Sports Journalism Done Right

An article that ran in The Red and Black on Monday, March 23, about the Gym Dog’s second-place finish at the SEC championships contained several examples of good editing and design that I felt merited comment. However, there were a few minor areas in the piece that I thought could have been slightly improved.

I really liked the headline “TOO LITTLE TOO LATE: Gym Dogs take second at Secs” because it accomplished just about everything a headline is supposed to do. It makes clear that the team took second place and also explains to the reader that despite their strong finish at the meet, early mistakes were the reason the team failed to bring home an SEC championship. The headline, although maybe slightly cliché, does enough to pique the reader’s interest. The deck does its job by explaining what the headline couldn’t and clarifying for readers that falls on the beam were the culprit behind the team’s second-place finish.

The strong headline and summary deck allowed the writer and editor to get a little creative with the lead, “That darn beam,” and the first few graphs, feeling no urgency to restate what was already made clear in the headline and deck. The short and to the point lead works well with the somewhat unconventional coverage of a sports news event that characterizes the entire piece.

One of the few ways that I thought the piece might have been improved is through some further text dedicated to covering the fact that Gym Dogs coach, Suzanne Yoculan, took home yet another SEC Coach of the Year award. This fact is inserted briefly into the third graph as part of a quote attribution to Coach Yoculan, but I feel like winning this award for what I believe is the 6th time is pretty remarkable and therefore should have been given more coverage in the article. I understand that the main topic of the article is the Gym Dog’s second-place finish but I think the editor could have improved the article by suggesting that the writer include some more information about Coach Yoculan’s award toward the end of the piece.

In class we have been discussing the importance of good photos and this article is a great example of a piece that was vastly improved by the use of a strong photo. The main photo of a senior gymnast holding up two fingers with a disappointed look on her face went well with the theme of the story. This photo was high up on the page and very prominent, clarifying to the reader the dominant element of the story. Another photo of SEC all-around champ, Courtney Kupets, was placed lower down on the page, forming an L-shape with the main photo. This was a good design technique for this particular piece because the article first explained the reasons behind the Gym Dog’s second-place finish, and later highlighted the bright spot of the team’s weekend, Kupet’s all-around award.