Money.

It’s such an over exaggerated item. People claim that they simply can’t exist without some form of money lying around to help them exist. But it’s the experiences and adventures in our day-to-day existence that truly enrich one’s life, isn’t it? I think so, and many of my esteemed journalism colleagues must feel the same.

That’s why I’d like to invite interested high school and college students out there to come out and write for me.

For free.

No, I can’t pay you. And no, we won’t be supplying you with a meal allowance, or any sort of compensation for the mileage you’d be putting on your car.

But what we will be giving you is a chance to dip your feet into the raging waters of sports journalism.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to cover a local high school game, chase down pages of statistics, run down the key players and coaches after the game for a brief comment about how they crushed the spirit out of their opponent, then scamper to a computer laptop (or to the prestigious Civitas Media newsroom itself) to write a small article in about 30 minutes time … well, here’s your chance!

We’re not the New York Times with a few zillion employees, one zillion of which cover sports events all around the world. Nope.

We’re the Xenia Gazette, the Fairborn Daily Herald, the Beavercreek News-Current, and the Sugarcreek-Bellbrook Times. We cover sporting events throughout the Greene County area, and we spill over into Clark County (Greenon High) and Montgomery County (Carroll) a little bit as well.

That’s 10 area high schools – Xenia, Fairborn, Beavercreek, Greeneview, Cedarville, Xenia Christian, Yellow Springs, Carroll, Greenon and Bellbrook! And at least four area colleges — Cedarville, Central State, Wilberforce, and Wright State.

And there’s me and fellow sports guy Zach Gregory to cover them all.

Now, Zach and I have tried. We’ve spent countless hours in developing a teleporter of some sort, one that would enable us to simply jump in and suddenly be whisked off to the local high school or college game that was happening at the EXACT SAME TIME as the game where we’d just teleported from.

But we’re journalists. We write stuff. That’s about it. We’ll likely write a story about the future zillionaire who invents the Sportswriter Teleporter, but we won’t be the ones getting all the laurels.

We need enterprising young minds (like yours!) to eagerly write up three or four paragraphs of game information, and then for those same minds (still yours!) to send that information to us — via phone call, text, email … heck, if you can train a carrier pigeon, we’ll try it — by 10:30 p.m. that same night.

We’ll start with the 3-4 paragraph sports briefs. From there, you could develop your skills to where you’re writing feature stories about area athletes and having local TV stations contacting you as a reputable source. (Don’t laugh. It’s happened.)

What’s in this for you? Plenty of stuff!

• You can pad your college or professional resumé, by saying that you’ve written for a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper publication.

(And you won’t be lying, either. The Xenia Gazette won the Pulitzer in 1975. We take turns shining it.)

• You can add to your writing sample clip file, and be able to show prospective employers that you are capable of writing quality journalism under tight deadline pressure.

• You can learn how to improve your writing from an award winning staff that would be glad to assist you. (A writer finished third this year in the county fair’s watermelon eating contest. That counts.)

• It’s likely that you’ll gain experience in photojournalism along the way, too.

• Probably the best perk of them all is this one: You get your own press credential and we’ll get you into the games for FREE!

A typical adult or student ticket to a high school game goes for $4-6 bucks per game. Depending on your school workload and the time you’re available to work, we could be sending you to possibly five games every week if you’d want.

And aside from the gas in your car, and possibly a hot dog and a drink at the concession stand, you wouldn’t have to pay a dime.

All kidding aside, I’d like to invite you to come out and give sportswriting a try with us, if it is something that interests you. Who knows? It could lead to a career somewhere! I know it would create many lifelong experiences that you won’t ever forget.

We’ll help you write solid sports stories.

You’ll be definitely helping us and enjoying the experience as well.

If interested, please contact me by email at: [email protected], give me a call at (937) 372-4444, Ext. 2123, or stop on into our “prestigious newsroom” in the West Park Square Shopping Center, just a couple doors east of the New China restaurant and down the way from Kroger. I’d be glad to talk to you.

John Bombatch
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2015/08/web1_mug-copy.jpgJohn Bombatch

By John Bombatch

[email protected]

Sports Editor John Bombatch actually has won journalism awards, honest! For more information about sportswriting, feel free to give him a call at (937) 372-4444, Ext. 2123.