Clark’s Writing Tools

After reading a few of the Sunday Long Read, I found the Deadspin article I Covered the Braves for a Newspaper that didn’t Exist. Having the Atlanta background and having been a former Braves employee I found it very interesting that this was even possible. I found it very interesting to read about how easily he was able to navigate around. Guess it just proves, confidence is key.

I thought the curiosity of Phil Braun is one of the strongest themes within the article. This reflects Clark’s Tool 27 of Reveal traits of character. It was simply done in the way that he would notice a new opportunity and without much consideration on consequences, Braun would be off exploring the next part of the Ted.

Clark defines this tool with the anecdotes of how to show and not tell the audience about descriptors. He uses the anecdotes of Bethany Hamilton giving up her jacket for a homeless child. This showed compassion whereas earlier in the article the author simply said she was always a compassionate girl.

His experiences simply told you he was curious. He had child-like wonder when touring himself around the stadium and took the experience in with passion. It was never taken advantage of, every time sounded like it was a gift.

“I discovered I was allowed to enter the dugout and walk the tunnel back to the clubhouse. In the tunnel, I happened upon Chris Berman chatting with Javy Lopez about a recent injury the catcher had suffered. I pretended to rummage through my camera bag just so I could listen in for a few moments.”

I first read the Sunday Long Read that Lil’ Wayne wrote and while comical and extremely confusing, I decided that was not an actual piece of journalism that warranted analysis.

The Things that Carried Him

Gives background on Collins that reveals his history with Funeral Homes, the process, and his preference of staying outside.
Lays out that the story is taking place in May and he is beginning a new cut.
Making strategic decisions because of circumstances of this grave, but leaves open ended.
The grave is being prepared for a military ceremony. The group of soldiers are practicing their duties for the burial. The men are all quite different.
Don Collin’s father is leading the motorcade of the procession
The coffin is a special kind just for Iraqi soldiers killed in war, The coffin is also decorated specified to the soldier with pictures of friends and moment of the war.
The ceremony went as planned with the ceremonial firing of the guns
Bugler performed but shows the rarity of the role of the burglar
Background on the bugler and how it can be effected
“In my opinion, you can’t close your eyes. There’s a person in a casket in front of you. You want to give them as much as you can.”
The hardship of performing the ceremony is expressed especially when the soldier is so young
The soldier had children
The ceremony proceeds with folding the flag.
The flag is given to a 52 year-old woman (mother?)
General officer says when assigned a funeral, “”You’re never not available.”
The General connected with the wife: Missy.
Pinckney gets emotional at ceremony and reflects on if her son was in the same position, andre (27)
history behind the flag: 13 folds for 13 colonies
Ceremony is over and things progress, casket lowered into ground.
Tombstone not prepared yet for SGT. Joe Montgomery
Gail Bond reflects on past with Joe.

Interviews

Contacts:

Tanya Anderson: Administrative Assistant
- tanyaanderson@ghsa.net
Professional Source
- Sports Psychologist: Ariel Trankler
  - Why does the number decrease like that through sports
    - Freshman → Seniors
Local
- high school coaches
  - North Oconee HS: Coach Moore
  - Prince Avenue HS:
    - Soccer Coach
    - Softball Coach
- Counselors: Clarke Central HS.
Those affected
- HS female student athletes from HS you interview
  - Soccer
  - Basketball:
  - Outdoor Track: North Oconee

Open records and our group project

Group:

Alex and I are working on the academic implications of transferring for high school football. While working through the GHSA rule book on transferring, I think an interesting part to look through would be how public schools allocate the funding to the athletic department of the school. I think another interesting thing to look into is the development of these booster clubs and how much they give to the athletic department. I know at my own high school, the scoreboard was funded by a single family in the community and it was a heft project, therefore public funding could go to other entities in the football program.

In terms of the project a more focused open record to request would be:

The official transfer forms and transcripts of athletes that have transferred.
Transcripts of students that go from private to public and vice versa.
- Some academic requirements have interesting transfer credits such as Military Science as a course at Riverside Military academy.

Individual:

Allocations of how schools are funding girl’s programs compared to boys
Allocations of how schools are funding girl’s basketball, soccer and track and field as the largest sports in the GHSA.

Jenkins

The Jenkins, et al. v. NCAA case brings to light the issue of paying student-athletes. The case is in light of the rise in schools profiting off of student-athletes’ success such as video games, apparel, etc. It is an issue that is very prevalent in my life as a student-athlete but remains controversial when you consider what student-athletes are given to compensate their involvement.

