As Promised ...

It's the rodeo photo. Enjoy that one -- it's on me.

Greetings from Sacramento!

Forgive me SJI for I have sinned, it has been nearly a month since my last blog post. I have certainly missed the comradery that we've developed in our time at Poynter, especially the jokes. Being out here in Sacramento, California has been quite the experience; I've only been here for one week and I am already in love with the left coast. The women are beautiful and the scenery isn't too shabby either; I could definitely get used to this. But this blog is about you guys, my classmates...

Shemar: I honestly can say that I wouldn't have any of this if it wasn't for your help. You have been looking out since my sophomore year at HU and your help has not gone unnoticed. Needless to say, neither has your uncanny resemblance to a few stand up comedians, so if your journalism career gets too monotonous you can always try stand up comedy.

Tariq: 'Reporting live from outside a Mexican Restaurant in Orlando, Florida...Tariq Lee, in the eye of the storm.' Don't sweat the hate that we're receiving from fellow SJI grads--who shall remain nameless--they're just jealous that they ain't get the scoop on the hurricane. However, I

think everyone will know you from your world famous hair commercials. If not, there's always Dru Hill...

Malik (aka Shabazz): You have been the strongest out of all of us, simply by being a Knicks fan...in public...even after drafting Reynaldo Balkman. I applaud your courage and I only hope that one day the Knicks can get to .500 in the regular season. Go Pants! Salami, eggs and bacon my brotha...

Mama and Isis: I miss you guys too. Mama, good looking out on the sports checks. It took us a few days, but we finally got on the same page and were even making some of the same guesses--go figure. Ice Boogy, u got bars and can write your butt off...nuff said. We gotta link up while your out in Santa Cruz though.

KG: Needless to say, you're my favorite KG. That other guy gives you a bad name. You definitely provided a lot of comedic moments at SJI. Still waiting for your autograph on my copy of Up.

Alex: I now understand things that were totally unclear to me when class first started at SJI...certain, behavioral patterns. Thanks for clearing that up buddy. Gotta catch 'em all...

Didier: I'm just gonna put it out there, you look exactly like the dude from He Got Game. End of story, now that I got that off my chest, it's been a pleasure getting to know you while at Poynter. You're like Barry Bonds of sports checks--minus the whole steroids thing.

Martinez and Cheng: Don't think I forgot about you guys. Martinez, you can take a joke like none other, but you can also be funny when you do actually grace us with your input. Cheng, it's been an adventure but not one I'll soon forget. I look forward to hearing more from you in the future. If your ability to spell Dontrelle Willis is any indication of what's yet to come, you should have an awfully bright future ahead of you.

I look forward to hearing from each of you very soon. Sorry if I took up the whole page, but I had a lot to say. Until next time...

P.S. - To finally answer Leon's age old question: It always was Snoop Doggy Dog.

Greetings from Utah

Hey all, I'm bringing the blog back.

So you guys may have heard about my health. I'm ailing more or less. But that's for another time. I'm in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I'm working for Utah's leading newspaper, The Salt Lake Tribune.

You might have heard we had a big week last week. In same issue, we covered the state's first firing squad death penalty sentence since 1996 and also Utah joining the Pac-10. And what was my big story of the week? The rodeo kid.

On my first day, I went out an hour to interview the high school state champion in bareback riding (trying to stay on a bucking bronco without a saddle). I had a great interview, and I even got a little riding time on the bucking machine. That photo will come later.

I've been trying this week to be a good volunteer for stories. Sometimes it can be confusing when I'm coming on to a story without prior knowledge of the situation, but it seems to be par for the course, at least for the first few weeks. I'm trying not to ask questions when I can look things up myself, but the problem is that sometimes people forget I don't know to do certain things -- like file a photo request for a story. Oof.

It was also frustrating to be sick as I'm adjusting to life in Salt Lake City. I had to take a day off to see the doctor (I'll leave out details). I've been waiting to jump into this internship so long, and finally I had assignments only to have to push them off another day. I'm a person who enjoys being busy, and not knowing many people in Salt Lake means that work is one of the few outlets I have where I can be social. I'm hoping that as I heal, I'll gain some steam and eventually feel a degree of command over my assigned tasks.

