Reflecting on My First Original Story: Fairfield Football

Reflective Essay #1 – after first draft
This story is the first original one I have done for the course and so far it has been a relatively novel experience. I am still in need of some quotes from key staff members of the athletics department, as well as possibly more opinions from students and also from a faculty member. However, I feel the story is shaping up to be a good one. I have spoken with plenty of people about my story topic and they agree that it is something they would read.

Writing an original story is not necessarily harder than the deadline stories or 10 question stories we have been called to create, but I have learned that it does take significantly more time. The researching phase and “choosing an angle” phase proved to take much longer than anticipated. I do feel that the result will be a greater sense of accomplishment, that I have created a story not from scratch but from a more independent standpoint. I can be credited with rekindling an interest in this topic through my story and thereby influencing those who would otherwise remain unaware.

The goal for my story is not to prompt students to desire the creation of a football team, but instead to understand that it has been a part of Fairfield in the past, but to its short-lived time here is a testament to its being an unsuccessful venture. This is not the type of school for such a program, nor is the student body the correct type of audience to promote and foster a successful competitive program. Our athletic programs continue to improve with each year and such would be probably not be possible if the majority of funds were allocated to football. I hope students can come to discern on their own that although we don’t have football, we are better for it.

Problems I ran into with this story were few and far between. Since the story is taking much longer to do than any others we have done, the work has been divvied up over a long span of time. It has been hard to make time to interview members of the athletics staff, but I am confident in my abilities to successfully do so. I plan on sending another copy, before Monday, with the staff’s quotes included, to help fine-tune my story to an even greater degree.
Although it is a hefty assignment, I am enjoying the process of creating and bringing to life an original story idea. I have learned that a story can be good before quotations are added, but great once they are added. They add credit, breadth, and clarity to the topic/situation/etc.

Reflective Essay #2 – After additions – 11/11/09
Writing this story was a great and exciting experience because I was able to get to the bottom of facts, myths, etc. and uncover the truth. All along the way there were people prescribing to the own rumors and myths that they heard, so it was fun to be able to disprove some of these and discover that others were in fact true. It was a difficult process, but a rewarding one nonetheless and I think in the end it came out very well.

I had to make some judgment calls on what info was necessary and what info merely echoed certain points. The line “At the time of its dismissal, the program had 10 members on its coaching staff” had to be cut due to the lengthiness that the article was gathering. With a few more additions to go, the article was about 675 words. I was intent on stopping at 750, the suggested maximum, but I ended up going over a bit. I also had to do away with some unnecessary descriptions and keep only those that rang true to the story and were vital to reader engagement.

Some of the problems I ran into were a lot of what was already mentioned. The biggest thing was time and getting all the pieces together in one place. There were several components that took a couple of days to get put into play and I was able to recognize the trials and tribulations of putting together a feature story such as this. I had to go to Jack Jones, Sports Info Director, in order to talk to Mark Spellman the following day, who is always busy training our athletic teams in the morning, so I interviewed him during Lunch. I went to the Levee, the Library, the Athletic Department. I reached out to students and faculty for advice and opinions. I also was able to get in touch with the history of this University, if only in a minute way. It was a truly engaging experience.

As far as presenting this in an online version, I would have to include links to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s history page as well as a link to the Hall of Fame page with Steve Dogmanits, hidden in the depths of the University’s website. Also links to the bios of either Spellman or Sexton would be good as well as any YouTube or other video clips that may exist of recorded Stags Football games. If these could not be found, some photographs from the issues of The Manor that I looked at could be uploaded and linked in with the story. I think my title as is would work sufficiently, and a description to follow would summarize the reasons for the program’s cut as well as the mixed feelings on campus of its passing. Perhaps a video interview of Alison Sexton or some other member of the Athletic Department would also help present this information.