Brett Henderson
(senior, Politics)
There are quite a few things I like about the Oxy Weekly. My favorite articles usually involve the writers going out and exploring LA, such as the "Beyond the Pews" feature last week, where staff writers checked out some of the more offbeat religious movements in the city. Unfortunately, I find this exploratory journalism is usually absent from the sports section.
As a member of the football and rugby teams, I can usually expect an email every week or two asking me incredibly bland questions about my team. The lame and cliche answers to these weak questions then get copied and pasted into the article, comprising around 75% of each one. The other 25% is usually the score, a few stats, and the introduction and conclusion. If I hear one more time about how great the football, soccer, cross country or other team's chemistry is, or how hard everyone is working to achieve success, I may vomit. I'm sure everyone works their respective asses off all the time, and that every team loves one another like brothers and sisters and such, there has got to be some more interesting material in there somewhere!
One bright spot was the article on rugby beast Danielle Siegler playing for the U-19 Griffins All-Star squad, and I know there are more great stories like that lying around. How about an article on how team superhunk Justin "The Body" Goltz achieves his God-like "buff giraffe with a six-pack" physique? Why not interview a few transfer players and ask them about the differences between their former teams and Oxy? Or how about an article on how difficult it is to spend dozens of hours each week practicing your sport while still succeeding in an academically intense institution, with the insane daily schedule many athletes at this school subscribe to? Do any of our swimmers eat Michael Phelps-like amounts of food? How about a human interest piece on the Washington brothers, or the coach-player tandem of the Tromello brothers, both on the football team? I feel like there are countless non "game recap with quotes" stories out there, it just takes a little bit more effort. Or should I just send you some more quotes on how the football team is going to beat Pomona this week because we work hard and don't get cocky and love each other like unified, hardworking brothers who work hard together?
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Sasha Pokrovskaya
posted 11/12/08 @ 3:48 PM PST
Brett, I really appreciate you reading the paper and sending us back comments! If only more people did this instead of just complaining to their friends, we would really get a better feel of what people are thinking. (Continued…)
Leanne Zabala
posted 11/13/08 @ 5:49 PM PST
Going into the paper, I specifically chose to write for the sports section because I have also noticed that school papers often have a weak sports section. (Continued…)
Brett
posted 11/20/08 @ 10:07 PM PST
Seems to me that shotgun firing questions to a large group of teammates is kind of like asking your son or daughter how school was that day; more often than not you'll get a "nothing" if you don't try to dig a little bit deeper. (Continued…)
Post a Comment