Installment+16

South of Denver

Chapter 16 - March 15, 2005

It was Sports Illustrated day for the staff of The Rock, and everyone seemed a bit skeptical as we began. All 17 students had taken a copy of the magazine home the day before, with the assignment to browse the "Scorecard" material near the beginning of the publication, and to read carefully the Rick Reilly column on the final page.

It was pretty clear that no one in the class was a regular reader of SI, though nearly half of them are athletes. But sports really had nothing to do with my choice of this magazine for our lesson. We need a boost in our variety, first of all. We don't change up speeds enough. Too many 10-inch "stories," that really aren't stories. Not enough short form material for scanners. Not enough. well, fun. "Scoreboard" provides an incredible array of short form options.

On the other hand, we need more "heart," more emotion, more depth in some of our reporting. Rick Reilly brings those elements week after week.

I went around the room, asking each student to describe something in "Scorecard." We filled the white board with "Go Figure," which is a regular feature involving statistics, with "For the Record," featuring short grafs led by one word like "Expecting," or "Retired," or "Hired." We found a sports humor column called "The Show" (the humor of which seemed to mystify most of the students). Each issue had a Q&A with a famous sports personality. They loved "Faces in the Crowd," which spotlights athletes from all over the country, who would otherwise never achieve national prominence. We found book reviews. We found first person accounts written by professional athletes.

Whew! These ideas filled the board, and I hoped filled everyone's heads with possibilities for local adaptation. I didn't have to do much selling about the allure of alternatives to traditional text.

Then we moved to Rick Reilly.

"In my column," said Jenna, "he seemed sarcastic."

Hannah said, "He was real emotional in mine."

Megan added, "Mine was funny."

And everyone wanted to chime in on the various stories they had read, sharing bits of plots. Reilly's talent had won over the skeptics.

They were ready for a common reading, and I had one of my favorites ready to share. I passed out copies of "The Play of the Year," which was a November, 2002 column. I had downloaded it from the SI Web site (a great source for Reilly material).

The column starts like this: "  Jake Porter is 17, but he can't read, can barely scrawl his first name and often mixes up the letters at that. So how come we're all learning something from him?

In three years on the Northwest High football team, in McDermott, Ohio, Jake had never run with the ball. Or made a tackle. He'd barely ever stepped on the field. That's about right for a kid with chromosomal fragile X syndrome, a disorder that is a common cause of mental retardation.

But every day after school Jake, who attends special-ed classes, races to Northwest team practices: football, basketball, track. Never plays, but seldom misses one.

That's why it seemed crazy when, with five seconds left in a recent game that Northwest was losing 42-0, Jake trotted out to the huddle. The plan was for him to get the handoff and take a knee."

You may know the story. Not only does Jake get to carry the ball, but the opposing coach insists that he be allowed to score a touchdown.

The conclusion is pure Reilly: "Since it happened, people in the two towns just seem to be treating one another better. Kids in the two schools walk around beaming. "I have this bully in one of my [phys-ed] classes," says (opposing coach) Dewitt. "He's a rough, out-for-himself type kid. The other day I saw him helping a couple of special-needs kids play basketball. I about fell over."

Jake is no different, though. Still happy as a frog in a bog. Still signs the teachers' register in the principal's office every morning, ready to "work." Still gets sent on errands, forgets where he's going and ends up in (Coach) Frantz's office. Still talks all the time, only now it's to NBC, ESPN and affiliates from CBS and Fox about his touchdown that won the game.

Yeah, Jake Porter thinks his 49-yard run made for a comeback victory. He thinks he was the hero. He thinks that's why there were so many grins and streaks down people's faces.

Smart kid."

After the requisite moment of reflection that a piece like this demands, Gillian said, "I know of a guy at Douglas County who is blind, but who runs cross country. Someone always runs with him."

The room buzzed with ideas.

"Look, it's not just about disabled kids who overcome the odds," I said. "We just need to keep our eyes and ears open in the halls and classrooms and practice fields. Folks, once we really start feeling these stories in our guts, that's when we will become journalists."

The bell rang just then, and it was just as well. We all need some time to mull this over, to consider just how to go about finding and writing stories that stick with readers.

Spring is right around the corner, and, perhaps, some great story telling, as well.

Jack Kennedy

Rock Canyon High School

Highlands Ranch CO 80124

 jkkennedy@comcast.net

 jack.kennedy@dcsdk12.org

Note: This is part of a series of columns on working with a completely untrained staff. It is cryptotherapy for me. It may occasionally provide something positive for you. It's all uncharted territory, that's for sure.