Composing a story

I felt really smart one day (as opposed to feeling stupid all of the other days!). A few weeks ago, I was doing a really serious feature on Dontia Haynes, an SDSU tennis player who passed away last year in a tragic motorcycle accident. After interviewing a close female friend of his, she gave me some advice and asked how I was going to write the story from here.

I have to apologize... if you don't care about journalism, this may be a bit boring for you. Live with it.

I had somewhat of a moment of Zen. Of course, maybe I was just imagining it. Maybe I was just regurgitating what some wise sage had once told me.

"Writing a story is like putting a puzzle together. Talking to you was just one piece of the puzzle, now I have to go complete it."

That's how I'm trying to think of each story. That is also why I never, never, never write stories with just one source. I can't stand that, and I feel like I have cheated all ten people who would read my article if I ever do that. It just takes a few extra minutes to bring more perspective into a story. Talk to a coach, another player, a fan, a friend... anyone! Never stop at just one source and think you have the whole picture. That's like ending the puzzle with just one corner finished.

Now to the more interesting things I've been thinking about...

I saw football head coach Chuck Long walking around campus with a bit of an entourage. I really wanted to stop him and ask him a few questions.

Keep in mind that so far this year, the Aztecs have been pretty bad. Granted, they have gone through their first two quarterbacks and are relying on a redshirt freshman under center, but it's still pretty bad here on Montezuma Mesa. They have yet to win a game, and the road ahead doesn't look too pretty.

"Coach Long, so, was this 0-5 start in your 'I want to win, and I want to now' plan?"
"Was this really worth leaving your national championships and blue-chip recruits you had at Oklahoma?"
"Can I play quarterback? You seem to go through a lot of those."

What I think is hilarious is that Long has a program going on with the AS union, where students can create and submit plays to the head coach. Once each game, Long will use the best student-designed play. When you're asking a student body that is either wasted and/or out surfing half the time to draw up plays... that's kinda sad.

Also, these last few days have made me realize how dependent I am on the internet. The web has been out at my house since Friday night. Lucky me, I had two stories to work on. I'm less than pleased. It is still out, and I had to come all the way back to campus to do something which would've taken me maybe 5 to 10 minutes over email.

I'm trying to find a different place to live for the rest of this academic year. I need reliable internet service so I can relay info and stories back and forth to my editors as well as do research for my stories. You've heard enough of me complaining by now.

I had another article in the Daily Aztec today, enjoy!

Five out of eight runners set personal best times at the meet and the Aztecs finished seventh.

"They really stepped up and put themselves in a good position," assistant coach Jennifer Nanista said. "It just shows that what we're doing is working. They're coming together when they need to be coming together."

Senior captain Celeste Tyson led the way, setting a career best. Tyson finished seventh overall at 17 minutes, 52 seconds, the fastest 5K time of any Aztec runner this year.

"I'm actually a little bit sad that I didn't drop more time," Tyson said. "It does feel really good because it's my last season and it's something I've wanted to do since I've been here.

"I can leave this behind and know that I left a good mark."

Tyson's mark has been more than just her performance on the course. She loves getting the team pumped up any way she can. Whether it's lending her eyeliner for war paint, or giving each runner a famous inspirational quote, Tyson has been there for SDSU.

Lafferty out.

Who am I?

I figured I would start this off simple. My name is Justin Lafferty. At the time I am writing this, I am 19 years old and a Journalism junior at San Diego State University. I write for the Daily Aztec, covering the school's cross country team. I know what you're thinking - boring. I can't argue you there, but it's something you really have to be a part of to appreciate.

My goal is to become an actual journalist. I plan on becoming a beat writer for a Major League Baseball team and then working my way up to sports editor of a major newspaper. San Francisco Chronicle, watch out.

Right now, I'm just your average baseball junkie. I live and die with the Oakland Athletics, and my favorite players are Barry Zito and Marco Scutaro.

But that's not why I made this blog.

I have a weird disease; a frame of mind I can't seem to turn off.

My inner journalist. My advisors warned me about this. Everything can be made into a story.

For instance, tonight I went to SDSU's Midnight Madness. Well, they called it "Midnight Madness," at least. They were just off by a good five hours, kicking it off at the late hour of seven.

But that's neither here nor there.

When I walked in and found my seat, I also noticed these guys totally decked out in Aztec basketball gear. If you are from my (Bay) area, think De La Salle's lancer crew.

That's a story.

They all seemed to worship some player who graduated a couple years ago - a "Mankey." He was a 7-foot-tall dude who had a good perimeter game.

That's a story.

Some SDSU men's basketball players came out in red warmup jerseys, some in black. I found no particular order to them. I was thinking maybe those in red are the starters, but more than five were wearing them.

That's a story.

The guy announcing the whole thing - "The Voice of the Aztecs."

That's a story.

Our men's team seemed to miss a lot of jump shots during warmups.

That's a story.

A guy dressed in a banana suit was one of the judges for the slam dunk competition.

That's a story.

Men's basketball head coach Steve Fisher went around shaking hands, thanking fans for coming to the event. I was pretty taken aback. My experiences with coaches who have had success (and Fisher is pretty much the one whistle-blower on campus who has had success) tend to be jerks. I loved this gesture and I will be attending men's basketball games even if it isn't my beat.

That's a story.

The dance team was looking pretty hot.

You better believe that's a story.

You get the idea. It's this weird thing that I can't describe. The closest thing I can compare it to is John Nash's character in A Beautiful Mind. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no genius, just the oldest 19 year old in California. The scene where in his mind, star constellations would just magically illuminate... that's how I feel. Certain things just scream - "WRITE ME!"

I have to admit though, it's a curse I love having.

This blog will cover all the stuff that won't exactly go into my articles and various other aspects of San Diego State sports life.

This may be a story worth following.