I entered into the PSPA regionals competition for sports writing the day before it was set to happen, because another kid had dropped out, and there were no refunds. This meant I didn’t have to pay for the admission, but also I had no clue what to expect. On top of that, I didn’t prepare or read any example prompts.
I got to the train station about 20 minutes early, to which Ms. Plows told me something along the lines of, “Savvas arriving to the station early definitely wasn’t on my bingo card.” I don’t blame her for saying that, but at that moment I was wishing I went to Wawa to pick something up for breakfast, because I was starving.
When we arrived at Temple, and got to the food table, I was disappointed to see a tray of muffins. Maybe I got my hopes up too high, because someone told me, “Continental breakfast.”
I definitely had my hopes too high.
I devoured two muffins, got my coffee, went back for another muffin, to which Dylan Blake told me, “the lion always goes back for another muffin.” Thanks, Dylan.
Then, I drew on the whiteboard with Matthew Ramirez and Kathryn Barrett, making one of the goofiest panthers ever drawn, one that would probably disappoint Andrew Benzing if he ever saw it.
Soon after, we sat down with other student journalists and listened to a speaker from the Philadelphia Inquirer talk about her position, work, and opened for questions. It was definitely a super valuable experience, because we were learning from somebody who had decades of experience in the field of journalism.
After only the most insightful questions regarding what granola bars to bring with you when reporting, we went to the competition rooms and got to the meat and potatoes.
Normally, I’d be nervous, but it wasn’t a situation for me where I had a lot on the line or anything. Considering I didn’t prepare, I just put myself in the mindset of coming home from the sports event I had to write about.
The hour began, and I read through the long page of details twice over. I wrote and wrote, forgetting to even write a headline, which arguably is the hardest part of writing an article. I erased several paragraphs, rewrote, and checked the clock a few times.
All of a sudden Evie Fernandez, who was across from me, starts gathering her papers. I check the time AGAIN. She spent half of the hour we had, and had finished. I watched as she got up and handed her papers in.
I’ve never been one of those people who hold their test in class after finishing until someone else turns it in, but honestly, that helped me a lot. I wasn’t super nervous or anything, but seeing her do that made the task at hand seem so easy.
After finishing and returning to the main room, I was disappointed to see every single muffin gone. On the bright side, I thought I wrote a decent article for the competition.
I also really enjoyed the newsroom roundtable discussion, where although there were majority Panther Press members present, we still had a productive discussion where we learned from each other.
Overall, it was a fun and valuable experience to talk with other student journalists and journalists that have been in their profession for multiple decades.
