TheLounge
09-10-2007, 03:42 PM
Hello again. Yep, I’m still here, even though the Lounge has been on hiatus for a couple weeks. No, it wasn’t vacation and I wasn’t sick. Things just got so hectic at work the Sports Lounge had to take a backseat for a fortnight.
But I’m back and hopefully better than ever (that remains to be seen) and with the start of the 2007-08 high-school sports season, it’s time to put the lazy days of summer behind us. The Lounge and uber-reporter Emanuel Lee put those days behind us a few weeks ago as we geared up for what has become our biggest project of the school year: The Daily Journal’s annual Football Preview sections. Much like the NASCAR season which has its “Super Bowl” as the first race on the schedule —*the Daytona 500 —*the beginning of the school year is our biggest time of the year because of the football preview.
There are only a handful of people who truly know what goes into putting the section out every year so I thought I’d use this first Sports Lounge of the 2007-08 school season to shed some light on what is easily the most hectic time of the year for the Daily Journal sports staff.
It all begins in July. I meet with our publisher to determine how much space is needed for the preview. We tried to go with one, 20-page section, instead of the normal two-day, two-section preview we’ve used over the years. The 20-page pullout was a no-go but I did get the next best thing —*an 8-pager and 12-pager, which is better than the 8 and 8 we’ve had over the years.
Once we determine how much space and what days the sections will run, I put it on the backburner, knowing that I don’t have really get going on the sections until the start of fall practice, which is usually the third week of August. Once, Aug. 13 rolled around, it was time to put the sections into gear.
The first step is to split the 19 teams in the Daily Journal coverage area — the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division (eight teams), Ocean Division (eight teams), Sacred Heart Prep, Serra and the College of San Mateo. When divvying up the teams, I try to give Lee and I a good mix of the good and not-so-good. This year, I split up the teams based on familiarity with the teams: For example, Lee has a good rapport with the Woodside coach, I have a good relationship with the Sequoia staff. He’s talked frequently with the South City coach, while I’m almost part of the family with the Aragon coach. Not that it’s that big a deal. I believe the Daily Journal sports staff has the best relationships with Peninsula coaches in just about any sport.
Now that we know who is writing which stories, the phone calls begin. Some coaches are so used to these yearly previews, they’re on top of the ball: Answer or return phone calls and e-mail rosters and key players. Other coaches, not so much. Once we do get ahold of them, interviews can take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. Now do that nine or 10 times. That’s only half the battle. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to write each preview, put together the at-a-glance boxes and edit them. There are also the “Games to Watch” portion of each preview section as well as the introductory article that kicks off each section.
At least Lee’s job is mostly done at that point. Since the Lounge is also the sports editor, I get the added pleasure of laying out both sections, which includes finding art to be made into a graphic for the front page, find all the pictures in the Daily Journal archives, write all headlines and photo captions, as well as deciding which story goes where. To put it in perspective, I spent eight straight hours last Wednesday and Thursday putting the sections together.
To say the Labor Day weekend came at the right time is an understatement. But you know what? It’s all worth it. When you see the paper after all the toiling we did to get it done, there is a tremendous amount of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.
But I’m back and hopefully better than ever (that remains to be seen) and with the start of the 2007-08 high-school sports season, it’s time to put the lazy days of summer behind us. The Lounge and uber-reporter Emanuel Lee put those days behind us a few weeks ago as we geared up for what has become our biggest project of the school year: The Daily Journal’s annual Football Preview sections. Much like the NASCAR season which has its “Super Bowl” as the first race on the schedule —*the Daytona 500 —*the beginning of the school year is our biggest time of the year because of the football preview.
There are only a handful of people who truly know what goes into putting the section out every year so I thought I’d use this first Sports Lounge of the 2007-08 school season to shed some light on what is easily the most hectic time of the year for the Daily Journal sports staff.
It all begins in July. I meet with our publisher to determine how much space is needed for the preview. We tried to go with one, 20-page section, instead of the normal two-day, two-section preview we’ve used over the years. The 20-page pullout was a no-go but I did get the next best thing —*an 8-pager and 12-pager, which is better than the 8 and 8 we’ve had over the years.
Once we determine how much space and what days the sections will run, I put it on the backburner, knowing that I don’t have really get going on the sections until the start of fall practice, which is usually the third week of August. Once, Aug. 13 rolled around, it was time to put the sections into gear.
The first step is to split the 19 teams in the Daily Journal coverage area — the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division (eight teams), Ocean Division (eight teams), Sacred Heart Prep, Serra and the College of San Mateo. When divvying up the teams, I try to give Lee and I a good mix of the good and not-so-good. This year, I split up the teams based on familiarity with the teams: For example, Lee has a good rapport with the Woodside coach, I have a good relationship with the Sequoia staff. He’s talked frequently with the South City coach, while I’m almost part of the family with the Aragon coach. Not that it’s that big a deal. I believe the Daily Journal sports staff has the best relationships with Peninsula coaches in just about any sport.
Now that we know who is writing which stories, the phone calls begin. Some coaches are so used to these yearly previews, they’re on top of the ball: Answer or return phone calls and e-mail rosters and key players. Other coaches, not so much. Once we do get ahold of them, interviews can take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. Now do that nine or 10 times. That’s only half the battle. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to write each preview, put together the at-a-glance boxes and edit them. There are also the “Games to Watch” portion of each preview section as well as the introductory article that kicks off each section.
At least Lee’s job is mostly done at that point. Since the Lounge is also the sports editor, I get the added pleasure of laying out both sections, which includes finding art to be made into a graphic for the front page, find all the pictures in the Daily Journal archives, write all headlines and photo captions, as well as deciding which story goes where. To put it in perspective, I spent eight straight hours last Wednesday and Thursday putting the sections together.
To say the Labor Day weekend came at the right time is an understatement. But you know what? It’s all worth it. When you see the paper after all the toiling we did to get it done, there is a tremendous amount of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Nathan Mollat can be reached by e-mail: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 117.