FACTS

•  The interest towards sports has grown

in recent years.
•  Sports fanaticism doesn’t automatically
translate to interest in sports.
•  The are many successful female sports writers.
•  Many accomplished writers were sports writers.
•  Sports writing is just a variant of news writing.
STARTING A GAME STORY
•  Gather background info before the game
Who are the competing teams? Who are the players? Where is
venue? When will it happen?

•  Write dummy headlines for possible scenarios.

If Team A beats Team B convincingly:
Team A cruises past Team B
If Team A beats Team B in a close game:
Team A edges Team B
If Team A is the favorite but loses to Team B:
Team B upsets Team
If Player X clearly stood out for Team A’s win:
X stars in Team A’s win over Team B
If win is tied to something significant:
Team A ousts Team B, wins first playoff series

•  Write dummy lead for each dummy headline.

DEVELOPING THE GAME STORY
•  Track important details during game
What’s the final score? Who are the key contributors? When are
the crucial sequences?

•  Pick the appropriate headline then

construct the lead
If Team A beats Team B, the dummy lead is:
Team A relied on ____________________ in the _________ to
beat Team B, ___________, and _________________ of/in
the _____________ __________ at ___________________.

The actual lead is:

CB Mall Urdaneta relied on a 22-5 run in the closing
minutes of the third quarter to beat Magic Dagupan,
105-91, and advance to the playoffs as the top seed in
the 2014 Pangasinan Baskeball League yesterday at the
Narciso Ramos Sports Complex.
DEVELOPING THE GAME STORY
•  Add a bridge sentence after the lead

A dummy bridge may look like:

The _______________ is Team A’s _________________,
(giving) Team A _________________________________.

An actual bridge may look like:

The win is CB Mall Urdaneta’s 10th straight, earning the
team its first playoff appearance since joining the
commercial league ten years ago.
DEVELOPING THE GAME STORY
•  Construct the body of the story
[Key sequence of the game]
[Comment]
[Noteworthy moments of the game]
[Comment]
[Relevant statistics]
DEVELOPING THE GAME STORY
[Key sequence of the game]
Trailing 48-52 after Magic Dagupan’s Ken Medina
completed a three- point play with 3:30 remaining
in the third quarter, Ronald Cruz made two straight
triples to spearhead CB Mall’s crucial 22-5 breakaway.
CB Mall was hardly threatened again since then, leading
by as much as 22 points while maintaining its
Momentum at both ends of the court.

[Key sequence of the game]

“It was a tough win for us. We are just relieved to
have finally made the playoffs,” said CB Mall coach
Ariel Almonte.
DEVELOPING THE GAME STORY
[Noteworthy moments of the game]
CB Mall started slowly as Cruz struggled against
double teams and went 0-for-10 in the first half.
Jomarc Vidal, who missed the past five games while
healing a sprained ankle, scored 13 of his 16 points to
keep CB Mall within striking distance, 39-44,
after the first half.

[Comment]
“I sensed that the defense is so focused on Ronnie
(Cruz) so I took advantage of the opportunities to
score ,” said Vidal.
DEVELOPING THE GAME STORY
[Relevant statistics]
Despite his early woes, Cruz still managed to pace CB
Mall Urdaneta with 19 points. Leo Magno topscored
for Magic Dagupan with 20 points.
DEVELOPING THE GAME STORY
•  End the story by connecting it to a future event.

CB Mall will meet fourth-seed SM Rosales in a best-

of-3 series in the opening round of the playoffs
starting Monday, September 8.