So I think this week, I'll be more open to asking questions about the systems and procedures we use, and I'll try to be more diligent with my background research. Things fly a little loose around here, and I can tell at the professional level, people want to see your results, even if you're new. I think last week I didn't want to stick out and be the one asking questions every two seconds. But if I want to do my job well, I need to learn it better.

Looking forward to hearing how the rest of you are doing. Keep up the good fight.

- KG

SJI Class of 2010 Video

The memories, the laughs, the friendships, the knowledge, the sports checks, the Leonisms, the early mornings and late nights. It's all here in the 2010 Sports Journalism Institute Class of 2010 recap video. Enjoy!

Meet Steve: Making the World Safer For All of Us

When we were learning from Poynter instructor Al Tompkins today about various technologies and electronic possibilities that were making our heads spin, he said something that struck a chord with me: Don't be afraid to do stories about the average person. After all, most of our readers are average people, and who doesn't like the everyman? The Joe Blue-collars of the world?

It is in this spirit -- and in the spirit of doing something a little different -- that I present to you Mr. Steve Swafford.

Steve (pardon the informal address, but we're talking about Mr. Everyman here) is the evening security guard at The Poynter Institute. Monday through Friday, 4:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., Steve is responsible for maintaining the physical integrity of this beloved journalism institution. In layman's terms, he makes sure the people who are there are supposed to be there.

When he has some down time, he watches the Tampa Bay Rays games and shakes his head at the lousy officiating. You can bet some umpires would make the right calls if Steve got in their ear about it (Yes, that's a warning, Jim Joyce).

We've seen Steve most days we've been here, but no one's really gotten to know much about him. For my classmates, I'm laying the cards out on the table.

NAME: Steve "Sweetness" Swafford

OCCUPATION: Evening sheriff and lawman at the Poynter Institute; He'll have been there a year in July

INTERESTS: He likes fishing. He used to go trout fishing all the time, but there isn't any opportunities for that in Florida. Now he's learning saltwater fishing ("I have some tutors for that"). He doesn't own his own boat, but his brothers and some of his friends do. "Other than that, just relaxing and kicking back," he says. Steve is a chill guy.

FAVORITE BANDS: Steve has a lot of favorite bands -- too many to choose one. His favorite genre of music is classic rock, and he cites Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd as two groups he would jam out to. He's never been much of a Rolling Stones guy, though. I might dig into why that is later.

FAVORITE FOOD: He loves Mexican, but where does a guy like Steve go for his grub? "Oh, Los Mariachis," he says without hesitation. "Their chimichangas are the best I've ever had."

WHAT HE LOVES ABOUT HIS JOB: "I like it all," Steve says.

"The people here are all great, the atmosphere is good, the working conditions are good, I have a good crew working under me -- there's a lot of things I love about this job," he says. "But I like the people the most though. I meet people from all over the world."

Me? I'm just glad I finally got to meet Steve.

"QUESTION NUMBER ONE!!!"

There's been a little chatter about the infamous "sports checks" at SJI. Let's talk about them for a second.

Sports check is basically a current events quiz about sports news and other trivia that takes place whenever Greg Lee and Leon Carter feel like shouting "SPORTS CHECK" or raining punishment on us for being too smart for our own good. Sometimes, we know when the quiz is going to be (every morning after or during breakfast), but sometimes, the quiz is to knock us down a peg and show us we aren't as clever as we think we are. Sometimes even when we are prepared, we discover we aren't as clever as we think we are.

However ...

The thing I've noticed as time goes on is that we are all prepared for a sports check at anytime. Sometimes Leon yells, "QUESTION NUMBER ONE" just to throw us off, but everyone moves for their notepad and a pen. We treat most of Leon's threats seriously, at least for a minute.

And the preparation is the most important thing. We've all been watching ESPN at night and in the morning. We read the St. Petersburg Times and typically either USA Today or the New York Times sports sections. We know scores and stats, records and rankings, names and numbers. We may not know every answer, but just about everyone is ready for the softballs.

