Sports coverage is vital for die-hard fans around the world. If, heaven forbid, a parent-teacher conference gets scheduled on the same night as the Final Four games during March Madness, fans rely on replays, highlights and news stories to make up for the missed action.
For fans that are looking for a little more than game break-downs and box scores, sports columnists offer a new spin on sports writing.
Take it from sports columnist Sean Star.
“It’s nice to be able to interject your opinion and feel as though you have a voice.”
Star writes for Colorado State University’s student-run newspaper, The Collegian. As the former sports editor
The Rocky Mountain Collegian
of the paper, Star was asked to write a weekly column for the paper this year. After talking with the new sports editor, Nick Hubel, they decided the column should mainly focus on CSU sports in order to appeal to The Collegian’s audience.
“I thought in the fall, especially with the column running on Mondays, I’d focus on the football games,” said Star. “They’re obviously of huge interest with the students. It maybe has declined a little bit in the past few years but you can definitely tell that football is what everyone is talking about.”
Star’s column, “The Star Report,” has focused on several aspects of the CSU football team so far this season. One of his latest columns, “No Job is Safe These Days,” discusses the quarterback position under first year head coach, Steve Fairchild.
Star began generating ideas for his column based on student interest being directed toward who the quarterback is. After starter Billy Farris was pulled during CSU’s homecoming game on Oct. 11, 2008, against Texas Christian University that position seemed to be up in the air.
“When Farris was taken out it was kind of an odd thing,” said Star. “[Fairchild] had always said Farris was the starter and then he put in this young guy in the middle of the game.”
What made it such an odd thing was the fact that the game was not a blow out in either team’s favor. The score was 13-7, TCU; a one-possession ball game. According to Star, coaches don’t usually put in their backups until the very end or in the case of a lopsided game.
Star also pointed out Fairchild’s contradictory actions once backup Klay Kubiak was in.
“I don’t know if this came out in my column, but I thought the most interesting thing was that he didn’t put Farris back in. I thought if you’re going to pull a guy that quickly, why wouldn’t you pull the backup, too?”
Star was able to ask Fairchild that very question at his post-game press conference.
“The only question I did ask was ‘Why didn’t you put him back in?’ and all I got was that short quote; ‘You know I didn’t, maybe I should’ve,’” said Star. “I don’t know if that was sarcastic or not.”
- [A video excerpt from Coach Fairchild's press conference following CSU's 13-7 loss against Texas Christian Univeristy]in which Star was able to ask him about not pulling Klay Kubiak (video from Collegian.com]
Following the press conference, Star was then allowed into the locker room, where he has the hard job of interviewing players.
“It’s tough to go up to the players after a loss. That’s when you go up to the guys you know and have formed some kind of relationship with.”
After gathering quotes, Star then had to sit down and sort through the information he had to write his column.
“It’s definitely harder than just writing a story about the game where you get the main quotes and the story just kind of writes itself,” said Star. “With columns you have to do a little more enterprising.”
In the case of The Star Report’s column, “No Job is Safe these Days,” Star had to do some research on CSU’s past starting quarterbacks and backup quarterbacks under former head coach. Star compared Kubiak’s statistics up to this point in the season with Farris’ for the entire season as a backup to Caleb Hanie.
Star then ‘interjects his own opinion.’
In this story, that opinion is skepticism of Fairchild’s philosophy regarding pulling players who aren’t playing up to his standards.
Looking back at the column, Star sees opportunities for a follow-up piece.
“I wish I would’ve talked more to some of the other guys like Klay about what it’s like being on the sidelines,” said Star. “Because everyone always says ‘I’m always ready to play,’ but it seems like you really have to be with Fairchild because at any moment he could put anyone in.”
But follow-ups are another thing that differs between a sports column and a sports story.
“You always try to follow up on things if you can,” said Star. “With a column it’s a little different because it’s only once a week and you don’t know what’s going to happen before then.”
In the case of the CSU quarterback, the BCS rankings being released became a bigger issue requiring Star’s attention.
His column on Fairchild’s football team and his lack of hesitation to pull his pre determined “starters” provided more insight to the homecoming game than the stories written by other Collegian sportswriters.
Matt Stephens’ article focused on the missed opportunities by the Ram’s. Adam Bohlmeyer discussed the play of Kubiak. Neither article mentioned how unusual it was for a CSU starting quarterback to be pulled in a close game and not return.
It’s the insight of a columnist and the background information that he or she provides that make columns beneficial to readers. Columnists can cut through the surface information and go straight for the bigger issue, without being objective.
Although Star does bring up a good point as far as sport columnist go.
“I think it’s harder. You can make a lot of enemies as a columnist.”
That’s a risk columnists are willing to take for the sake of more in-depth reporting.
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- To hear what Sean Star’s peers think about the value of sports columns, click here. (Included are the voices of CSU students Weston Ackerman, Megan Nutter, Libby Popish, Steven Silver and Dan Bath)
- To view all of the editions of “The Star Report,” check out the archive by clicking here.
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