Editor’s note: “Behind the Beeline” introduces you to these who create the stories, take the photographs, style the pages and edit the content material we provide in our print editions and on pressdemocrat.com. We are much more than journalists. As you will see, we are also your neighbors with distinctive backgrounds and experiences who are proud to get in touch with Sonoma County house. Right now we’re featuring sports writer Kienan O’Doherty.
Developing up in Mill Valley, I was one particular of these little ones who played just about every sport beneath the sun.
Baseball, basketball, football. You name it, I played. Apart from football, that is. I was second on the waiting list soon after signing up and in no way had to place on pads, which I am quite grateful for to this day.
Like most little ones, I dreamed of getting a specialist athlete. My childhood good friends and I would commit hours at Boyle Park, daydreaming about how we would be the subsequent center field tandem for the San Francisco Giants. We would practice turning double plays more than and more than once more, just like Wealthy Auriglia, Jeff Kent and Ray Durham would do at what is now Oracle Park.
Following all, a youngster can dream, suitable?
As the years went by, I gradually realized that I have one more dream, a want that brings me right here these days.
You see, I am 75% Irish. This signifies that I am blessed, and at times cursed, with the infamous “present of gab”. I adore a very good conversation, but at times I speak as well a lot. It is one particular of the greatest gifts in the globe, if you know how to use it.
That getting mentioned, my dream then turned into a piecemeal game commentator. I was delighted with it I listen to Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow, Jon Miller and Dave Flannery every day, I study books by Jim Nantz and Al Michaels (which I nevertheless have, by the way). I would find out any way.
I began a broadcasting club in higher college at Stewart Hall, I referred to as all the basketball games at college. That continued in college, as I referred to as each men’s and women’s soccer, and even some NCAA tournament games. I would nevertheless adore to do it once more one particular day in some capacity.
Despite the fact that I did sports broadcasting, there was no specialty in that profession the closest we had was journalism. So, I took a likelihood and majored in it in spite of in no way possessing written for a newspaper.
It turned out to be the greatest way to use that present of gab. I normally feel to myself, if you cannot speak about it, create about it.
It was tricky in the starting. These college days have been filled with late nights, continual black ink in our papers, and low grades (thanks, Paul Kostew). I attempted and attempted to come across anything that could connect, but I just could not. Till I did not – by means of tennis.
The sport I began not too long ago was the one particular I’ve been playing the longest. I began playing tennis at age 12 and played all the way by means of college. I am attempting to get out as a lot as I can these days, but my Wilson Blades are a tiny rusty.
So how the hell do tennis and journalism correlate? In a lot of much more approaches than you may well feel.
You see, writing a sports story is sort of like a tennis score the serve is the lead, and dictates the way the story will go, just as the serve dictates a point in tennis.
The serve is also one particular of the most effective shots in a tennis player’s arsenal, as is the starting of the story. You want anything that sets the tone early and keeps your opponent guessing.
Your footwork and movement are how you create the story, guiding the reader by means of the game as eloquently as achievable.
As you construct the point with your court shots — forehand and backhand — the excitement builds, as if maintaining the reader on the edge of their seat, wanting to see how that departure came about.
With your opponent now deep in the corner, you come to the net for an effortless shot. This, like the story, is the final dagger — the culmination of the adrenaline journey the reader has just knowledgeable.
That believed course of action has kept me going, from my 1st gig at a hyperlocal paper in southeast Ohio (close to the hometown of our executive editor, Richard A. Green), till now.
Despite the fact that I am nevertheless young in my profession, I’ve had the privilege of covering a lot of terrific athletic events, from Ohio State football to the Columbus Blue Jackets, to higher college state championships. Athletics is in my blood and will in no way go away.
That, plus that infamous “present”, is a quite very good mixture.
Athletics can be about something, you just have to come across what and how. I am satisfied to have identified mine.
Employees writer Kienan O’Doherty can be reached at 415-887-8650 or kienan.odoherti@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kodoherti22.