And our sessions and this preparation has kept us sharper and more observant of the industry. The other day, I read an ESPN.com story about Randy Moss firing a new agent and saying he was available for the taking. Normally, this would have passed by my mind. However, this time I notice it was attributed to a Boston Herald story.

I went to the Herald story and noticed Moss had called the reporter directly (not the other way around), signifying a good relationship with the source. I went to the Boston.com story, and to Greg's eternal chagrin, found no mention of Moss' quotes from the interview.

I'm not trying to make judgements on the journalists involved (note the lack of names), but I noticed that someone had inside access to an athlete that the competition did not. This is something that happens everyday in a variety of publications, but it's something I would have never have noticed if SJI had not forced me to:

a) read these sources

b) be aware of who breaks news

c) be aware of the information competing stories provide (or miss)

d) be aware of how reporters break news

I definitely acknowledge that SJI sports checks, irritating though they can be, have been one of the most helpful tools we've had in our quest to become better informed journalists. Information is indeed what the business is about, whether it's knowing inside information on a story or knowing what you have to do to keep up or beat your competition. And we have to be constantly vigilant, because we won't know when we'll need to be able to keep our wits about us.

Sorry Greg. But thanks for the checks.

On William Ernest Henley

One of the SJI traditions is to memorize and be able to recite — smoothly — the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley. I have stuggled in this task as much as anybody. Our fearless leader, Leon Carter, has told us if "Invictus" were a "hip to the hippitty hop" song, we'd be dancing down the street while singing it. I decided I might better be able to relate if I knew a little something about the author.

The following information is from a Princeton volume of modern biographies, and the article on Henley is by L. Cope Cornford.

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul

William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) was a British man who contracted tuberculosis when he was 12. By the age of 21, it was apparent that he would have to amputate his left leg below the knee and possibly his right as well. He sought the help of Joseph Lister, a surgeon who was looked down upon at the time, and the doctor was able to save the foot. However, Henley was forced to stay in the hospital for the next 20 months.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced, nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed

So as the poet was bedridden, he made the most of it. He learned Spanish, Italian and German during his stay, and he wrote a volume of poems titled In Hospital about his experiences. The volume is considered his most famous, and it is also when he wrote "Invictus."

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

Henley wrote for several British publications as a journalist and a poet, but most of them failed throughout his lifetime. Yet he managed to befriended several luminary authors of the era. One of his compatriots, Robert Louis Stevenson, based the character of Long John Silver in Treasure Island off of the hearty one-legged Henley.

It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul

Hopefully this post might provide brief insight into the creation and creator of the poem.

Disney Soccer: Game On

As a sports journalist in training, I'm going to be in a lot of unexpected places. A lot of us dream of covering the Super Bowl or World Series, but we'll start covering 13-year-olds playing soccer.

That's where we were on Saturday, at the Disney Memorial Weekend Soccer Shootout. The tournament, sponsored by Dannon and hosted at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fl., hosts more than 320 teams of aspiring futbol athletes. Add in the World Cup hype, and this is a veritable soccer circus.

Our job: cover a U-14 soccer game between two elite Florida boys teams. It turned out to be a rout, as the Florida Rush beat IMG Academy in a 4-0 game. The star forward of Rush had an adolescent edge in both speed and size, and he simply owned IMG's back line. It was an interesting reminder how much a factor early puberty can be in this age bracket.

Lacking a pressbox, we sat in the stands -- a unique experience, to say the least. While we didn't get comfy, air-conditioned seats and courtesy snacks, we got to sit among the parents, who had their own charms. Hearing them whisper encouragement under their breath and talk to each other about the game brings a certain kind of grounding to sports journalism. It was nice, while not being a fan, to be among them.

Favorite moment: I took the star forward aside to ask him how he managed to score three goals. I learned these kids, despite not being familiar with reporters at their games, know how to showboat for the media.

"That's my average game," he said.

Journalists: Beware a star in the making.