper

Once again Smith’s story sucked me in and kept me to continue on through the story.  The basketball player struggles to make decision that I think some sports players must make in their careers.  When they hit that point where the start to go down hill and don’t bring to the court what they use to bring.  He had to decide to leave his family or get stuck where he was.  The pressure that players have on their hsoulders is tremendous and I give them all the credit in the world.  They are just the same as celebrities, they can get washed up, have bad movies/games and then are forced to make a decision in their lives that could change everything.  

I didn’t realize that he had done so much reporting to get what he got. I mean after taking the class i realizee that there is a lot to be done before you get a simple story like ours in class.  So i just couldnt graspt that Smtih talked to ovedr 20 people and  visited the area dozens of times.   I envy that as a journalist and I know when I have time to dedicate to just my job and work, I will be similarily dedicated.  It was a great story once again of detail and made you imagine allt hat was going on.

class assessment- cooper

I planned to take this class to learn more about covering sports and reporting stories.  I thought it was perfect going hand in hand with my sports internship.  I realized that the two of them are very different, rather than similar.  This class was more based on in depth reporting of athletes or the athletic department.  Instead of just covering a game, it was more involved and needed more research in order to tell the story.  I liked both this class and my internship, but I would have liked it more if they were more hand in hand.  

My sports internship consisted of going to games, asking a few questions about the game and going back to cut the bites.  Those bites just added value and background to the game, rather than anything about the athleetes themselves.  

This class taught me a lot about researching players and getting to know those peopel you need to know to get what you need. (Like Jeremy in the atheltics department).  Instead of just knowing the players, you have to know all about them and how their world works.  I would have liked to have more free time to work harder on assignments and be ablle to do more research.  I feel my other classes held me back in this class.  I would change my schedule if I could do it all over again.  But it is what it is, and I was able to do what I could do.

The best thing about this class was the variety of speakers we had.  I love nothing more than to hear people talk about the real world I am about to enter and what their role is in it.  We had coaches, to editors, to reporters, to people that were covered in the news.  It was great to hear all their stories and give advice and direction the best they could from their experiences.  

I also enjoyed the Gary Smith readings.  I was able to understand and appreciate how indepth reporting can generate into an amazing story!  The one with the man and women with scuba diving stuck out a lot because of the love drama that was going on.  Smith’s writing is envious and being a broadcast major, I truly enjoy someone that can make you visualize the story.  His use of details make me want to work to be a writer but I think that is a far reach for me.  

I learned from this class that doing the basic amount of reporting is NOT going to cut it.  I would think I did enough reporting about somethign and then meet with you and get ripped apart.  There are things that I just don’t think of or think to research, but in the end make perfect sense.  When I did my firist video from the albany basketball game, I thought I was doing a great job.  It was just like what I see at my internship, the game just being reported.  But when I had it looked at with you, I realized that I had much improvement to do.  I learned that research, research, research is the biggest tool in sports reproting. To know your sugject better than they know themselves. With that, I enjoyed this class and learned a lot to take with me as I continue on my journalism career.

Class Assessment

I think the #1 thing about the class this semester was the guest speakers.  It was great to talk to different people who are currently in and around the industry in different capacities.

I’m sure a lot of people came into the class with certain perceptions that were altered by listening to the different people who came to class.

I also thought the Gary Smith readings were very helpful.  That is a great part of the class that is simple, yet very helpful.  Just being able to read Smith on a regular basis should help any young sports reporter understand what sports profile and long form stories are all about.

The one thing I was a little disappointed with was the lack of the actual nuts and bolts of sports writing.  It’s understandable in any class like this, considering the different levels of abilities and knowledge that people came into the class with.  I liked your idea of doing some more in class assignments and bringing a few people to the side and working on different things with them.

Seidman, Course Assessment

Coming into this course I felt that I had a strong sense of what it took be a sports reporter/journalist. I had covered sports for one of the university’s newspapers and I covered Long Island high school sports for a local magazine for several years.

However, after reading Gary Smith all semester and listening to the guest speakers describe their careers I realized how weak my grasp of this profession really was.

My favorite element of the course was the Gary Smith readings. Every story that we were assigned to read didn’t feel like an assignment.  We were given a lesson on how good a story can be if enough reporting is done accurately.  Besides being a skilled writer, Smith was an even better reporter and showed in every story we covered.

