Covering sports during a crisis is a challenge but there are stilll some fascinating stories

Andrew Ngo of The Accolade at Sunny Hills interviews junior offensive guard Brian Chang after the CIF semifinal playoff game against Trabuco Hills. (Photo courtesy The Accolade, Paul Yasutke)

Sometimes, there is a story behind how we get a story.

This is one of them.

During these times, with absolutely no sports to cover, all of us in this business are looking for feature stories to write, including updates on athletes in Orange County. We want to maintain quality coverage during an uncertain time.

So on Thursday we were checking Twitter when we saw a tweet from Andrew Ngo of The Accolade, the Sunny Hills campus school newspaper. Ngo tweeted out the release about the Fullerton Joint Union School District extending school closures until May 1.

This was big news because it all but assured high school sports in that district would not resume. So, the sports editor of the publication broke this news then others, including OC Sports Zone, followed with stories. Ngo began work on his own story for The Accolade’s website.

We communicated about this story through E-mail, then found out that Ngo was also a tennis player. So, that seemed to be the perfect opportunity to get his perspective from both the sports and journalism angle so we decided to interview him over the phone.

Ngo was able to provide great insights for our readers and we’ve had tremendous response to the story.

At the end of the day, we concluded that there are no real guidelines to deal with a story of this magnitude. None of us were taught how to cover sports during a crisis like this in college, so we’re adapting and listening to our readers as we try to provide quality coverage for our communities. Every day is different and there needs to be a balance.

We’ve come to the belief that our readers want some good news stories, some regular sports stories and stories about how the coronavirus crisis is affecting Orange County.

We don’t want to diminish the seriousness of this pandemic and we advise everyone to follow the recommended guidelines by CDC. But we know what our readers are reading and believe they more than updates about the coronavirus crisis. We are continuing to work hard to accomplish that task. Sports has always been an outlet to help us get through tough times, and it still can be.

We’ve included a few stories from a week we will never, ever forget and encourage you to send us story ideas and suggestions. We have the resources (and lots of extra time on our hands) and we can do these by E-mail and on the phone.

We are here, and will continue to be here for our communities through the generous support of our partners. We are thankful and blessed to have their support through this. Please click on their advertisements to show your support.

One other point, The Accolade staff is doing some great work and we encourage you to check out their stories online. The website is: shhsaccolade.com and there are plenty of great stories.

We want your ideas! Please email Editor Tim Burt: timburt@ocsportszone.com

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