Newscast #4 - Kierstin Lindkvist - Spring 2021

Our fourth show of WVU News was the best one yet, and it has made me even more excited for our final special edition show. For this week’s show, I wanted to continue to highlight some of the awards and achievements our athletic department has been receiving. This trend started with Kysre Gondrezick’s Naismith nomination during show week 2, Bob Huggins 900th win during show week 3, and now, Shane Lyons has been named one of four winners of the NACDA’s Athletics Director of the Year Award.

I had wanted to do this story since show week 3, so I immediately messaged Michael Fragale and Michael Montoro during that week preemptively. I knew this story needed to be covered and the individuals I wanted to interview had incredibly busy schedules. My interviews would have to be planned well in advance to be able to contact not only Shane Lyons, but also Keli Zinn and Neal Brown. During show week 3, Shane Lyons was out of town at the NCAA Basketball Tournaments, but luckily, by show week 4, he was back in Morgantown and ready to sit down for an interview.

As far as my interviews went, I conducted two one-on-one interviews and attended a football press conference. Fun fact, I was associate producing for ESPN+ when I got a message from Michael Montoro asking if I wanted to jump on the latest Zoom presser with Neal Brown. Of course, I said yes and took the call straight from the tv truck! When it came to filming my b-roll, I went to the office spaces at the Coliseum. I tried to be creative with my stand-up this week and brought a football to cover the lens and change locations. I think it worked well because even though I could not meet with Shane Lyons in person, I could stand next to his headshot on the wall and gesture to it while talking about his role as chairman of the NCAA’s Football Oversight Committee.

Once I got my script, I went to work marking it and highlighting where I wanted to put emphasis and do the turn to change camera angles. The biggest lessons I took away this week are preparation is key and prioritize your time. To contact higher officials like the police chief, a local politician, or in my case the athletic director, you have to make contact as soon as you possibly can. Especially because these people have hectic schedules and limited time to sit down with the media, sometimes you cannot talk to these people one-on-one without that pre-planning. 

Additionally, even with that pre-planning, sometimes the only time you can talk to these officials is through a press conference. You have to be able to ask the right questions to get the questions you want because you might not have thirty minutes to sit down with the person you are interviewing.

Regardless, I am proud of the work I did for this show and happy I could honor the hard work Shane Lyons has done this year for WVU.