Additionally, I was a huge fan of the guest speakers.  From meeting our school’s AD for the first time to meeting Grant Hill’s mother, each one of them provided his or her known tale about the various subcategories of sports journalism.  These were especially effective because instead of having you stand in front of the class and tell us about these subcategories, you brought in members of the profession to show us them.

The greatest thing that I learned from this class is that it is essential to do reporting on top of reporting in order to produce a worthwhile story.  I always knew that I was supposed to make conversation with my sources rather than bombard them questions.  I always knew that I was supposed to show m story the readers rather than tell it to them.  I always knew that I was supposed to become as qualified, if not more qualified, than my sources so I could write my story rather than tell it through a plethora of quotes.  But, i9n this course I was able to put these bits of knowledge into practice.

This course and the style of writing that it required of the students was, in my opinion, different from any of the other journalism courses that I have taken thus fat at Stony Brook.  We were driven towards writing feature stories rather than news stories which was a nice change of pace from the other courses of this major.

I thought that the organization of the course was a bit shaky, however that is to be expected with a first time teacher. I thought things ran much smoother during the second half of the term.  Overall, you kept us in line by filling our inboxes with updates (annoying at times but effective to keep us on the same page) and you pushed us to produce work of the quality that you’d expect from your colleagues at ESPN.  You treated us as colleagues instead of as students and I felt that I was able to focus more on improving my skills as a journalist rather than on my grades because of it.

Class Assessment

When the semester first started I felt the same feeling that I have always felt when it comes to journalism classes: The professors run the class according to the feel of the students, trial and error. I think this is a great way to run the class because it allows the professor to get a feel of who we are as students and our capabilities. I wish all of my classes were run like this.

            Getting into the groove of the class I began to enjoy the class more and more. My all time favorite element of the class had to be the guest speakers. It reminded me that we are truly journalism students and our purpose is to learn, take notes and use our “shoe-leather.” The guest speakers provided an insight to the different angles of covering sports, the beautiful, the difficult and the ugly. It was as if we got “the exclusive.”

            Another element that I appreciated was the Gary Smith book that was assigned. It was unlike any other and quite enjoyable to read. I strongly recommend its use in the upcoming semesters. The stories are timeless.

            Overall, I was happy I took this course. As a professor, you were more than helpful and easily accessible which I feel is essential is most classes, especially journalism courses. We were not babied which tends to happen often and we were not thrown to the wolves. I feel like the assignments were helpful and worthwhile. I think you felt unsure of yourself at times, but you should know you did an AWESOME JOB!

Cat- course assessment

I took sports reporting because I never really had any experience with it before and wanted to try something new. I found out that reporting on sports is more than just covering games. The guest speakers that came taught us that there are many other people involved in sports that can be part of a story, and the class lectures and discussions afterwards really helped us understand the other points surrounding them. The Gary Smith readings were excellent, and gave me a different perspective on what a sports story could be. The writing assignments made sure we really examined the readings and paid attention to the guests. The broadcast assignments I did helped me learn what not to do, and how to improve what I already had done.

I think the guest speakers that came to class were really helpful in getting us to understand different parts of the sports media. Pikiell first helped us gain insight into the world of NCAA basketball. A lot of us learned to go through the SID office to contact athletes. Matt Zash’s visit and surrounding literature and learned how the media and different authorities surrounding a situation can mishandle it so much and in turn ruin the lives of a team of innocent young men. Roxanne Jones helped us all think about the LeBron vogue cover differently and also gave us some insight into the struggle she went through to get to the point in her career she’s in now. Mackey gave us some insight into the lives of his top-level girl’s high school basketball players. Overall, the speakers were from a nice array of people surrounding the sports world.

The Gary smith readings were all very good ways to show us how a writer can talk about sports and tell a story at the same time. His stories showed extensive, in-depth reporting, with lots of sources and confident writing. In each story we read, I learned something new about another sport, whether it be scuba diving or polo, to something new about a culture, like the Native Americans. His writing should definitely be kept in the curriculum, so that students can have a style to work towards that they can also grow from as well.

The writing assignments that were given in the class were good, and kept everyone on their toes regarding the strange deadlines that were sometimes set. The assignments themselves were good because they made everyone give their own personal assessment of a reading or of a guest, and really forced everyone to pay attention and think critically about things so that we could write about it later.

The general things that we talked about in class were good. We talked a lot about the steroids case and Barry Bonds and how we, as sports journalists would handle information in such a story. Talking about the readings and other articles we read helped get everyone to get used to sharing their ideas and criticisms with other people. It also offered some insight into other ways of examining something that you may never have thought of before. The class lectures were good too, Prof had some pretty good words of wisdom to share with the class.

