Sports Writer?

typewriter

Last week, I had my first post published on an online Golden State Warriors-related website. It was very exciting, and very “trippy” according to Ellie how the hook up was made. A few weeks ago, I sent a couple of my CYO articles to a coworker who actually coaches basketball on the side. He wrote: “You are a terrific writer! Why aren’t you doing work for ESPN or some other well-known media outlet? You are missing your calling. Be a sports writer.” I was pleasantly amused.

The next day – I swear – Ellie called me to let me know the website Warrior Nation was looking for unpaid writers with the possibility of being paid in the future. Really? Especially in light of my coworker’s email, I felt a door opening for accelerating my writing. With the Finals going on, there was plenty to write about. So I sent in a sample of my Warrior-related work, and they have taken me on.

Sports writing? Really? In 2006, before I was officially divorced and when I was worried about how I was going to support and take care of ten kids, a friend said to write. Also, often at that time, I would daydream while washing dishes, maybe that was my coping mechanism to get through that tough time. But, I remember praying, “telling” the Lord, it would be great to find a way to capitalize on this daydreaming habit, since I did it so well. Funny, years later, I began to write screenplays, a direct piece of fruit from my daydreaming. I also prayed a Gideon prayer, if the Lord wanted me to write, I would have to get published within the next year. It was the summer of 2006 when I prayed. I had written some children’s stories in the past and had tried to get them published, lots of rejection notices. No publication.

I did some writing that fall. During Christmas time, my dad wanted me to help him persuade my writer godfather to write a piece about their 1948 St. Ignatius football squad, but Phil was not responding. I told my dad, I would write it. He gave me some great prompts and over a weekend I wrote “The Boys of Autumn”. My dad liked it, and even my godfather, Phil O’Connor, liked it. I reached out to St. Ignatius’ Genesis magazine’s editor and sent him the article. It was published in it’s Spring 2007 edition. The dew was on the fleece. This article was also published (and I was paid) in the Catholic San Francisco in August 2007, a year after I prayed the prayer. The fleece was dry.

Maybe I have come full circle. I started with sports writing and here I am again writing about sports. Just so you don’t think I’m not competent in the field, I am the daughter of a Little League baseball, CYO basketball and Pop Warner football coach. I grew up playing many different sports, and I’ve been to tons of football and basketball games. I may not be up to snuff on all the players’ stats, but I like to look at sports with a different eye, and I hope my writing will reflect that. Below is “The Boys of Autumn”, cut and pasted, old school, from SI Genesis Spring 2007. 🙂