While my school is not known for excelling in the sports field, I found it an enjoyable challenge to help my students seek sports features. Yes, our football team went 0-10 this year, but our readers still needed to know about the defensive end that was practically raising his younger siblings and working full-time hours at a local store.
We even found it interesting to do an in depth feature on cheerleading, which most don't even consider to be a sport. I do believe we changed the views of many about cheerleading once they read about the long hours before and after school, the high-jumps, the leg lifts and the many bumps and bruises.
The star athlete on my campus happened to be a female student, standing shorter that five feet tall and weighing less than 100 pounds. Her initials are O.V., and I'm sure many of the readers here have probably seen or heard of her in the news. Small frame and all, she took on competitors larger than herself and walked away with 51 medals for her high school career.
O.V. and her family moved from Mexico to Texas when she was two, and because of immigration laws she was unable to accept the full scholarship she received to attend a Texas institute. Regardless of our individual beliefs on the subject of immigration, O.V. has a very compelling story. She recently graduated and this story developed after our last issue was sent to print, but we will definitely be following up on her in future issues.
I've never had a problem with developing sports story ideas, but listening to Tom Blodgett has made me even more curious about sports reporting. Just because we may teach at schools that have less than impressive sports programs, that doesn't mean we just ignore sports and the children devoted to them. Even in losing, there is definitely a story...
Ariawna Talton
Molina High School
Dallas, TX
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