Mattea Cashiola- Sports Reporter
I am a sports reporter for the Gigantea and I have been reporting since I joined journalism at the beginning of the school year. I love doing deep dives on players. I have learned that athletes are a variety of people and each player you interview will have a different response.
Semester 1 Stories
Girls Water Polo Wins Their Second Game:
My first story was a post-game on Women's Varsity Water Polo. I talked to Clare Gonzalez and Riley Yagle. For this story I was not sure if the questions I asked would get me enough information, but I stuck to the basic questions Mr. Miller had taught. My story as a whole was short, but informative since it was a post game story.
This story matters because I think it is important to cover the first games of a new season. My story informed the people that were not at the game. This story impacted Redwood Water Polo because people who may not have known about our Women's Water Polo team now can start supporting. This story helps our reader community by covering all of our sprots and interviewing people that don't normally get interviewed.
Volleying Into Varsity: Payton Short Finds Success as Youngest Player
For my second story I did a deep dive on the youngest girl on varsity, Payton Short. For this story I only spoke to Payton Short, I had help coming up with questions and learning which questions will give me a long answer so I had more content. I consider this to be my best story so far.
This story matters because I put a spotlight on one of the most talented volleyball players at Redwood. Short was positively impacated by this story because the story had boosted her hard work. This story, and deep dive stories in general impact our reader impact because instead of focusing on many point of views, there is just one single voice telling the story.
Varsity Volleyball Prepares to Win Their Upcoming Game
For my fourth story I was assigned a pre game for varsity volleyball. I talked to Ashlyn Guenter, Audrey Hyde, and Devyn Castanada. This was the story that I found good open ended questions to get me more information. During this story, I had made a mistake which caused one of the girls to reach out and ask to get the story taken down. We made a compromise where I could keep the story up and we could take out the quote she had a issue with.
This story mattered because everyone knows that the volleyball team exists and they go to the games but, they don't know the work the girls put into the sport. This story impacts our reader impact because people can recognize the hard work the girls put in.
Boys Soccer Prepares to Play Harold S Young
For my sixth and the last story of this semester, I did another pre game story on varsity boys soccer. I also wrote this with another person and we interviewed Will Kennedy and Andres Gutierrez. We wanted to interview people that normally do not get talked to.
This story matters because it is important to cover the first couple games of the season. This impacts our reader audience because soccer fans need to know what is happening at away games, not just home games.
Redwood Cross Country Gets Ready to Run
My third story was a pre game on cross country. For this story I talked to Hunter Skoglund, Grace Hyatt, Daniel Hernandez, and Miranda Rojas. For this story I did not have enough questions to ask or who to ask. Besides that, next time I would ask to have a mix of different grades, since all four people I interviewed were sophomores.
This story mattered because not many are intrested in cross country or go to the meets. Doing a pre game story informed all of Redwood what cross country exactly does and also promoted cross country meets. This story impacts our reader impact because the readers need to read about all of the spots.
Redwood Varsity Soccer Is Ready For First Game
My fifth story was a pre game story on varsity boys soccer's first game of the 22-23 season. This was my first story that I wrote with someone else. We talked to Jesse Zetino and Ambrose Bueno. We had tried to reach out to more players, but we did not have enough time to interview them.
This story matters because soccer is one of the most popular sports that people tryout for at Redwood. Since it is about to be winter, many people do not want to go out and sit in the cold, it is important to cover soccer. This impacts our reader audience because majority of our readers are soccer fans.
Reflection
Where have I been?
I wasn't sure what I was exactly expecting for journalism. I knew what journalism is and I knew about the Gigantea, but for in class I had no idea what was going to happen. I was not expecting it to be student run at all.
Where am I now?
In journalism I learned proper interviewing etiquette and how to shake someone's hand. I can now come up with questions on my own and go out to interview by myself. I can now be independent on my work.
Where am I going?
For my goal for my section I hope that we cover all of the sports in the spring. For personal goals I want to come out with 2 stories per week. I also want to know the basics of taking pictures.