Sports Writers in Training Wrap Up Summer Session

Thirty West Orange middle school students have wrapped up an intensive two-week camp designed to help them improve their writing.

The Write on Sports program, which wrapped up Friday at Montclair State University’s ADP Learning Center, aims to get students to develop an interest in writing by making sports, a topic most of them enjoy, the center of their work.

This is the sixth year for the camp, which is tuition free and funded by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations. The camp is the creation of retired Associated Press sports editor and senior executive D. Byron Yake of West Orange. In addition to the West Orange camp, there are camps in Newark for students there.

During the two-week camp, the students hear from working journalists and active and retired athletes. This year’s visitors included former West Orange high school soccer star Brayan Martinez, recently drafted by the Dallas Major League Soccer club; ESPN NBA analyst Chris Broussard, of South Orange; and former MSU basketball standout and WNBA executive Carol Blazejowski, who now works at MSU.

The campers sharpen their interview skills on the guests in formal “news conferences” and in “locker room” settings, where they have to work their way into the crowd to get their questions answered, just as sportswriters do after covering a game.

In addition to interviewing the guests, the West Orange campers attended a Red Bulls soccer team practice on the MSU campus, talking with two players. They also took a field trip to a Newark Bears minor league baseball game, where they interviewed players and watched the game.

During the camp, each student wrote one major feature story, which was distributed in a camp magazine, and produced a video, which was shown when parents visited the camp for a farewell pizza lunch last Friday. They also produced spot stories on some of their activities and blogged during the camp.

Helping out this year was West Orange High School incoming senior Joyce Arowosaye, a three-time camper, who is the first Write on Sports teacher-intern. Arowosaye took first place in a writing contest for students held in conjunction with the group’s fifth anniversary celebration last November. She blogged daily during camp on the group’s website, www.writeonsports.org, in addition to mentoring current campers.

The camp follows a curriculum created by MSU assistant professor Erik Jacobson. This year’s West Orange camp was led by Andy Beutel, a teacher in the Mahwah system, and retired West Orange Liberty Middle School principal John Vogler.