Class Assessment-Moncada

To be honest, I was a little hesitant taking this class. I never was a big “sports” person and I have only been to one Yankees game in my life. Sports reporting was the last thing I ever imagined myself doing.

I realized throughout the semester that sports reporting isn’t necessarily writing about the scores of sporting events or even strictly about sports. It is a combination of that and profiles and other life stories about players and their personal lives. I think that was the biggest lesson this class has taught me and all of my pre-conceived notions about sports reporting have been forever changed. 

 The assignments I felt were fair but the reviews of all of the readings were a little repetitive. I think if we talked about them during class as a group it would have been more productive. 

I think the guest speakers were really good and they each brought something different to the class. My favorite speaker was probably Janet Hill because of her colorful personality and her area of work.

Overall, the class was not what I originally expected and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I learned a lot about what and how to write about different angles of the sports world and how much time a reporter needs to invest in his or her subject in order to do a thorough job.

cat- shadow of a nation

Gary Smith’s A Shadow of a Nation was as sad as it was interesting. There were so many things that I learned from reading this story that never even crossed my mind. I had no idea that Indian schools were so into basketball, and I had no idea that none have ever really gotten out. Jonathan Takes Enemy was one of several hopeful prospects of the Crow tribe to get out and go to college on their basketball playing skills.
Smith mentions a handful of other players that soon succumbed to the stereotypical downfall of the contemporary Crow “warrior.” I thought it was interesting how one boy can get the hopes of an entire tribe up for him to make it out and succeed in the real world. But at the same time, they scorned those who tried to immerse themselves in the ways of the white man.
It made me sad to see all the differences between Indian customs and those of the white world. From looking someone in the eye being disrespectful at home to it being disrespectful not to, and sleeping before a game, when he wasn’t supposed to at home, to doing everything alone, when he was around all his family and friends at home.
When I read the last part of the story, I was really happy to see that Jonathan Takes Enemy had gone back to school for himself this time, and moved off the reservation and realized that this was the only way to realize his daydream of being the successful man with the car and a home, and etc. but I was disappointed in the end to read that he had fallen back into the stereotype that everyone else falls into from the Crow tribe. I kind of think that he should’ve said something to the new star of the high school basketball team, so that maybe the same fate won’t befall him. But he didn’t, and the same fate probably took him around the same cycle.

I definitely think that this book should be used again. Gary Smith’s writing really makes me think of sports stories in entirely new ways. Through these readings I learned so much about sports I never knew about, as well as the struggles that the people involved in them go through. Smith’s writing style is also something that I think future students should read and try to emulate and learn from as much as they can. The amount of detail that he includes in his stories show an immense research effort on his part that should be examined as well.

Shadow of a Nation-Peck

There are few stories that have been told with the same type of characters that Gary Smith finds on the sports field. And with names like Jonathan Takes Enemy, Darren Big Medicine and Jo Jo Pretty Paint, Smith again finds an unlikely cast in yet another heart-wrenching story, this time on the hard courts of a Native American reservation.

For a society known for exclusivity, Smith gained remarkable access to the Crows, revealing a culture shaped equally by basketball and by alcohol. Smith does a fantastic job of using sports—high school basketball in this case—as a lens through which to tell a story that by all measures is bigger than a game.

Several times in the article, Smith refers to basketball as a drug and a toxin. Reading about how actual habitual drug use and alcohol consumption is all too common among the reservations, I had assumed that Smith’s references were metaphorical. But after the second time through the story, I came to another conclusion. Perhaps more than any other sport, basketball is known for its rags-to-riches narratives. And while that can act as a beacon of hope for some people, the lofty, towering promise of success can also cast a wide shadow all its own.

Shadow of a Nation-Moncada

I read this story for another class earlier in the semester. I can tell it took Gary Smith a really long time to report this and write it. He really immersed himself in the story and reported it thoroughly.

Even though it was well-written and the reporting was thorough, it wasn’t my favorite Smith story. It didn’t interest me as much as his other work has and the only thing that I really appreciated and took away from this story was the way he wrote it. Smith developed a rhythm and style in the story that probably took a lot of time and thought to create.

