How do you go from covering preps to a college beat?

i don't think i've read anything more true this year.

i've seen a complete lack of talent and a proven inability to report on deadline be completely thrown out the window in a case just like you're describing, ohiowriter.

it's pretty disheartening to ponder how many hard-working people with some skills and desire might be slaving away in the trenches while nothing more than a warm body gets promoted elsewhere in some twisted journalistic game of duck, duck, goose.

 

i was thinking exactly that with a "glug, glug" attached to the end.

 

Yeah, but my paper doesn't have a college beat writer, which brings up my question, because I'll have to move to another paper and I assume they wouldn't give me a college beat without any regular experience covering college.

 

NEVER sell yourself short Jay. The only thing stopping you, is you.

 

I think about the only way in this era is to go somewhere as a stronger or part-timer, somewhere with regular college beats, and kind of wait for the dominoes to fall.

I think the chances of moving from a prep beat somewhere small directly into a major college beat somewhere else is absolutely miniscule in 2008.

 

Heck, it doesn't have to be a major college beat. I live within 2 hours of three major cities with an abundance of Division 1 schools around each one of them. Few of them are in BCS conferences, most are in one-bid NCAA conferences for b-ball.

 

you get a job at a paper that has a college beat. there will be chances to move up from there.

 

Can you ask to cover more of the local colleges at your paper? You could get some clips from that and also network more with some of the writers that cover those schools.

 

Also, if you're willing to move, I think there are some Scout and Rivals sites that could use operators.