Week 8

After eight weeks, I am finally a bona fida Missourian reporter now. I had my first story run last Sunday and my second today and I will be reporting on an event tonight that will eventually produce my third story next week. It feels good to be back.

Saturday was another open gym session at Mizzou Arena. The team basically just plays pickup games for an hour or so and the football tailgaters are invited in to watch. At first I was kind of skeptical as to whether this warranted a story. John and I went to the last one and we barely stumbled upon a story about a basketball alumni being there. I was pretty confident it would be pretty low key again this week and the team had it's media day on Wednesday, so that is when the real stories would come out, I thought. Greg disagreed though, and I am glad that I did go. He said that even if I can't find anything specifically noteworthy, the whole concept of open gym on football gameday is kind of interesting. That is what I ended up pursuing.

First, I think it ended up being a relevant enough story that it was a good thing that I went. Second, I think it was a good story to get me started back up for the year. It required me to walk around the crowd and talk to people and to talk to the team and make observations. It was kind of a hybrid of man on the street and covering a team, so I kind of jumped right back into reporting. The other big thing I got out of it is that since there wasn't a big media presence there I chatted up the sports information director for a good portion of my time there. I got answers to all of those basic questions, ones like "Why isn't Mizzou Madness at Midnight?" and "Explain the recruiting process." I felt like I left the arean that day with a really good understandin of the team I am getting involved with. That, in my opinion, is the most important aspect of being a good beat reporter. The story itself was nothing groundbreaking, but I felt like I got my point across in an efficient manner and I was pleased with it as a first clip of the new year.

Wednesday was the team's media day - meaning the whole team and the coach were just hanging out on the court for an hour and you could talk to whoever you wanted to for however long. More than anything this was a good opportunity for John and I to introduce ourselves to the players and let them get to know us so that they are more comfortable once the season starts and access is more limited. So we did that. We also had to do some stories, of course. John and I were going to share the first one, the "What did coach say is key this season" story that was bound to come out. I ended up getting a lead on another story though so I worked on that all night (and unfortunately I still don't have enough information to print that, but I am working on it). John's story in Thursday's paper turned out well. Friday was my turn. I wrote a preview/profile on tonight's Mizzou Madness event with an emphasis on forward Leo Lyons, who is expected to have a big impact this season. I thought it turned out OK - admittedly I liked the story better after Greg had edited it more than after the copy editors did, but that's life as a reporter.

So as a whole I think my first week truly reporting went pretty well. I feel like I have a good understanding of this team, the personnel and how everything works - moreso then I do football - so I am confident that I can do a good job on this beat. I am really excited to continue reporting and to get deeper into this beat. It is going to be a lot of work, of course, but I am excited and ready to do it.