Sports writers report on sports for newspapers and other news organizations, often covering high school and college sports. They may also have other responsibilities such as answering phones and entering information into the system. The job can involve long hours and travel, but can provide opportunities for developing writing skills.
A sports writer is a journalist who writes about sports for a living, often reporting not only on the games themselves but also on the sport’s business and internal relationships. Most sports writers work for a newspaper or other type of news organization. Most sports writers may never write about a professional sports team on a routine basis, but focus their careers on local high school and college sports. Due to the fact that there are more teams at these lower levels of competition, there are more opportunities.
Typically, a sports writer will start a career covering high school sports, although some can land jobs covering college, or perhaps even professional sports, once they have strong internships. Job covering high school sports gives the sportsperson good experience in multiple sports. In most cases, the writers end up covering the same schools, but they likely cover many different sports. This helps provide full-time employment throughout the year.
Sports writing jobs often involve long hours of work, late nights and weekends, although many who find it fun. Given the tough schedule a sportsman can keep, the job may not be for everyone, especially those with families or looking to start a family. Those interested in this career should also understand that there will be some travel, though mostly local travel for high school teams.
In addition to covering games, sports writers can have a variety of other roles. In a newsroom, sportscasters and sports writers are often responsible for answering the phones at night, getting stats from other games that employees couldn’t access, and entering that information into the system for publication the next day. This can be quite tedious and time-consuming, depending on how many different schools a newspaper can cover and what the sports schedule is that day. In the industry, this is often referred to as an agate information entry. Some sports writers also write opinion columns on matters of local interest related to sport.
A sports writer, especially those covering high school sports, will report on other issues as well. This could be related to a sports budget at a school, when athlete athletes sign a contract with a college, or interviews with players and coaches. So while a sports writer can focus on the sport, the chance to develop skills as a balanced writer is still available. In fact, many sports writers decide to move into general news at a publication after spending time in the sports department, simply because the schedule is so much better.
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