Over Winter Term, 26 Rams studied sports journalism and launched their first episode of Rams Nation Sportscast. Upper School English Teachers Jenn Sellenriek and Louise Hindle taught the course. Sellenriek explained the inspiration behind the Rams Nation Sportscast course: “I’ve seen the success other high schools have had with sports journalism programs and knew our student-writers could absolutely do the same or better! Plus, we have athletes and fans who are really passionate about sports, so I knew the class would appeal to students.”
The goals of the course were to allow students to understand how reporting on our own athletics program and athletes connect with MICDS’ work to excel in community engagement that fosters compassion and inclusion, to lead with purpose and service, and to stand for what is good and right. Students completing the course were to expand their skills in planning, design, critical thinking, writing, and collaboration. The teachers also wanted the journalists to feel empowered to tell the stories of their friends and classmates in a professional manner.
The first few days of class were an immersion into the world of sports journalism. “We read and viewed professional models, discussing the structure and content of all. We included mainstream examples of famous athletes as well as less-known athletes such as Team Indigenous, an all-indigenous roller derby team,” detailed Sellenriek. They were also very fortunate to have three journalists as guests: Tom Hindle, a European football writer for Goal.com, Brendan Hartlove, play-by-play broadcaster for the University of Maryland, and Brian Kamenetsky ’94, host of Locked on Lakers. Students sharpened their interview and tech skills by planning, writing, and creating introduction videos of their peers, and they practiced play-by-play broadcasting by “calling” family games like Uno and Connect Four.
After their study of sports journalism, it was time to pitch stories. Every student journalist wrote up an idea for a story and then sought feedback before revising and finalizing their pitches. “With 26 story pitches, we knew we had some work to do,” Sellenriek said. “As a group, we worked to identify overlaps and interesting connections, and soon, the 26 individual ideas became about ten ideas. We carefully considered our time and resources before picking six final stories to pursue. At that point, journalists signed up for ‘media teams’ based on their interests and their strengths. Once a story was assigned to a team, the team had complete control of the story.” Some initial ideas transformed through the process of planning before the teams arranged and completed interviews, storyboarded and sought extra footage/images, and finally edited, including the tricky work of sound. Some of the Rams journalists interviewed the head and assistant athletic directors, coaches, and many student-athletes.
Check out the first episode of Rams Nation Sportscast here!
Several of the new Rams Sportscasters shared their experiences as part of this course:
- “In the past couple of weeks, I have learned a little bit of everything there is to know about sports broadcasting. I’ve learned not only the technical things behind sportscasting, like how to write good questions or create a story, but I also learned why sports journalism is so important. A highlight for me was getting to interview so many different people while creating our final project, a video covering the story of why numbers are dropping in some of our sports programs. It was really interesting to hear all of the different perspectives people had to offer on the questions I wrote with my group. Another highlight for me was getting to speak with real sports broadcasters. This included writers, play-by-play announcers, and someone who has a podcast for the Lakers. I got to learn about their journey to becoming a sports broadcaster, their experiences, highlights, and tips for people who are interested in that profession.” –Georgia Lochhead ’26
- “One thing about this course that I am proud of is showing off my sports knowledge and being able to use it by doing play-by-play. I really like the commentators on the screen when I watch basketball, so being in that role was super cool!” –Brandon Clemens ’26
- “Throughout the Rams Nation Sportscast class, we had three guest speakers talk to the class about their journey in sports journalism and answer various questions. I loved talking to the guests, as I enjoyed hearing about different kinds of sports journalism and their day-to-day life as a journalist. A highlight of this class was getting to watch the end product. I thought everyone’s stories and ideas were so cool. Some of the students in the class are interested in continuing to run a form of sports journalism at MICDS, such as Stars Under the Spotlight, which is a podcast. I think that a future sports journalism class at MICDS would be popular and could increase the sports culture at MICDS.” –Morgan Macam ’26
- “I think that I have learned a lot about the different aspects of sports broadcasting and journalism in the class. Talking to journalists, broadcasters, and podcasters was really cool and interesting to hear about how they got to the job they are doing right now. I also thought when we made the videos, we got to use a lot of the different aspects of sports journalism that we learned about, and it was also fun to have creative control on what we made.” –Ric Jain ’25
Reflecting on the class and the seeds it planted for the future, Sellenriek said, “I am very proud of the level of engagement of our student journalists. They have taken to heart our learning and critical thinking and truly want to produce pieces that will engage the MICDS community. I am thrilled that some students would like to continue this work and have ideas about producing a monthly podcast, increasing social media coverage, and maybe even having student announcers at games.”
Hindle agrees with the excellent student work. “From the very beginning, students pitched in, collaborated, and demonstrated a high level of commitment. There was a lot of student expertise and enthusiasm in the room, and it was wonderful to see how that played out each day as their stories evolved and also as they worked with and supported one another.”
Perhaps these journalists will make SportsCenter’s Top Ten one day with their very own sportscast!