Rob Young
SPORTS WRITING ON DEADLINE
Greenville Daily Reflector

Cox's Community sportswriters form bonds with teams and coaches, bonds that can stay with each side of the equation for a long time.

When we contacted Rob Young to interview him about his award-winning coverage of a softball team, he had just talked to the coach and agreed to attend a cookout celebrating the team's championship.

Parents occasionally make news for unruly behavior during their offspring's games. Was that true at this team's games?

"Not at all," Young said. "They were very friendly and personable.

"They had a good team, one that was accustomed to winning. They expected a championship and weren't going to accept anything less, and that goes for the kids, too."

For a writer with a notebook and eyes and ears, the elements of a sports event can be the same whether at a dusty diamond in Wilson, N.C., or in Yankee Stadium.

He or she can be covering the event from a seat in grandstands whose planks are working loose and whose nails are coming up to threaten rips in trousers. Or the writer can be relaxing in a major league press box munching catered food and perusing the nightly press notes. In either setting, sport is sport.

"At whatever level of sports it is, I just want to get to the heart of the story," Young said. "In the case of these softball players, it was that they have a lot of pride. They practiced seven hours five days a week. That was the story with them."

Young is a native of Bethel, N.C., near Greenville in East Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in journalism and is in his second year at the Greenville Daily Reflector. This is his first full-time job in journalism.