As far as the Gary Smith stories goes, I feel that it helped me understand the point that sports reporting isn’t all about the score of the last Knicks game. It also can be stories about athletes and sports stories can bring the reader into the lives of these athletes if done correctly. I think you should definitely use this book for your future class.

shadow of a nation — berkman

I, like Gene, read this last semester, mistakenly. We were supposed to read another story by Smith, but I ended up reading Shadow of a Nation.

The story grabbed me from the moment I started reading it, mainly because of Smith’s use of self-imposed foreshadowing.

It struck me as so strange to be told, at the start of the story, that the subjects’ lives would be ruined because of mistakes they make, or even death. On top of that, the story reads almost like a fiction because of the players’ names.

It is obvious that this story took an immense amount of time to report, but I can’t even imagine how long it took to establish the style.

Shadow of a Nation – Gene Morris

I originally read this story last year and was blown away.  It was a story that stuck with me going into this year, and I couldn’t wait to read it again for this class.

I was not disapointed.  The depth to which he gets into everyone in this story is incredible.  I was intrigued and genuinely interested in the story of Jonathan Takes Enemy.

It surely helped that the subject and the entire story itself was very interesting, but Smith’s ability to report so well brought it to the next level.  The dtetails he gets to describe the back story of the other culture that Takes Enemy come’s from was amazing.  I couldn’t have been easy to go into the heartbreaking details with those still on the reservation who no doubt realized history was doomed to repeat itself.

Also, early on in the story, a specific sentence of Smith describing Takes Enemy on the court stood out.

“He loved to take a rebound with one hand and bring it to his other palm with a resounding slap, make a right-angle cut on the dribble at a velocity that ripped the court wide open, then thread it with a blind running pass, an orange blur straight from the unconscious.”

Reading Smith thoughout the semester has tought me that in order to write an effective story you really need to report the hell out of it.  Being a great writer is an obvious plus, but relentless reporting is the key to a great story.

Carrie- Shadow of A nation

In “Shadow of a Nation” Gary Smith talks about the life struggles of Native American basketball player, Jonathan Takes Enemy. Smith really goes into the difficult decision that Takes Enemy has to make–leave his family to make a better life, or get stuck or be a has-been, like so many others that failed.

The really great part about this story, was that it really wasn’t about basketball, it was about life. It’s about how a young man who plays basketball, has to deal with an entire nation of people on his shoulders. In a way this story reminded me of the Mark Sanchez situation a few years ago. Sanchez, formerly of USC, and now the Jets, is Mexican-American, and the fans of the same background ridiculed and bashed on him for not showing pride in his heritage. The fans believed that it was on his shoulders to promote the Mexican-American culture, because of his high-profile. He ended up doing so, but the pressure had to be enormous, sort of what Takes Enemy had to feel.

Overall, I think it was great story, and a lot of the greatness came from the unbelievable detail that he puts in. I’ve read this story before, and I remember when I read it that Smith wrote in the afterword, that he spoke to 27 people for this story, and made several trips back and forward to the hills of Montana–that’s dedication.

Reading Gary Smith this semester was really helpful. His keen attention to detail and almost poetic scenes really make him stick out from the rest. While I wasn’t a fan of all the stories, it didn’t mean that I didn’t appreciate them. Another thing that makes Smith different is that he really can’t be considered a sports writer–he writes about life, and the subjects just happen to be athletic. Smith also writes the stories that people have never heard before, and while in the grand scheme of things may not be so important to the mass public, they are interesting and make people ponder about their own lives.

I think the next time you teach this class, Smith has to be part of the syllabus–as he should be with any narrative/magazine course. How can you teach the class without showing off one of the industries most talanted and respected writers? You can’t.

Shadow of a Nation

Shaloma Logan

The circle was the symbol of never-ending life to the Crows-they saw it revealed in the shape and movement of the sun and moon, in the path of the eagle….but Jonathan Takes Enemy life felt cursed to follow this wretched circle…that would take him up…and over…and down…

Gary Smith carefully weaves a story that transcends any old blaze sports story and examines the threads that tie modern-day reservation Indians to ritualistic basketball. But as sure as the sun rises and sets each day, basketball could be likened to poison as talented boys from the Crow reservation played themselves to death.

I personally love Gary Smith’s style of writing-as depressing as his story lines may sometimes be. I’ve read commentary from classmates that rebuke Smith for assuming the thoughts of his protagonists. But I think this approach is an illustration of writing at its best. That you can know your subject so well that you can accurately guess their very thoughts. When Smith penned that no white people could ever understand this, that it was ok for an Indian to clench his teeth and compete as part of a team, but to remove yourself from your family to study was damning, didn’t he prove it? Didn’t Takes Enemy prove it with his life? If readers praise Smith for his amazingly accuring metaphors and sweeping imagery, why not his nerve? It was likely this that allowed him to construct his metaphors.

