Month: December 2018

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/prep_sports/rock-bridge-cruises-past-battle-in-cross-town-rivalry/article_88840078-033c-11e9-ba35-0b0702c8b2f6.html

On the night of 12/18, I went and covered my first high school basketball game. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun doing it. Something I had noticed about the atmosphere of the game included how the Battle gym played the song “Mo Bamba” thrice.

So, I included that in the story. I mentioned how the kids in the student section filled in the blanks of the clean version of the song with the vulgar lyrics. I then mentioned that the likes of bars and clubs do the exact same thing.

A staff member at the school said that what I wrote was incorrect. But it was correct. He said that it was wrong of me to compare “14-18 year old kids” to the likes of bars and clubs. I didn’t; all I did was say that the song is played in bars and clubs. I stand by my reporting. I didn’t make it up and I didn’t do anything wrong.

This person felt that I had victimized the Battle high school community but that wasn’t my intent at all. I apologized for the confusion it caused him. I didn’t apologize for the article or my reporting. All I did was report the truth and I’m sticking to it.

It was an interesting experience but my first dealing with negative feedback from a reader.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/missouri-football-signs-to-national-letters-of-intent/article_1ef0e014-03db-11e9-ba30-93adc8cd4eb4.html

On 12/19, I wrote another football feature that ended up being the centerpiece for the sports page again. I’m really happy with the way this turned out.

My phone broke in the middle of interviews so I had to go to the old pen and paper to finish my interviews at the practice.

I also wrote this story on the run because I was originally supposed to interview players after practice about a completely different topic, but players weren’t available after practice at all. I had to come up with a brand new story on the spot and I’m glad I was able to pull this story together with the guidance of Michael.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/former-mu-football-coordinator-finishes-behind-kelly-saban-for-ap/article_d29b62ba-0223-11e9-8799-17511eadd2fa.html

In my first official day in the newsroom for Winter Break, I got to add some information to an AP article about the AP College Football Coach of the Year poll.

Considering Josh Heupel has Missouri football connections, I was able to contribute to the initial report and talk about those connections in the regular story. It’s always good to keep an eye out for things like this on the sports desk because people around here like MU connections in national sporting news.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_sports/hearnes-center-to-replace-video-board/article_76b65776-0240-11e9-b5d8-6ff02cfecb7b.html

Here, I just saw the original tweet (which I embedded into the text) and I thought that was newsworthy enough to have a small brief written about it.

Even briefs need some density though. So, I researched a bit about recent renovations to both the Hearnes Center and Mizzou Arena and related those back to the addition of the new scoreboard.

I also contacted an assistant AD for Mizzou Athletics and he gave me quick answers to the questions I had about the scoreboard change. He also told me that I should change my Twitter profile picture because I reached out for the info on Twitter at first. I ended up doing this but he went off on me a bit so that didn’t feel good. But, I at least got the information I was looking for and created some content yesterday.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/jingle-bowls-how-the-tigers-balance-the-holidays-and-bowl/article_45a31c8e-0199-11e9-8a24-9711520bd460.html

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_football/notebook-odom-and-missouri-d-line-talk-bowl-prep/article_06ca5862-00c5-11e9-a92a-d7fed2940ea5.html

I also wrote two stories over the weekend and I’m really happy with these. My editor complimented me on them both and the Bowl feature was made the Sports centerpiece for the website on Sunday. It was really cool.

It’s also awesome that I get to cover football. It’s a great honor and it’s my first time doing it. So to have a successful couple of stories after my first weekend was definitely a great feeling.

Though, the access to players and coaches can be very limited, I’ve only gotten good stuff so far. So we’ll see how that plays out moving forward.