sports journalism – COM Ambassador Blog

Alexa: A Night at TD Garden

There are so many things that I hope to accomplish here in Boston, and one is to catch an NBA Lakers/Celtic game at the TD Garden. However, it wasn’t that easy to accomplish – it took some research, planning and execution. Back in December, about ten minutes after the Celtics schedule was released, I figured out the day the Lakers would be playing the Celtics. I saw that they would be playing February 9^th, which was extremely convenient because my birthday’s February 11^th.Now for the planning part, I knew the odds of attending the game were likely because I could use the gift of Lakers tickets as an early birthday/late Christmas present. So I called my parents in California and told them about my amazing idea. They told me to remember why I was in Boston (for a great education) and I refuted that it would be an educational experience to witness such a rival team and observe how journalists report on such an intense game. Long story short… I was in attendance at the Lakers Celtics game on February 9^th. (Thanks again Mom and Dad!)

While I don’t want to give too much away since most of my wonderful adventure at the TD Garden will be featured on COMlife Episode 5 (premiering February 24^th!) I was fortunate enough (thanks to media contacts I made as a BU COM student last semester) to be given a tour of the Garden with my friend, Sonali. She is also from California too and she could not be talked out of wearing a Lakers jersey no matter how much I begged her.

The tour was great and I was lucky enough to go on the court where I could see some of my favorite players: Jason Kapono, Troy Murphy and Steve Blake, who had just been released for play three hours prior. Since I’m from California and see celebrities I take a lot of pride in the fact that I don’t go senseless over them. I could easily pass by actors at Starbucks in Montecito without bothering them or nonchalantly pass by Oprah at the local grocery store she frequents in the summer without telling her how much I adore her. (Ok, the Oprah encounter has never happened… but if it did, I’d like to think I would be civilized). However, while on the Celtics court, I found it to be a huge struggle to restrain myself from not walking right out on the court to high-five Troy Murphy and hug Steve Blake and tell him that he needs to perfect his crossover if the Lakers want any chance of making it far in the playoffs this year. Other than getting to go on the court level and watching warm ups, the game was incredible. It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of the Celtics or not, the atmosphere they create for the game is phenomenal. The fans are so devoted and even though the crowd was mixed with green and white and purple and gold we were all just there to watch a good sports game. I remember my dad explaining to me the deep rivalry of the teams when I was younger but the way I witnessed it, the two teams were really just friends playing a basketball game. When Celtics player, Kevin Garnett and Lakers player, Ron Artest, sorry, I mean Meta World Peace, both fell after diving for a loose ball, Lakers guard, Kobe Bryant offered a hand to both players which was a huge gesture of sportsmanship and as my mom would say, “That’s my boy!”

To add to this educational experience, I also learned to keep your eyes out for the videographers that shoot video for the above the court Jumbo Tron screen. Sonali and I were featured in slow motion devouring nachos on the Jumbo Tron and then laughing about it (great photo op) and I may have forgotten exactly who won the game… but I posted a link just so we can all double check…

http://espn.go.com/nba/recap/_/id/320209002/la-lakers-lakers-vs-boston-celtics

Taking in the game in person ranks high up there in the greatest experiences I have had in Boston so far. It also helped me realize that sports journalism is something I want to continue to pursue at BU because the energy I felt in the Garden is something that I want to share with others whether it be by putting together pregame feature stories on players, and/or reporting during and after the games. BU offers me the opportunity to learn, develop and tighten the skills to make this a part of my future career.

Brittany: The Beanpot

In my last blog, I spoke about my Hockey East internship with NESN. Over the course of the last few months, my big project has been to work on Beanpot feature stories—this year was the 60^th Anniversary of the Beanpot, and I spent hours working on footage of interviews with past and present Beanpot players for the celebration of that anniversary. The culmination of the project came this past Monday when BU met BC in the Beanpot Finals.

For both teams, there was a lot on the line for the game: either BU was going to with its 30^th title overall (half of all 60 Beanpot tournaments ever played!) or BC was going to win its 3^rd straight. As I walked through the Garden on Monday night, I recognized the faces of many Beanpot greats—many faces that I had become very familiar with while logging their interviews. The atmosphere was exciting, and I knew it was going to be a good game.

Being a current BU student and a NESN intern presents an interesting situation—I’m really supposed to be unbiased, but in a crowd of scarlet and gold it gets a little tricky. During the overtime period, I was watching the game on a tiny screen right outside of the BC locker room. Every time something happened, I would make the opposite reaction of the people around me, prompting the NESN producer I was with to say, “Let’s go over to the BU side.” (Good idea.) So for the rest of the overtime period I watched with some of the BU athletic staff in the setting below:

With about 10 seconds left in overtime, BC retained possession of the puck and skated it into BU’s zone. The man standing next to me started saying, “Don’t do anything stupid…don’t do anything stupid—” and then BC sophomore Bill Arnold put it in the back of the net with 6.4 seconds left to give BC the win. Because I was there with NESN and not with BUTV, I had to run back over to the BC side of the locker rooms, where I watched the celebrations, postgame interviews, and trophy presentation from the BC bench. Talk about rubbing salt in an open wound.

The Beanpot taught me an important lesson on being a sportscaster in a situation where I might be biased. Journalism needs to be impartial, but I can’t imagine myself wanting to work anywhere besides in Boston. If everything eventually works out and I end up back in the Bean as a professional journalist, I will have had this time to practice my internal cheering and external neutrality. But for now—GO BU!

Brittany: Summer Internship

Hey Terriers! I can’t believe how fast the summer is flying by! Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the time off, but I’m definitely counting down the days until Scarlet Squad begins (you can find me running around Warren Towers during both move-in days!)

This summer I’ve been interning at the local ABC station, WCVB (that’s channel 5 for all of you locals) working on a show called Chronicle, a nightly news-magazine program. Before I started, I thought having an internship would mean making copies, getting mail and running for coffee. Boy, was I wrong… on my third day at the station, I went out on two different shoots with one of the producers! From staying late to sit in-studio for live broadcasts of the show, to helping brainstorm ideas for show content, my internship has been hands-on from the get-go.

The last two weeks have been particularly exciting for me. I had gone out on a shoot a while back for a show about Food Trucks in Boston, and while on set the producer had me take a bite of a sandwich on camera. Turns out, they used that shot in the final show! So there I was, in my on-camera debut for a major network, taking a huge bite of a pita. Even though I was just an extra, it was so cool to see myself on TV! (You can follow this link to see my shining moment—It’s at about 3:00 in: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/28480458/detail.html )

The highlight of my internship came one morning last week, as I was watching the show from the night before. As the credits rolled, I noticed that my name was on the screen! They ran a longer form of credits than they normally do, and all three Chronicle interns had our names included. Even though it was only a few seconds, Chronicle is an Emmy-award winning show—seeing my name broadcast as a part of that was surreal.

Internships are about exploring the field you’re interested in and getting some real-life experience in a professional job setting. Although I’m not looking forward to my days at Chronicle being over, I’m looking ahead to future internships, where I know other doors are waiting to be opened. Next up, I’m looking for a sports journalism-related internship to try something new! But who knows, maybe someday my name will reappear in Chronicle’s credits as a more permanent fixture.