As the last Smith story that I was required to read, I paid attention to things I normally dismiss; and I wondered how? How did Smith this close to his subjects? So close to read their thoughts? It sets a high precedent for aspiring writers who wish to tell true stories in a way that reads as a fiction. “Is this really true?” I’ve asked myself numerous times. My doubt has even driven me to google. But, as story after story checked out, I realize that I want to adapt this nerve, break the circle of monotony and write of the world with new eyes.

Incantalupo-Shadow of a Nation

          Shadow of a Nation is a prime example of how sports and life are not only intertwined, but highly complex in their nature together.

          Smith shows how basketball was a way for the Crow tribe to form an identity. It was much more than a basketball community. It became a way of life. Smith presents a great contrast within the story to have Jonathan Takes Enemy assimilating into American culture while all this is happening.

          The lede has a really quick tempo. Smith really builds up the bus ride scene then does a nice job of bringing the reader back down to earth about what happened after basketball was over for some of these kids. Before we even get to see them on the court you know as the reader that despite the team’s success on the court, alcohol and poverty largely neutralized their successes.

          You see through Jonathans struggles that in order for him to live a better life he must leave behind his Native American family and its culture. Smith shows the reader how becoming successful is hard among their community because they feel the need to be somewhat segregated from some traditional American cultures.

Smith shows you how success within the world of the white man can lead to feelings of resentment in some Native American cultures. Smith does so using a great vehicle in Jonathan Takes Enemy.

          I’ve learned a lot from Gary Smith this semester. I think anyone who has read a few stories in this book comes to the same conclusion that this guy does a ton of reporting. He takes reporting to the next level. He also taught me that when you have so much information and so many angles to work with you can make a spectacular story.

           It’s not just reporting either. It’s a method of reporting that’s based on his ability to maintain relationships with sources in order to get the every last bit of juice out of the squeeze. Then he writes in vivid scenes that capture your attention and then send you off into what ever direction he wants you to go.

            He showed me how important it is to have command over my topics. Probably most valuable for me was the way in which I learned how every last word should matter in a story. His stories really flow and that taught me how important it is to be setting up the next scene that says what needs to be said in way in which people want to read it. That being said I would recommend using the book again.

Gavin — Shadow of a Nation/Gary Smith

In Shadow of a Nation, Gary Smith shows how sports journalism can transcend athletics and venture into stories about all aspects of life.

Smith developed a story where the overall theme has little to do with sports, despite its ties to basketball. The story focuses on the journey of basketball player Jonathan Takes Enemy and his struggle to find his way while living on an Indian reservation. Basketball is simply the vehicle used to introduce the sports fans who are reading the story to the background story that is really being told.

Although I found this story the least appealing of Smith’s work because it seemed to drag on with minimal developments, he continues to do a great job of developing his characters with detail so extensive it seems as if Smith has known his subject all his life.

Smith’s ability to merge various topics with a sports angle shows how sports writing often defies its classification. In most of Smith’s writing, the story has less to do with sports themselves, and more to do with the story behind a person who has ties to something sports related.

With Smith’s writing, the playing field is not typically where the story ends, but rather where it begins.

I learned a lot about developing stories from Smith’s stories and will read the book in its entirety. The arrangements of his stories deviate from traditional storytelling and highlight his ability as a storyteller. His tendency to begin stories in the middle and break away from chronological order or incorporate flashbacks was very unique and structured stories in a way that was unlike any I had ever read before.

His character development showed me how important it is to create an attachment between the subject and the reader because it makes the story much more compelling. Smith also shows how essential it is to be capable of recreating the emotions felt by his subjects in order to create that emotional attachment and also to have a focal point in a story.

As I said before, Smith’s stories go beyond the boundaries of sports and show the range that a sports journalist must possess in order to become a good storyteller. I would highly recommend analyzing Gary Smith’s work in future courses. His stories combine in-depth reporting, quality writing, and eloquent storytelling, which are three qualities that are vital to all aspiring sports writers.

