How do you approach game coverage?

Or you wind up writing a headline that says: "Jones gets head job at State U."

 

Maybe it makes me a hack, but I try to avoid using words like "had", "scored", "3-pointer" and even "grabbed" twice in a sentence or paragraph if I can help it.

"Jim Jones had 14 points for Podunk High, while Bob Smith scored 10 and grabbed nine rebounds. For Cornhole High, Tre'Darfrius Warren scored 20 points, including four 3-pointers. As a team, the Cornholers were 7-for-12 from beyond the arc."

To me, it keeps it from being repetitive and, as you're reading it, making your brain numb. As long as you don't overdo it (maybe 90 percent "hads" and "scoreds" to 10 percent "grabbed"), what's the harm? And if that means slipping in an occasional "corralled", then so be it. I'll be happy at the Podunk Press the rest of my life instead of dealing with a grumpy, crusty editor at the Big City Press.
At least until grid season, anyway, when we can freely talk about pigskins caroming off the hands of lanky receivers.

 

Since everybody is nitpicking...

Writing "scored 15 points" should never make it into a gamer, either.

Points are the only thing that can be scored, so it's redundant...unless you're covering the NBA, when you'd want to differentiate between points and bags of chronic.

 

^^^ So what would you write?

"Johnny Douchebag had 15 points."

"Johnny Douchebag scored 15."

 

Either is fine.

 

Gotcha. Maybe I'm a hack too, but I'm with Batman. That's how I approach my stories and I think it works. But given how much venom there has been on this thread for that type of writing, it looks like I'll spend the rest of my career at the Podunk Weekly News. I can't say I'm much interested in moving up the corporate ladder if all the copy editors at the Big City Daily News are going to change everything I write back to "Player A had 15 points, Player B had 12 points and Player C had 10 points. Player D had 10 rebounds."

Wow, how exciting.

 

I had a guy at my last shop who used that shitty, "it was a tale of two halves" lede. I asked him why, and he didn't have an answer. He just thought it was the best way to start the story. I suggested he change it, and he continued to argue with me.
So I googled the lede, printed off five gamers using it, then told him to go fuck himself.
Just thought I'd share.

 

I would tell people that any time the lede can be cut and pasted onto 500 other stories, it's usually not very good.

Plus, we always need new adventures for Elmer Cummings and Llove Torres.

 

yes
any lede that could have been written before the game sucks. doesn't mean it was written before the game but it reads like it could have been.
any lede that could go on many other stories sucks
any lede that uses a reality show reference sucks
any lede that references fantasy sports sucks
any lede that starts with a quote sucks

I hate bad ledes

 

I don't have an issue with "scored." There's nothing that will fuck up a story quicker than idiomatic gibberish. We're not reinventing language here. He scored 30 points. If you have excess creative energy to deal with when it comes with that, then go arrange floral centerpieces.