Clyde Hirt Journalism Workshop

Friday morning was quite a morning at the Clyde Hirt Workshop for me.  We all had to be up early to be ready for a barn tour that was to start at 8 a.m. at the Meadowlands.  Hence we had to be ready by 7:45 a.m. to make our way over.  Once we gathered at the hotel lobby, we made our way over and did a tour of barn 8C, which is the barn of trainer Jim Doherty.

After a brief tour of Mr. Doherty’s barn, Deb Little, one of the workshop’s directors informed us we will be getting the chance to drive an actual trotter over the Meadowlands Racetrack.

This was kind of like a dream come true for me. I have always wondered what it felt like to be a driver and actually see what the professional drivers see when they are on the track competing.  Mr. Doherty himself actually sat with us to help guide us on our adventure.

The students went one at a time and I was one of the last to make my way on to the track with Mr. Doherty. While I waited, I stood on the bleachers in the backstretch area and watched dozens of pacers and trotters exercise. Meanwhile, Jessica Schroeder, one of the workshop’s directors, gave several of us an informal lecture on the sport of harness racing.

And in actuality, just being on the backstretch was a cheap thrill for me of sorts. As a person who loves going to the track and exploring, I have always wanted to see a racetrack from the backstretch. Hopefully someday I will get to see an actual race from that side of the track, but just to see the horses exercise from there this morning was awesome.

Once I made my way onto the track with Mr. Doherty, I was immediately relaxed. Mr. Doherty was friendly and peaceful and I was instantly at ease once I hopped into the drivers seat.

I did one lap around the oval in clockwise fashion as I learned firsthand how to steer a trotter. Apparently, as per Mr. Doherty, the horse was only trotting about 10 miles per hour. But when I was driving the horse, it seemed much faster. Nevertheless, it was a great experience and am extremely grateful for the luxury of steering a trotter.

Not sure if this was the highlight of my experience yet, since the whole workshop has been great with the wide array of ground we have covered, up front as well as behind the scenes, but this morning ranks up there!

The second day of the workshop started out in grand style as the Clyde Hirt workshop ventured into New York City for a tour of the New York Daily News (NYDN) newsroom and to have lead articles we had written the night before to be proofread by professional editors at the NYDN.

I was fortunate to have an article I wrote to be proofread by Eric Bowers, the Sunday sports editor of the paper.

I was very relieved to know that he basically liked my story and thought I did a good job. I mean afterall, when a sports editor from a paper like the NYDN says you did a good job, that should be a feather in ones cap!

The only major negative I received had to do with my lead paragraph. After listening to him for five seconds, he was absolutely right!

My story is about Greg Peck, a Canadian born trainer whose entry is 3-5 morning line favorite, Muscle Hill.

The story is for the Canadian Press, hence Mr. Peck’s homeland of Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia is the bridge to the story.

The mistake I made originally in the lead is I talked about how far Sydney Mines is to East Rutherford, and I mentioned in the end that if Muscle Hill wins it would be a victory for Team Canada!. But that led Mr. Bowers  to immediately let me know when he saw that as the lead, he thought the story was about a group of Canadians coming to East Rutherford with a horse for the race.

That was obviously a mistake on my part! Mr. Peck has lived in the United States since 1990 and Muscle Hill was bred in the US as well, so I really don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that lead!

Nevertheless, I changed the lead and have sent the story to the Canadian Press for usage!

Again, it was great to actually have a harness racing story I am producing for a mass audience be critiqued by a sports editor for one of the top daily print publications on earth!

And just to be inside the offices of the NYDN was terrific.  Great call by the Clyde Hirt Workshop committee.

Michael Damon
John Jay College

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Yesterday (Thursday) we went to the New York Daily News and had our stories edited by the editors there.  First let me say how intimidated I was, not only because I am not the most confident writer, but these guys are professionals!  However, it was really cool and hardly intimidating.  I’m not saying it was a “walk in the park” but it was very constructive.

