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High school sports provides positive learning environment
Albert College's Winston Chen defends against Greenwoods V. Flatt in boys high school basketball action. Greenwood went on to win the game 51-42.
In a world of professional sports that is so focused on winning and losing, covering high school sports has been a nice change.
The attitude is always positive. The players and coaches thoroughly enjoy what they do. Overall it provides a great, positive learning environment for the students as they try and learn the sport they love.
I realized the difference in the atmosphere this past week when I was covering a high school basketball game.
The game was in Belleville between Albert College and Greenwood College.
The two teams were evenly matched at the start but Albert College ended up losing 51-42. Full Game Story
The lost was their third of the season, dropping their record to 1-3.
After the game, I noticed a player sitting on the Albert bench. He seemed down and disappointed that his team had lost.
I approached him for an interview.
“What did you think of the game today?” I asked.
““It was very good, very intense and we played a great game,” the player responded.
After a few more questions, I asked him about their season.
“The season is going great, we are putting in a lot of effort and the games that we have won we have done a great job in,” he responded.
It was somewhat surprising that he wasn’t disappointed in the loss. In his mind, as long as the team tried their best and put in a good effort, he was happy.
The Albert College coach responded the exact same way.
She was positive and upbeat and commented on what her players did well.
“Tons and tons of learning today, she said. “We hadn’t played Greenwood yet, so it was good practice and a great learning experience.”
You would never expect a positive response from a coach who’s team just lost.
Then I though back on all of the interviews I have done with high school coaches and players this season. I couldn’t remember a single negative response.
Sure everyone likes to win but with high school sports, winning isn’t everything. It really only matters if you enjoyed the game, learned something new and had fun in the process.
Play for the love of the game
I have been covering high school sports for about three months now.
I’ve been to quite a few high schools, covered a wide variety of sports and interviewed many different players and coaches.
I have spent many hours observing the high school sports atmosphere and, I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every minute of it.
Now you may be wondering, ‘Why? How can you honestly enjoy covering high school sports?’
An argument against it might go something like this.
How could any aspiring sports journalist like covering high school sports? They are just high school students. They aren’t professionals. They aren’t top athletes competing at the top level and most of them will never play professional sport past their teenage years.
Any one of those points backs up my reason for enjoying high school sports.
It’s sports at its grassroots level. These kids play for the love of the game. They all genuinely love the sport they are playing and are all out their to have fun.
As a sports fan it’s quite refreshing.
You don’t have money involved. Winning isn’t a live or death matter. The atmosphere is positive and kids are learning how to play the game they love. For the most part, these kids are playing the game the way it was meant to be played.
Professional sports doesn’t have too much of that anymore. The game has turned into a business where it’s all about the money. Players are playing the game to make a living. Wins and losses have a lot more consequences. There is a lot more negativity.
So next time, when you’re playing or watching your favourite sport, stop for a second and remember why you play the game. Relax, enjoy it and have some fun. Sure most sports are competitive and nobody likes to lose. Just remember why we play the game and what made you love sports in the first place.
Quinte Sporting News officially launches new hyperlocal website
I am proud to announce the launch of my new hyperlocal news website Quinte Sporting News.
This site will feature in-depth coverage an analysis on all high school sports in the Greater Quinte Region. It will provide game stories; highlight videos, photo galleries, and podcasts and live, interactive chats.
You can follow Quinte Sporting News on Twitter through @MendlerVision or Like it on Facebook by visiting my fan page.
This site is part of a project taken on by a group of seven third year Journalism: online, print and broadcast students at Loyalist College in Belleville.
Together my peers and I will be providing Belleville, Hastings and Prince Edward County and the rest of the quinte region with extensive, up-to-date coverage on all the hot-button issue. The websites range from environmental stability, to sports, to politics and news.
We officially launched our websites at a press conference in the college boardroom earlier this morning where we had to quickly talk about out websites.
Click here for the official college press release
Here is what I had to say:
I love sports. I am very passionate about all sports…hockey, baseball football…you name it, if it is a sport I probably know something about it.
So when I sat down to pick a topic for my site, it was obvious to me that it was going to be about sports. The task I had was finding an area of sports that I felt was under covered or underserved by the mainstream media
I eventually landed on high school sports. There are tons of games being played every week but local media organizations don’t have the time, money or resources to provide the coverage it deserves.
There are a ton of friends, parents, grandparents, family members and other community members that are interested in how a certain high school team is doing. I’m offering a one-stop site for everyone to get all the news they need to know about high school sports in the Quinte region.
Last off, in order to do something well I believe that you have to be passionate and motivated. I believe I have both of these traits when it comes to covering sports and providing the community with the high school sports coverage it deserves.
Below are the links to all seven hyperlocal sites:
