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Region reports
Compiled by DOUG ROBERSON
The Daily Press in Newport News, Va., decided to break up its college basketball preview into different formats. The Press published a four-page wrap in late November that asked the same questions about each team in its coverage area. The paper's beat writers devised questions that would give readers easily digestable nuggets into all facets of the teams, without the volumes of copy that previews can sometimes turn into. The Press plans on coming back in early January with another set of previews as the teams go into conference season. Sports editor Doug Roberson said they decided to do their previews that way because he felt doing a traditional preview on the teams in mid- November, when the meaty-part of the important conference season doesn't start until January, was unnecessary. The Daily Press lost three positions in the latest round of Tribune cuts: a reporter and two clerks. All three positions had been vacant. — Doug Roberson,
No report.
Because of the large size of the Great Lakes Region, the decision this summer was made to break up the annual region meeting into two parts that would enable more participants an opportunity to benefit from APSE functions. Part one, the North/West version of the Great Lakes Region meeting, was Nov. 8 in Minneapolis, drawing 27 people from 15 newspapers from Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. Part two, the South/East version of the Great Lakes Region meeting, was Nov. 14 in Indianapolis with more than 20 people in attendance. The North/West meeting included a special section session with Orlando Sentinel deputy sports editor Roger Simmons; a columnist panel with Patrick Ruesse of the Minneapolis Star- Tribune and Michael Hunt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel among others; and one-onone section critiques among various editors in attendance, including APSE president Glen Crevier. The South/East meeting included sessions on the role of the copy editor today and how to motivate copy editors and how copy editors can stay motivated; layering pages with Indianapolis Star assistant managing editor Scott Goldman; small group critiques; and the ever-growing role of the Internet and the reality of the new world we're entering.
In other Great Lakes Region news: The Midland (Mich.) Daily News recently published a collection of stories on the growth of freshmen earning playing time on varsity teams. A local football team had a freshman at quarterback this season for the first time in school history and it led to the series. The paper discovered that recreation programs (AAU, etc.) are a big reason why kids are more physically/emotionally/ mentally able to compete at a younger age in varsity sports. The Ann Arbor (Mich.) News published "Unrivaled," a hard-cover book on the Michigan-Ohio State football rivalry. The book includes News photographs — some never published before — from the 1930s on, and chapters written by the Ann Arbor News sports staff. The Wisconsin State Journal produced an 18-page special section on Barry Alvarez, who will retire as Wisconsin football coach after the team's bowl game. The section included columns by Andy Baggot and Tom Oates, an exclusive interview with Alvarez by Tom Mulhern and a look the coach's first team at Wisconsin, which went 1-10 but laid the foundation for the team's Rose Bowl victory three years later. There was also a quick-hitting look at the highs and lows of each season under Alvarez and a graphic that showed every win, loss and tie during his tenure. The Chicago Tribune produced a special eight-page sports wrap every day of the baseball playoffs and through the White Sox's march to the World Series title. In addition, the Tribune produced a commemorative book that was published two days after the final out of the Series against the Houston Astros. The Plain Dealer in Cleveland finished its first season producing "Big College Sunday," an eight-page stand-alone college football section that appeared Sundays during the season. The section was produced from existing space and included coverage of Ohio State and the Big Ten as well as the top 25, Mid- American Conference and Division III teams. — Brad Zimanek,
The addition of the American Hockey League's Iowa Stars and Wells Fargo Arena to the local sporting scene prompted the Des Moines Register to launch a weekly page devoted to hockey. It runs every Thursday and includes a feature story from beat writer Lisa Colonno, as well as schedules, stats and notes about the Des Moines Buccaneers of the U.S. Hockey League, the Iowa and Iowa State non-varsity teams, the two Des Moines-based high school teams and the Midwest NHL teams. Feedback from readers has been overwhelmingly positive. The Hornets fell into The Oklahoman's lap six weeks before the NBA season started, creating a lot of shuffling. The paper published a Hornets preview section Oct. 30 that introduced readers to the players through bios and portraits of them taken at landmarks throughout Oklahoma City. The Oklahoman also launched Sports Monday, a tab section that replaced its normal Monday broadsheet. It is between 28 and 32 pages and features a Main Event enterprise package on a doubletruck each Monday. Prior to the section, The Oklahoman had very few advertisements in the Monday section and ads have really picked up. "We've also gotten more positive feedback on this section than from anything we've done as long as I've been at The Oklahoman," Oklahoman sports editor Mike Sherman said. The Southeast Missourian published a 24-page basketball tab covering the 21 high schools and Southeast Missouri State's men's and women's teams. It was included in the Nov. 22 edition. The Missourian also concluded an occasional series of stories on local athletes who overcome challenges, including a two-time Paralympic Games competitor, a golfer who plays from a wheelchair who struck a hole in one and a high school football player who played with a prosthetic leg. — Scott Dochterman,
The Mid-Atlantic Region held its annual meeting in State College, Pa., at the Penn Stater Hotel Conference Center. Twentytwo sports editors and 10 students from the Center for Sports Journalism listened to lunch speaker John Curley, former CEO of Gannett and co-founder of the Center for Sports Journalism. Marie Hardin, associate director of research at the Center for Sports Journalism, and Gene Foreman, former managing editor of Philadelphia Inquirer and Penn State professor, also led sessions. A panel of Jerry Micco (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Emilio Garcia-Ruiz (Washington Post) and Randy Harvey (Baltimore Sun) gave editors ideas on how to improve their sections immediately. A representative of the Dew Action Sports tour implored editors to do a better job of covering action sports. The day-long meeting concluded with critiques of region sections. — Ron Fritz, Wilmington News Journal
More than 20 sports editors came to the Hartford Courant on Nov. 7-8 for the Northeast Region's fall meeting. The meeting started with a panel on ESPN's impact on sports writing, based on the recent University of Missouri study. Panelists included ESPN's Jim Cohen, a co-creator of ESPN shows such as "Cold Pizza" and "Pardon the Interruption," Hartford Courant sports writer Paul Doyle and Boston Globe NBA writer Peter May. The next panel was highly anticipated as the "Agatollah," the Chicago Tribune's Lee Gordon, spent 90 minutes on ways to better organize and present agate. Some editors showed off their own best ideas. Highlights included the Poughkeepsie Journal's comprehensive coverage of the Empire State Games, the Buffalo News' Bills preview sections and the Finger Lakes Times' (Geneva, N.Y.) new high school page. APSE third vice president Greg Brownell updated editors on efforts to increase small-newspaper membership. In region business, Chris Sciria, from The Citizen in Auburn, N.Y. became the Northeast's new chair as The Journal News' (White Plains, N.Y.) Mark Leary stepped down due to health reasons. The Boston Globe's Joe Sullivan was unanimously elected the Northeast Region's new vice chair. The region also selected Auburn, N.Y., as the site of the spring 2006 meeting, which will be May 7-8. The region will hold its second annual writing contest for small newspapers after national judging in March. — Chris Sciria, The Citizen (Auburn, N.Y.)