The layout of my story stayed the same, Adam (Burkowitz, Special Projects Editor) just switched bits and pieces around to make it flow better.  He added some quotes, and fixed some of the jargon.  I found him saying, “I don’t know horse lingo - I have no idea what this means…”  Which I thought was quite funny because usually its the other way around!  After he finished editing, I read over my story and was like, “yea, that sounds so much better!”  (Obviously that’s why he gets paid the big bucks!)  It was so nice of Adam to take time out of his day to edit my story, I felt honored to have him even read it!  I was really scared I was going to et in his office and he was going to laugh or tell me to start over or something.  It wasn’t like that at all, he walked me through and we talked about every change that was made.

Just seeing the news room and all the things that go on in the building was very interesting.  We also got to see Dave create an actual page in the paper which was crazy - it’s very methodical.  Overall, it was a really great experience, something I won’t forget!  How many people in college can say they had one of their stories edited by the New York Daily News?

Emily Gaskin
University of Kentucky

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I originally heard of this internship through a highly acclaimed Thoroughbred author who is also a family friend.  She knew that I had aspirations to become a sports journalist and introduced the Clyde Hirt Journalism Workshop to me.  Although I was not familiar with harness racing, I sifted through popular organization Web sites and fan blogs hoping to rid my very green understanding of the sport.  When I arrived we were handed reading material and fan guides which helped reiterate and instill the jargon and further layer my knowledge of the upcoming Hambletonian.  The workshop directors helped introduce us to some of the sports most heralded figures and bring us into the heart of harness racing (the drivers room). What I was able to gain from this was a nostalgia of the past.  Many of the drivers are of a very seasoned age for an athlete (similar to golf) and the presentation as well as overall viewing of the event brought back images of what I imagined baseball games in Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds must have been like.  Fans were not just spectators but contributors to the event, smoking cigars and drinking while watching their investments in action. It didn’t have to be a family atmosphere.  The Meadowlands Racetrack doesn’t try to cater to everyone’s whims and in that I gained a deeper respect than what I could pick up from the fan guides online.  The Clyde Hirt Journalism Workshop is an interactive experience which allows you to become a participant in a sport which welcomes new blood, but celebrates old. It’s a changing world with rapidly improving technology and more personal access than ever before, but there are people and places in this world which allow for you to enjoy what was revered about the past, turn off the cellphone, and enjoy a cigar.

Sam Hitchcock
Miami University of Ohio

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Here are links to some of the stories that were written by the Clyde Hirt Journalism Workshop students.

Junior Jean-Baptiste - Dewey Wins Hambo - Trentonian

Matt Hladik - Advance on Dewey - Akron Beacon Journal
Matt Hladik - Dewey Wins Hambo - Akron Beacon Journal

Dan McCallion - Advance on Crazed - New York Daily News

Bobby Melok - Advance on Dewey - Asbury Park Press
Bobby Melok - Dewey Wins Hambo - Asbury Park Press

Tim Petropoulos - Advance on Dewey - Philadelpia Inquirer
Tim Petropoulos - Dewey Wins Hambo - Philadelphia Inquirer

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Thursday we had a full day with an array of discussions, meetings and experiences. At lunch we sat down and talked with John Quinn, the deputy sports editor of the Philadelphia Enquirer. Quinn struck me first off as an old school hard-nosed newspaperman who happened to also be a sports junkie. Quinn was hilarious but informative at the same time. If he could’ve I get the feeling Quinn would have talked to us all day and into the night. Quinn was genuinely interested in us as journalists and had ideas, and comments that were extremely happy. Being able to sit down and talk with a sports editor who has been in the business for so long and has seen the transformation of the newspaper industry was a very valuable experience.

After meeting with Quinn we went into the city and met Charles Leerhsen at Sports Illustrated and got a tour. Getting a chance to tour the office of the magazine I’ve read religiously since I was in first grade was a great experience. Getting a chance to look at some of the inner-workings of the magazine was great.

Dave Brienza
Purdue University

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