Team Engagement
From the first panel to the first pitch, day one of the Sports Journalism & Communications Boot Camp was jammed packed.
The morning started off with a panel of accomplished media members, including former player and current writer for the Chicago Tribune, Matt Bowen, former player and CBS broadcaster, Solomon Wilcots, AP NFL writer, Barry Wilner, and ESPN Digital Media’s Jason Romano. The panelists gave a brief overview of the state of the sports media industry and emphasized the importance of maintaining relationships on the field.
Attendees were then divided up into small groups where they moved through three informative breakout sessions. Bowen and Romano showed the participants how their knowledge of the game can provide them with an edge in the world of social media while BGSU faculty member, Kelly Green, explained the differences between games stories, features, and columns.
Groups also got the chance to get off the hot seat and take on the role of the media in a mock press conference exercise. After being prepped by Wilcots and Wilner, participants questioned BGSU head football coach, Dave Clawson, on the current state of his program. Attendees learned firsthand the importance of preliminary research in managing the fast pace of a sports media press conference.
After lunch, attendees heard from accomplished journalist and famed Sports Illustrated writer, Peter King, via video conference. King gave the participants some sound advice on a variety of topics ranging from best practices for managing their social media presence, to preparing themselves for a career in journalism, and even insight into how the editing process works.
Tom Walton, columnist for the local newspaper, the Toledo Blade, then spoke to the group about the column writing assignment that was to follow. Although the participants were given the opportunity to write on select subjects, Walton encouraged participants to blaze their own trail with honesty and sincerity within the confines of the prompts. With that advice in mind, attendees then began writing their own columns – one of which will be selected to appear in the Blade – with the help of BGSU faculty.
Once the deadline for column submissions had passed, participants boarded a bus to the Toledo to attend the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball game. Before they could enjoy the game as fans, the attendees put the lessons learned earlier in the day to the test during a press conference with Mud Hens GM Joe Napoli. Napoli provided everyone with a great understanding of the organization and the “media” in attendance asked some insightful questions off of which to build their columns for the next day.
The participants were fully immersed in the Mud Hens gameday experience as Eric Crouch and Nick Ferguson put on their best broadcasting hats during their appearance on the Mud Hens pregame show, “Around the Bases.” Charlie Batch, a fan favorite in Toledo, was the guest of honor as he was asked to throw out the first pitch of the game. It was a perfect strike – but you couldn’t expect anything less from the veteran quarterback. The attendees wrapped up the first day with a few solid few innings of Mud Hens baseball complete with burgers, hot dogs, of course, ice cream sundaes.
For more information about the Sports Journalism and Communications Boot Camp, click here.