On Wednesday, we had the pleasure of hearing from Matt Herb. Matt has been covering Penn State football for nearly three decades, and talked to us about enhancing our script writing and gave us important tips on play-by-play. Here are five takeaways from his talk:
1. Make sure you know information about the opponent. Make sure you know the strength of the opponent so you can know what type of challenge the home team is facing and what they need to do to win.
2. Look at the local newspaper, for reports on injuries, suspensions, and feature ideas to help build your story for the game.
3. Put the game in context. Figure out if the game is a trend from the season or a break from what’s been happening. Once you find that key trend, use it as the lead for your story.
4. If you cover a blowout game, look at individual performances rather than focusing on key plays where there might not be as many.
5. Lastly, it’s most likely most people have seen the game by the time you get to publishing, so aim to make your story unique and include something interesting that has happened from the game outside of the football played.