Kelly, Shadow of a Nation

In “Shadow of  Nation,” Gary Smith illustriously illustrates the difficult world that Jonathan Takes Enemy navigates, always feeling the pull from his native culture as he would creep closer and closer to “white” culture. Smith is able to tackle multiple issues in this piece, notably the difficulties that Native Americans have in bettering their situation out of a fear of being labeled traitors to their people and the vicious cycle of alcoholism and despair in Takes Enemy’s reservation.

Like most Smith pieces, this story is not about basketball, or even a basketball player- rather, it is a story about a Native American grappling with his culture and personal downfalls, who happens to play basketball. Smith has many powerful scenes in this story, but perhaps is most important one is his description of how Takes Enemy feels having to dress up in the traditional garb of his people for the giveaway ceremony. He feels uncomfortable in the clothing, bur knows he must wear it to not disappoint his people. This example can serve as a metaphor for the rest of the tale, which often puts what Takes Enemy wants at odds with what it is he feels he must do out of loyalty.

Smith tells a great, albeit depressing, story about how young people in this culture are often derailed by alcohol, and often feel at a crossroads between trying to better their lives and remaining loyal to their culture. Yet again, he tackles issues outside of sports but in a way that makes a sports fan sit up and take notice.

——————————-

Overall, I liked Smith’s work a lot. He clearly does a lot of reporting, knows how to tell a story and finds topics which are interesting and informative. He is easily one of the better writers I have read.

Sometimes, I think he gets a bit too flowery and takes a little too much license with decisions to tell us what people must have been thinking at certain times. As a reader, I wonder what in his reporting led him to have the confidence to write many of the things he does. His work often has a fictitious feel to it because of how much detail he puts into it- in a way, it is a little off putting for me as a reader because I am not used to such a degree of reporting coming through in a story.

But, I trust Smith. By the breadth of his reporting, I do not worry too much about him misplacing the thoughts or motives of a character in one of his stories. He is a truly unique writer and reporter, and reading his pieces is an experience that is unlike reading any other. I think reading his work has been helpful to me this semester, getting a chance to read what great reporting can do in the hands of someone who knows how to tell a story.

Seidman, Shadow Reaction

Dribble an orange sphere and toss it through a cylinder. For most this is the simple concept of the game of basketball. However, for certain people living in the hills of Montana basketball was much more than just a game.

On one end, it was the continuation of a culture and a history that had been stripped away from the Native American tribes of the area. Instead of traveling along the hills in pursuit of buffalo as their ancestors had done, they passed along the hills in a caravan in pursuit of a bus carrying high school basketball players. In the past, the women war hunting and war emblems to signify their status in the community and the status of their husband. Today, these women wear buttons bearing the faces of their tribe’s skilled high school basketball players.

In a sense, basketball trapped the Native Americans in a vicious cycle of admiration and resentment that thus far they have been unable to break away from.

______________________________

Overall, I am a huge fan of Gary Smith’s work. The way he writes is detailed to the point where the readers feel like they are physically watching the stories unfold before their eyes. It is as if Smith was there in 1984 traveling in the caravan to the state title game. Besides his writing, which I could praise for hours, his stories give the readers examples of how sports are more than just athletic competition. They are ways to escape poverty and strife, ways to build a community and overcome sickness and ways to build a relationship. He is a fantastic writer and reading his works has been one the best aspects of this course.

Peck-Keating

Peter Keating’s comprehensive coverage of concussions, especially in female athletes, is perhaps a far cry from what people expect out of ESPN.

He represents the “other” sector of sports reporting, the sector inhabited by HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, ESPN’s Outside the Line and E60 series, and many sports magazines.

Keating hails from the latter, ESPN the Magazine. A self-proclaimed nerd, his appreciation and understanding of numbers and of math give him an unexpected leg up on his colleagues. Statistics like free throw percentages, batting averages, and WHIP are fairly straight forward, but when discussing scientific, academic or medical studies and reports done in the field of athletics, an elementary understanding of math likely won’t cut it.

That is the attitude that Keating brings to his reporting. Working journalists who have graced the campus before him almost all universally agree that there is no such thing as a stupid question during an interview. Keating on the other hand thinks that stupid questions do in fact exist in journalism, and often come from stupid people. It is impossible, he argues, to report accurately or effectively on the type of story that he did without a superior understanding of the facts.

That is a point he hammers home using an example featuring fellow ESPN employee Hannah Storm who retracked his report (done for ESPN’s Outside the Lines) and used whole passages of Keating’s written article (done for ESPN the Magazine) in an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America.