In November, Oregonian high school sports reporter Doug Binder wrote Second Wind: Sheryl Page's Journey, a two-part story on a high school senior who emerged from a life of poverty and neglect to become one of the state's top cross country runners. Binder spent months with Page and her new adopted family at home, school and meets and joined editors in plumbing court records and to uncover facts that neither Page nor her adopted parents knew. The result was a poignant and unvarnished tale of Page's past, present and hopeful, but uncertain, future. Earlier this fall staff writer Rachel Bachman exposed a four-year decline in performance and academic support in the Oregon State football program, supported by internal correspondence, school records and testimony by former players. As a result of Bachman's reporting, the university moved to find a new director for the athletic department's academic services unit and coach Mike Riley said he would alter his assistant coaches' duties to more closely track athletes' academic performance. Columnist John Canzano arrived early in Houston to cover the Hurricane Katrina evacuation prior to staffing the University of Oregon's football season opener. In the course of his reporting, he met Ronald Miller, a 24-year-old linen factory worker who used a makeshift raft to save the eight other people — including six children — with whom he lived in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. After reading of Miller, whom the children now call "Rescue Ronald," Oregonian readers in six states set up a fund to support the group for a year and send Miller to vocational school. The Seattle Times started its Olympics coverage Nov. 22 — 80 days out — with a weekly Olympics page Tuesdays. The page highlights local athletes, follows national trends and looks at upcoming events. — Ron Matthews, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
With the end of the Birmingham Joint Operating Agreement and the shutdown of the Birmingham Post-Herald, The Birmingham News now publishes a Saturday sports section. Previously, the News published a sports section six days a week. The Commercial Appeal in Memphis put out an unscheduled special section on the career of DeAngelo Williams, probably the University of Memphis' finest football player ever and the player who ranks fourth in career rushing yardage in the NCAA. One of the newsroom artists drew a Mount Rushmore of famous athletes who played at Memphis, featuring Williams, Penny Hardaway (well, he WAS a good college player!), Keith Lee (well, he WAS a good college player!) and Larry Finch (ditto). The illustration paired well with the story about where Williams ranked at the school among the athletic hierarchy. We've all used numbers to supplement game or big-event coverage. The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville produced a 14- page special section on the annual Florida- Georgia game based solely on By The Numbers. Rather than player or feature stories, the section was a By The Numbers look at how 60 different numbers between 0 and 100 apply to this century-old series. The section worked because of a lot of research and up-to-date reporting that made the numbers relevant today. Jimmy Creed, who is leaving as sports editor of the Anniston (Ala.) Star at the end of the year, has co-written a book with former NASCAR driver Donnie Allison. The book, Donnie Allison: As I Recall, is a collection of stories and anecdotes from the former driver. The book is available at all major bookstores and Amazon.com. The Southeast Region will meet during the afternoon March 4 at the World Gate in Kissimmee, Fla., the same hotel where the APSE contest judging will be conducted. The meeting will be wrapped up before the judging begins. — Chet Fussman, Florida Times-Union
The Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise news staff is in temporary accommodations in its downtown office after Hurricane Rita blew the roof off the building and flooded the third-floor newsroom. Sports editor Michael Peters was part of a team that relocated to the offices of the Houston Chronicle for a week and a half to put out online editions of the newspaper. Sports writer F.A. Krift waited in hours of evacuation traffic the day before the storm so he could tell the stories of Southeast Texans fleeing to other parts of the state. After power was restored and people started returning to the area, The Enterprise sports staff got back to covering sports. It kept track of high school football — games were played on 12 different days in the final four weeks of the regular season — and provided special coverage of the Houston Astros' first appearance in the World Series. Repairs to the newsroom should be completed early in 2006. — Michael Peters, Beaumont Enterprise
No report. • • • Sports editors should direct interesting news at their papers to their region chairs. The chairs send their reports to Doug Roberson of the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press, who compiles the newsletter story.
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