Journalists often say they're on deadline. But what exactly does that mean?
For a Citizen sports reporter like myself, that means getting and writing a story as accurately as possible in a timely manner.
When I'm out in the field, covering a basketball, hockey or curling game at night, I track key plays, shots and athletes, building the story from the ground up, from the first end, quarter or period.
During the last 10 minutes of a game, it's crunch time. And I only have, at most, 15 minutes to spare between the end of the game (usually around 9:20 p.m.) to write the story and file it to my editors at the office prior to our 10 p.m. deadline.
It usually unfolds something like this.
My mind races. My heart pounds.
I type furiously on the keyboard, trying to condense as much information as possible into two or three sentences in five to 10 minutes to update the story.
I try to tune out the noise of the fans around me as they leave the building.
As I scroll through the story, I ask myself: do the sentences make sense grammatically? Are the words, especially names, spelled correctly? Is the story accurate?
I check my watch. Two more minutes.
Words and sentences are added. Some deleted.
Knowing that was the best I could do on a short timeline, I hit send to file the story.
Everything is now out of my control as the story is now in the capable hands of two editors back at the office who lay out the story on the page send it, most likely the last page, to the press where it would be printed and delivered to readers the next day.
The adrenaline rush that I had been on started to fade, having successfully made deadline. It's a fantastic feeling.
After three hours at a game, I can relax.
I can't speak for my Citizen colleagues because we each have our own unique ways of writing on deadline. They most likely have a different method to the madness, but it is just as effective.
When I first returned the media business 15 months ago after a five-year hiatus, I had to file not one, but two stories on tight deadlines on two of the first three days back on the job.
But they just weren't any old games. They were the playoffs and final of the B.C. Scotties Tournament of Hearts provincial curling women's championship underway at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club.
Welcome back to the journalism biz, I said to myself. No pressure.
In the end, everything worked out just fine and I passed my first deadline tests.
Countless times in sports, the outcome of a game can change in a matter of seconds. A loss can turn into a win or vice-versa.
It can have an impact on the standings.
During UNBC's fantastic run to the men's basketball playoffs this season, the Timberwolves almost lost a game to the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack on Jan. 16 at home at the Northern Sport Centre.
That is until UNBC guard Michael Smith sunk a shot from the three-point line with three seconds left to win the game.
It was a crucial victory for the Timberwolves as it eventually led them to clinch their first playoff berth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Canada West Conference since they joined three years ago.
That night, I basically rewrote everything I had previously written because the shot and the win were game-changers.
If there's one word sports reporters dread, it's overtime. As in sudden-death in the playoffs. It not only makes those directly involved in the game, ie the athletes nervous, but reporters and editors as well.
Such was the case covering the Prince George Spruce Kings in the first round of the 2014 B.C. Hockey League playoffs.
Trailing 1-0 the Coquitlam Express late in the game at the Coliseum, the Kings scored the tying goal with seconds left on the clock to send it to sudden death overtime.
Just like that, the game had changed and so too would the tone of my story.
During that time I was in constant communication with my editor at the office, giving him updates about the time left on the score clock. I was also keeping time on my watch as well, knowing I'd have only minutes to spare if they scored prior to 10 p.m.
The story was pretty well written, with the exception of the first two or three sentences that were circulating in my mind depending on which team scored.
While still in the first overtime, I sent the story to my editor who put it on the page and sent it to the press to be printed.
Meanwhile, the Express did eventually score the winner - in the second overtime. Coquitlam's victory eliminated Prince George from the playoffs.
By then it was 10:45 p.m. and I had no time to spare. I re-worked the story and sent it, knowing at the very least the updated story would be available on our website.
What I didn't know then was that the press had received permission to delay the printing of that particular page so that most of our readers would have the most up-to-date story. I was grateful for that.
Sometimes too, if a related story breaks right before a game that I'm attending, I'll talk to the general manager hopefully during the first intermission and write the story in the early stages of the second period.
That happened early in the Prince George Cougars season when veteran forward Zach Pochiro was returned to the WHL team. It was the my job to inform fans when he'd be back in the Cougars lineup in the paper the next day. As it turned out, he was still in transit en route to Prince George that night and would most likely be on the ice the next day.
Even if I am covering a game in the field, I always appreciate talking to various fans, volunteer officials and team staff. It's good to receive feedback (good or bad) or just share a few laughs.
