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Sports
The time for paid high school athletes is now
The Tower
After covering the school board for the past eight months, I was craving a change. When I saw a breaking news story from the Detroit News about high schools' possibility of receiving money for the name, image and likeness of athletes, I knew this would be a great story for The Tower to cover. When trying to get sources, I wanted to localize the state wide issue. I reached out to Joey Klunder, a University of Michigan football player that graduated from my high school in 2022. This story was a gateway for the profile I completed on him the following February. This taught me the importance of maintaining connections with your sources for the future of your work.
​Joey Klunder, National Champion but a blue devil at heart
The Tower
After interviewing Joey Klunder for the NIL story I did months before, I decided to do a profile on him. Michigan had just won the National Championship for football, making it a timely and exciting story to publish. This story was also part of me wanting to develop my writing skills outside of news writing. While writing this story, I wanted to capture him not only as an athlete but as a person who has a genuine passion for the sport. I wanted the quotes to put you in the stadium with the Michigan football team celebrating the National Championship win. Additionally, I used this story to prepare to write a profile on alumni of Grosse Pointe South and University of Michigan football player Will Johnson- which never came to fruition.
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