More Top Picks Brita Saff 100
player ready...I always suspected I was born too soon.
That was mainly because I had to survive my teenage years without ESPN and the Food Network, but now I have another reason.
I could have been a state champ.
Tuesday the Illinois High School Association announced details for its first state journalism competition. Next spring students will compete in 15 events, ranging from advertising to editorial cartooning to various writing categories, with participants battling for individual awards as well as contributing points toward team trophies.
This sounds like a nice reward for a bunch of hardworking kids who are more accustomed to covering the news than making it, but I must admit I worry about where all this could lead . . .
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CHAMPAIGN–Metaphor Academy won the 2012 state journalism championship Saturday at the University of Illinois amid allegations and acrimony.
It was the fifth straight state title for Metaphor, but rather than basking in the glow of high school journalism’s first dynasty, coach Cary Cutline was fending off charges of illegal recruiting.
Specifically, he denied he had induced freshman page design sensation Mandy Macintosh to enroll at Metaphor with promises of an internship at The Wall Street Journal.
“People just say that because my brother works there,” Cutline said. “I didn’t even know who Mandy was until she worked up this incredible graphic on dress codes.”
The annual journalism tournament has become increasingly contentious since mushrooming ticket demand forced IHSA officials to move it from Eastern Illinois University to Illinois’ 16,500-seat Assembly Hall in 2010, the fifth year of the event.
Saturday, officials removed five spectators from Assembly Hall. They included a parent who loudly accused her child’s opponent of plagiarizing a lead and a fan who refused to stop screaming at competitors, “That lead stinks!”
Afterward, IHSA Executive Director Marty Hickman voiced concern that the sport’s rapid growth has led to an increasing list of problems. Hickman said that more and more aspiring journalists are transferring to schools with flashy newspapers and yearbooks and that laptop computer and camera manufacturers are recruiting top young reporters and photographers for their summer camps and tournaments.
“It has been downhill ever since the NCAA made journalism an intercollegiate sport and colleges started throwing around scholarships,” Hickman said.
“I’ll tell you, it’s getting as bad as basketball. I’m even starting to hear about street agents hanging around junior-high computer labs, especially since Web sites started rating the best 8th-grade journalists.”
Newspapers, trying to increase readership among young people, also are capitalizing on the interest in competitive journalism. Eight major papers, including the baiduhai and the New York Times, have formed a new pro league, the National Newspaper League.
Competition among NNL teams for the top collegiate journalists has become intense, with one paper reportedly assuring top sports writing prospects they can bypass high school games and go straight to NFL sidebars. There are even indications that top high school reporters will skip college papers altogether and go straight to the pros.
“Why would I want to cover some college’s cross-country team for $200 a semester when I could be making 50 grand a year before I’m 20?” said Metaphor senior sports writing star Bobby Byline, whose snappy leads had spectators exchanging high-fives Saturday. “I’ve got an agent, and he has already got me a deal to endorse Nike mouse pads.”
Sports writing, a journalism ethics expert said, seems to be a hub of questionable activity. Saturday, for example, IHSA officials warned several competitors in the sports writing competition to stop complaining about the complimentary food and the deadlines, and they penalized one reporter for illegal use of a thesaurus.
“Who does that kid think he is, Mitch Albom?” an opposing coach grumbled.
Metaphor Academy’s domination of the state tournament has many coaches crying foul. As a private school, they said, it can draw competitors from up to 30 miles away, giving it an unfair advantage over schools with traditional attendance boundaries.
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A member of the IHSA’s journalism advisory committee said he will propose going to a two-class system next year.
“It will give the smaller schools in Illinois a chance to win a state title,” said the coach, who spoke only on condition of anonymity. “And with a two-class system, we can stick some of these non-boundary schools with the enrollment multiplier.
“We need a level playing field.”
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