SPORTS
SPORTS
At TJ, sports are rarely a top priority. Even so, I've found the most fascinating stories within our athletic teams. From writing about an innovative football scheme to profiling one of the state's best wrestlers, journalism has given me the chance to shine attention on Jefferson's often-overlooked student athletes.
*PHOTO BY FORREST MENG
The Machine
Of all the interviews I've ever done, my interview with Caleb O' Cain is probably my favorite. Over the course of an hour, I talked with O'Cain about injuries, weight-cutting diets, training routines, and more. To this day, it's still one of the most interesting and surprising interviews that I've ever done.
While writing the article, I could've done a better job of quote and content selection in order to carry over the captivating nature of the interview. Nonetheless, as a profile of one of Jefferson's best athletes in recent years, I think my feature effectively details the evolution of Caleb O' Cain.
*PHOTO BY FORREST MENG
Flip the Script
In this article, I covered Jefferson's all-new girls' wrestling team. I spoke to the head coach, a trio of athletes who had recently joined the squad, and the team's best wrestler at the time in Brianna. Additionally, I attended a couple of practices to take photos and to observe the team's workouts and drills. Throughout the article, I made sure to explain why the team was founded, and what Ta and the head coach had in mind for it.
*PHOTO BY ANANYA BAGAI
Dual Threats
Normally, for the sake of consistency, high school teams use only one QB throughout a game. However, last year, coach Michael Auerbach chose to alternate between two QBs. From the moment I found out about the system, I knew I had to cover it. At first, I struggled to make the article engaging for the non-football fan. To address this, I lent the article an emotional element by leading with the senior QB's perspective and how he dealt with splitting time with a younger player.
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In hindsight, I should've included more content from Gavin Hatalosky, who made up one-half of the two-QB system. Besides one quote from Hatalosky at the very end, the article mainly uses quotes from coach Michael Auerbach and QB Sabareesh Sundarraj.
Road to Recovery
For my very sports feature, I explored the process by which student athletes recover from injuries. Visiting the athletic injury clinic, I spoke with our school's athletic trainer to find out how he works with players to help them rehab. As with the Dual Threats article, I also lent an emotional, engaging element to the article by detailing the experiences of Daniel Kim, who had trained extra hard in rehab in order to return for his final game as a Jefferson football player.
Colonials Dominate Senior Night Game
I've also provided timely sports coverage via game recaps. At first, I struggled with how to structure my pieces. I didn't want drawn-out, uninteresting summaries of the game. At the same time though, I wanted to make sure that my article led with the most important information, which was the events of the game. In the end, I decided to open with a concise intro to what happened before mixing analyses and quotes throughout the rest of the piece.
With the Senior Night Game being the Colonials' final game of the year, I made sure to talk not only about thoughts on the end of the season, but about the outlook for next year.