As it has been said before this pandemic has effected many things such as school, sports, concerts, and many other events that result in a lot of people to show up to. As a college student you are expected to come to college to meet new people and build relationships and connections, but due to the coronavirus it has put a major conflict on this opportunity. As a college athlete you come into college expecting to perform the sport you play at a high level at big games with many fans in attendance. This year has been upsetting because many sports have been cancelled and some are still up in the air regarding if they will have a season or not.
Carly Rodaway is a freshman at Fort Hays State University. She plays volleyball and her position is right side hitter and also a setter sometimes. As of now Carly is not sure if she will start due to volleyball not having a season but she is very confident in her ability to play. She has been playing since she was 10 years old and loves every second of it. Carly plays volleyball because it drives her motivation and makes her strive to be a better player. She states “it has taught me many life lessons and given me many friendships that I would not have otherwise.” She describes volleyball as “a thrill unlike any feeling she’s ever felt and the biggest adrenaline rush in the world. Carly’s biggest motivation is her mother. “She is the hardest worker I have ever met in my life because she raised my brother and I while putting her self through nursing school.” She also describes her mother as someone who is always staying positive no matter what the situation is.
Carly is not sure if her team will have a season and but is pretty confident that fall season is not going to happen. However, there is a possibility for spring season and she is hoping for that to happen. During spring season the team will compete in matches against schools in the same conference and some small tournaments. Carly does not plan to play professional volleyball. She is looking forward to getting her degree and to playing volleyball as long as she can until her career is over. She is upset that covid has taken her freshman year, but she and her team still continue to train everyday just not in competition with other schools.
Story Record:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13jwFSPStVFtF6eyYj3F6jmvPctKPSpxDpZ-fZy96aAU/edit?usp=sharing
It looks like this could be a great story, Jordan, thanks!
The content is good and it just needs to be rearranged it into a more traditional news style.
First, please review the beat story and story sheet instructions. There’s no need for you to complete the “importance” area. Originally, that was going to be feedback from me, and I’ll probably remove it for next semester.
Still, the story sheet does suggest you are struggling to focus your stories. You could do a series on athletes, and that’s essentially what you proposed to do. To make one story broader, for part of a series, you just need a regular tag line. One example would be what the Kansas Reflector does with its opinion pieces:
The Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Danny Caine is the owner of The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas.
https://kansasreflector.com/2020/10/20/27000-plus-reasons-not-to-celebrate-amazons-new-centers-in-kansas/
In other words, just a sentence or two to explain how each story fits into the series and how the information serves the needs of the readers.
Once you have a general statement categorizing the story as part of a larger series with a more general meaning, you can focus on this story– one FHSU volleyball player.
If nothing else, just revise this with a focus, from beginning to end, on your subject, Carly Rodaway. If you can, add an article title that brings out something important and central to your profile of her, and add a couple of sentences at the end or beginning, to set up the importance of this profile.
I know it is hard to avoid since the pandemic is driving a lot of things right now, but see if you can find a way to write your lede that is more focused on Carly and her story. Find a nugget of info about her that is unique or that will be the driving/central theme of the story and see if you can build off that instead of just relying on COVID to be the set up.
For example, you could use her relationship to her mother and her mom’s involvement in the medical field to parallel what is going on in the world with difficulties if you want to go down that route. The story could be about how Carly leans on family during these tough times and maybe how the vb team has been a secondary family.
I think the biggest thing you can do is find a main theme you want to focus on (such as family bonds and using that as strength) and then ask some follow up questions that are more central on that. We want to know Carly the person not just Carly the volleyball player. Once you have more info on her and some quotes from her about family and maybe from her mom if you can arrange that, you will have a really solid story that you can build on.
Let us know if you have any questions on how to take that step, but you have a great start here!