Getting the Full Story

I'm back home after another action-packed weekend on the road. This time, my journeys took me to Long Beach, Calif. for the third round of the American Le Mans Series. While my main priority there was covering the sports car race for SPEEDtv.com, I also was able find a little time to do some reporting for my final Advanced Sports Reporting project.

©2009 John Dagys

The focus for the final project is on the small teams in the Series, and how they're getting by race after race in these tough economic times. I interviewed a number of team owners, including Intersport Racing's Clint Field and LG Motorsports' Lou Gigliotti. These are two of the true privateers in the championship, and I was surprised by some of their thoughts. American Le Mans Series President and CEO, Scott Atherton, also took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with me and discuss the current state of independent teams in the Series.

Overall, I'm pleased with the amount of reporting accomplished at Long Beach, and I'll probably only need a few more interviews to complete this project.

In case you'd want to check out some of my work done over the weekend, here's some links:

Heroes of the American Le Mans Series: Corvette Racing

Thursday Photo Gallery

Friday Notebook

Friday Photo Gallery

Beyond The Game

Check out Beyond The Game, a new sports Web site produced by Columbia College Chicago students, including myself.

There's a number of quality feature stories already published on the site, which went live on Tuesday.

My project, worked in conjunction with Jon DePaolis and Jessi Dreymann,
takes a look at Columbia College's sports program, or lack of it. More specifically, we profiled the athletic club's soccer program, and its various challenges. One of the biggest problems right now is just raising awareness of the program, let alone trying to find the necessary funding to buy jerseys and other essential gear.

Have a read, and be sure to also check out the other stories on the site.