Is there any way to avoid a preps gig as your first job?

I'll throw this down, too:
If you don't feel that you can make it work covering preps, then you don't have the confidence or the true desire to be a great sports journalist. The truly good ones can find good stories anywhere. And if you're really that good, you're not going to be on preps long. So why not challenge yourself?

 

Back in the heyday of our prep coverage, our bass ackwards management actually did it the other way. The worst prep reporters were promoted to full time college and pro beats while the best were left to toil in preps. Then when they'd get mad and leave for another job, management couldn't understand why.

 

I can see not liking to cover something, although it would seem like there should be a little more experience actually doing it first, but really wouldn't you just want to get your feet in the door doing whatever someone offered you to do? Preps, copy desk if they still have those, news, whatever? I personally am one who found preps to be rewarding. It gave me the freedom to do many, many types of stories. It was far more memorable covering a school that had 50 kids, tons of athletic success, and the community was absolutely in love with it but was being threatened with closure yearly (it eventually did after I left) than it ever has covering a big college or even a pro event. There are many more chances to develop relationships on the ground level. There's tons of chances to get out of your comfort zone and improve.

I sort of always took the approach early on to do whatever. I covered tons of wrestling and soccer early on. Never thought that would happen, but they were decent gigs and they taught me a lot. I couldn't see myself being in preps forever, but it definitely wasn't a bad place to start. A lot of good people have done a lot of good things on that level. I also never envisioned myself on the news side, but my last few years at actual newspapers that's where I was. And at a sizable metro at that.

I just don't see how you can be picky. Do whatever someone tells you they'll pay you to do.

 

I'm not sure this is the case anymore. Some of our major beat writers started out on preps, but they've all been on the beats for at least 10 years. There just isn't the turnover or opportunity like there once was. You could probably move up to a smaller college beat quickly, but if we're talking D-I or pros, not likely, unless you're REALLY good.

 

^ I think BDC99 is right. If you go around reading bios of writers that "made it" (whatever that means) fairly recently, very few of them did the tried and true chain of beats that often gets mentioned on this board as the track to the top. More often than not, they got a break onto a big beat, or at a big paper/publication, fairly young. For as much as we like to complain that anyone with a computer and an internet connection can get read nowadays, it's really a small, small percentage that gain traction. For everyone else, it's hard to get noticed -- and if your metrics don't match, people think you don't matter.

So while I agree with others that you shouldn't write off preps as a way-in, I do disagree that it's the sure-fire first step it once was.

 

Absolutely, especially when considering a lot of the professors have been out of the real world environment for a long time and don't know what is happening to the industry. There's forever the book way, then the real world.

 

Lots of good stuff here. People still move from preps to bigger beats, but the work has to be exceptional and it may take some time. As it is for any job, though, the higher you start, the better off you'll be.

That reminded me of a Red Smith quote from "I'd Like to Be Called a Good Reporter": "I think every game is different, not that some of them aren't dull, but it's a rare person who lives his life without encountering dull spots. It's up to the writer to take a lively interest and see the difference."

 

I'm not saying try to make a go of it freelancing the rest of his life. Get a bs job to pay the bills and hustle your ass off to get writing jobs. What great benefits are you going to get at a newspaper? 401k? Ha!

 

I am speechless ... I want to write, but I'm too good for preps.
Hey, big time -- preps are where the best stories are... and I know I'm not alone here.

 

The era of "straight from high school to the pros" is over. Suck it up, buttercup, and pay your dues.

 

I too was closed minded when I finished college. I pretty much refused to look anywhere outside of my comfort zone geographically. In my more mature years and after eventually having no choice but to follow my wife around the country for her training and getting some great experiences that way, I realize that was a mistake. So I got a job at a weekly. Something I vowed never to do and some how looked down upon it, but I had no choice. As with the geographic limitations that was a mistake. Working at the weekly provided some of the best experiences in journalism I'd have. And it gave me some of the best actual experience.

People just close off so much of their potential by limiting what they'll do. How do you know what the job will be like if you don't actually try it. It's been a while since I've been in a newsroom and I know things have gotten tougher in all regards, but get that foot in the door regardless of where or what it is and make it happen for your self from there. I'm sure that's still something people can do, even in this day and age. Better than having no job at all.