“If you aren’t motivated, you’re gonna struggle,” Kevin Allen of USA Today stated summarizing the competition that was thrown in our midst that day. Sixty students from sixty schools came together at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit to test their chances as sports reporters. It was a fight to see who could ask the best question, or even to get a question out there. After attending this event, I realized first-hand the true meaning of Mr. Allen’s statement. Hard work and dedication will get someone far in this field. If you stand behind and don’t put forth your full effort, you will struggle.

  At the start of the High School Journalism Day, registration took place and all students and chaperones made their way to the Olympia Room where most events took place. After minutes of anticipation and a few warnings, it was announced that the Media panel would soon begin.

  A few seconds later, in filed Kevin Allen of USA Today, Michael Caples, editor of Michigan Hockey, Jeff Riger, host of radio show 97.1 The Ticket, and Shannon Hogan of Fox Sports Detroit. This Q&A panel equipped each student with the scoop on all things sports reporting and broadcasting, the main reason we were all there that day. We gained special insight from Mr. Allen, a man with lots of experience in the field, who himself has experienced change after change in the industry. Mr. Caples told us what it was like to write all things sports, all day every day for a website. Jeff Riger let us know what it is like to broadcast, live on the air, about games before and after they take place. Finally we heard from Ms. Hogan who told each of us about her experiences as a newer, female reporter in the field. Hearing from members of all aspects of the journalism field gave all of us different approaches to the opportunities out there for us.

As a result of this session, we learned the do’s and don’ts of sports journalism.

  After this session, we were given a break and we headed to the rink. Before watching practice, we toured the press box, getting to see where the reporting and broadcasting really happens. After sitting front and center, watching the Red Wings at their finest for the hour long practice, we returned back to the Olympia Room where we enjoyed Little Caesar’s pizza, courtesy of Olympia Entertainment, and Coca-Cola, courtesy of Coca-Cola. When the two-hour break was over, we returned back to the panel where the final events of the day took place.

  Next person in our sights was the Red Wings’ General Manager, Ken Holland. Here, the gears were switched and the main focus was laid more-so on the Red Wings, and not so much on how to be a good journalist. This is finally where we took our chances as real reporters. After the fifteen-minute session with Mr. Holland was over, out came the Red Wings’ head coach, Mike Babcock. Coach Babcock was the one who got us involved and intrigued us to do our best and continue this further. He started the Q&A session by pointing to a girl in the third row and saying “Who are you, and what are all of you doing here?” This session brought out our inner reporter as well, and we learned about the Red Wings through the eyes of the coach. Mr. Babcock left the panel saying “Keep working to find what you love,” leaving these words to rest in our minds for the remainder of the day.

  After Coach Babcock left us to find what we loved, the real excitement began unravel among us. Before our eyes, players Todd Bertuzzi, Dan Cleary, and Valtteri Filppula walked up to the microphones and took their seats in front of us, readily awaiting our questions. In this panel, we learned more about who the players were as actual people, and not just as hockey players. All of us students were intrigued to find about more about them, now that the opportunity had arisen before us. This session flew by faster than we had all wished. The next thing we knew, Bertuzzi, Cleary, and Filppula were leaving the table and Community Relations Manager (the organizer of the whole event), Christy Hammond and Media Relations Manager, Todd Beam took their seats. Through this, we were taken away from the Red Wings aspect of things, and brought toward how things are run around the Joe. We were also given the opportunity to see into the lives of the people who put in the organizations and who work with the players to put in events around the Detroit area.

 After this final session, the event ended and we said our good-byes. We left, not only with our Red Wings pens and notebooks full of new information, but an experience that will help each and every one of us decide if sports reporting, or any field in journalism, is really what we want to do. As Michael Caples of Michigan Hockey said, “If you work hard enough, you can do it, you can accomplish your dreams.” We all learned first-hand in this High School Journalism Day what it meant to work hard in this field. We all left with a new outlook to our future, and what we have to do to accomplish our dreams.