CAS CONNECT 2016

Cody Stavenhagen won the Hearst Award qual i f ier in Sports Wr i t ing for his art icle, “And Then There Was a Footbal l Game.” invite to San Francisco, they each received a $2,600 scholarship from the Hearst Foundation. The week in San Francisco was not all trophies and sightseeing. The Hearst Championships deliver rigorous assignments to compet- itors. The eight-person writing competition charged the students with interviewing Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, then writing both a news story and personality/ profile piece. In addition, they were assigned an on-the-spot article about the city’s homelessness crisis. “It is really a test of time manage- ment, ability to follow good leads, and acclimate yourself to a beat you’re unfamiliar with,” Allen says. In setting out to cover the home- lessness crisis, Knoernschild found herself drawing on lessons learned during the Homecoming tragedy. In shock and mourning like the rest of Stillwater, Knoernschild battled to balance her reporting with her own troubled feelings. “Interviewing people in the community but also being a human was really difficult for me,” she says. “I was constantly reminding myself itself it’s OK to be human and to have these emotions as a reporter.” Similar emotions stirred in Knoernschild when she met a homeless woman in San Francisco whose daughter had been kidnapped. The woman lost her job when her efforts to search for her daughter overlapped with her work schedule. It was not a story Knoernschild could have anticipated. “I did not expect to talk with someone involved in kidnapping and who was so open and honest with me about it,” she says. Both Knoernschild and Stavenhagen look back at the Homecoming tragedy with weary sadness. Not only were they processing their own emotions, they had to cover an unimagina- ble subject. Knoernschild, as the O’Colly managing editor, coordi- nated photographers and report- ers while working on the story herself. A day that began with notions of tailgating at a foot- ball game quickly turned into a marathon shift. She eventually left the O’Colly around 1 a.m. for a few hours of sleep before prepar- ing to be interviewed during a live national news broadcast on Fox & Friends at 5 a.m. Sunday morn- ing. By Sunday night, she had her story ready for Monday’s issue of the O’Colly . Stavenhagen had a similar expe- rience. He was set to cover what everyone thought would be an easy Homecoming football win over Kansas. Instead he was jarred awake by calls and texts from friends and family asking if he was all right. Once he figured out why those calls were coming in, he went straight to work. “One of the things about being a journalist is you don’t have a lot of time to process something like that,” he says. While Knoernschild hunted down details of what happened, Stavenhagen made his way to the intersection of Main Street and Hall of Fame Avenue. He surveyed the scene, paying close attention to each “eerie” detail that gave him chills. By the time he reached the press box inside Boone Pickens Stadium, he had a framework in mind for his story. He also knew he did not want to write it. “I remember talking with Nathan Ruiz, the sports editor for the O’Colly , and telling him, ‘I do not care about this football game,’ ” Stavenhagen recalls. In his story, Stavenhagen wove the details of the game with the “horrific event that had rocked the entire community.” Many people in the crowd of 40,000 at the game probably processed the day’s events in similar fashion. Allen feels Stavenhagen’s ability to tap into that shared experience caught the attention of the Hearst judges. “I think the reason he won such a prestigious award is that he was able to put into words what people were incapable of saying at the time,” she says. Knoernschild produced her award-winning piece with a classic style and relentless reporting. Allen