Story ideas:

What/Who are the most bought college player apparel?
Amateur status and how much athletes are missing out on their winnings. EX: If an athlete wins Olympic trials and doesn’t take the earnings, how much are they missing out on?
Can non-revenue sport athletes survive at being professional with the income they get? vs. College degree?

Open Record Act

The recent controversy about Georgia’s Open Records Act spurs a lot of conversation about what the act truly is protecting. That is my main concern about the new act is that I feel there isn’t circumstantial evidence to what this benefits or how it helps to keep things safer. I understand that 3 days in the prior ruling may be stressful on a state entity if there is a flood of requests and the association wants to make sure that the request is dealt with in a thorough manner. However, ninety days in the life of a reporter and a 24-hour news cycle is difficult to navigate. I have notice subtle frustration and blatant frustration with getting information for articles. Most recently, I saw an article about the 2020 Chick-fil-a Bowl and whether or not Georgia will be participating. The journalist was able to get the information from Virginia, but not Georgia.

“This document was obtained by The Telegraph in a Freedom of Information Act request in the state of Virginia. The Telegraph also requested the contract through Georgia’s Open Records Act, although the university has 90 days to return any documents related to athletics.”

I don’t see how a simple piece of information like this needs to be held onto.

Georgia Football 2015

My graphic analyzes how percentage of pass completion had a relationship to how the team fared in the game overall. If Georgia completed over 50% of their passes they won their game. However in all of Georgia’s losses, they completed less than 50% of their passes. The graph helps to show how the season progressed as well.

Games where they especially struggled included Alabama and Florida.

Story Memo

Broad Topic: Girls being allowed to play football in GHSA as of August 15, 2015. This year they made minor restructuring to the plan, but there hasn’t been a recognizable increase, I want to look into what causes the small changes but also look into how one girl’s story is playing out. Working on finding the right fit, I have three girls I’m aiming to talk to and putting out feelers to see if there are any cases that haven’t already been highlighted.

The committee RECOMMENDED: 1. Proposal to change By-Law 1.47: Girls may participate on boys’ teams when there is no girls’ team offered in that sport or activity by the school.
- Boys may not participate on girls’ teams even when there is no corresponding boys’ sport or activity. Cheerleading is a coed sport.
- (b) The GHSA will honor a gender determination made by a member school. The GHSA will not make gender identity determinations nor entertain appeals of the member school’s determination.
- The GHSA will attempt to accommodate requests for private restroom or locker/dressing room facilities for students requesting the same at GHSA playoff events or contests provided notice of the request is made as soon as possible to the GHSA office. No student shall be required to utilize the private facilities.
- MOTION PASSED (unanimously) EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
- Italicized is new

Key Questions:

What has being on a boy’s team been like?
1. General team vibe?
2. How do you feel media, school, other teammates feel about your participation?
3. Has your story inspired others?
4. Has the GHSA reached out to you specifically about your situation?
5. What does it mean to you to get to play?
How does only allowing girls to play in boy’s sports but not vice-versa effect dynamics?
What sports, possibly other than football, are being treated this way?

Sources:

Jesse Crews, board of Trustees for GHSA
Previous cases where girls weren’t allowed
- Maddy Baxter of Locus Grove
- Rachel Evans of Grovetown, Georgia
- Brandy Houston of Lee County
Michelle Masters and Regina Montgomery, the new “at large” committee members of GHSA girl’s sports

Graphics:

pending

Team Graphics: Alex and Morgan

FiveThirtyEight Serena Williams Graphic

“The first goal of an infographic is not to be beautiful just for the sake of eye appeal, but above all, to be understandable first, and beautiful after that, or to be beautiful thanks to its exquisite functionality.”

I find that this quote in the Cairo article sums up the overarching goal of infographics. The ideal is that the infographic simplifies information and statistics so that the information is now visually digestible. In the FiveThirtyEight article I chose the creator has very simple yet obvious infographics that support his claims that Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are dominant in the sport of tennis.

The infographic above is for Serena to prove how she has progressed throughout her career.

From the Tufte article, I got that infographic creation is really an art. It takes more than just stats, it is all about the preciseness of how to display the information. However, I found that it contradicted a lot of what the Cairo article discussed about being functional on its own. The French graphic took pages to explain why things were done the way they were and explanations on what was left out and put in. I think it shows how visual graphics have progressed into simple beings.

From the Visualizing Trouble article, I got that the basics of functionality are what matter most. While appearance is important, the ability to digest trumps the appeal. I think that the FiveThirtyEight infographics do a great job of keeping things simple. I think the two tone to represent positive and negative serves the aesthetic purpose while delivering what needs to be known. In the Djokovic graphic, it is plain as day his accomplishments and it supports the point that is made that he is dominant.