THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605220196
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 92 lines
ONE OF ANDY FRIEDMAN'S teachers describes him as a ``repressed sports writer.''
An editor at The Daily Press in Newport News calls Friedman's writing ``clear and crisp.''
But the Churchland High School student says he'd much rather carve out a future making maps as a cartographer than meeting deadlines as a journalist.
In spite of his career plans, however, the 18-year-old senior recently entered and won a journalism competition sponsored by WHRO, the local public broadcasting affiliate. He took first place with a story he wrote about sports violence.
Another Churchland High School student, Mia Robinson, placed first in the same contest's audio competition with her two-minute soliloquy, ``Generation X.''
The two students were winners in the Hampton Roads High School Communications Partnership Contest, held semiannually by the area's public radio and television stations to discover talented high school students interested in broadcasting careers.
The contest started as a video competition three years ago. An audio component was added a year later, followed by a writing event this year.
``We expanded to include journalism because several people on our steering committee pointed out that many of the 11 school districts in this area do not have any radio or television production classes,'' says Chris Astle, a WHRO radio producer who helped organize the competition.
Media professionals from television, radio and print journalism judged the entries and selected first-place winners in each of the three categories. Video and audio entries were limited to three minutes, while written articles were restricted to 300 words. Participants were free to choose their own topics.
``They were given a wide latitude,'' Astle says. ``We just wanted to see who could come up with the best, most creative idea. We told them there could be no sexual innuendo or anything of questionable taste. That was the only restriction we put on it.''
Friedman decided to write about violence in sports, he says, because it has been on the increase in the past few years.
In his article, Friedman cited specific examples of unsportsmanlike conduct.
``Recently, Dennis Rodman was suspended for six games and fined $20,000 for head-butting a referee,'' Friedman wrote. ``Also in basketball, Jerry Stackhouse recently gave another player a neck-hold after he became mad at the player for holding. His fine was even higher than Rodman's.''
Jerry Micco, an editor with The Daily Press who judged the journalism competition, called Friedman's article ``a good example of how to do critical writing.''
``The author presents his point in a clear, cogent and concise manner,'' Micco wrote in a fax sent to Astle.
``The argument that sports violence has grown is well supported by the facts cited in the article. . . . It takes the reader no time to find out the point of the article.''
Friedman, who has muscular dystrophy and navigates his way around Churchland High School in an electric wheelchair, is described by one of his teachers as a sports fanatic.
``He truly enjoys sports,'' says special-education teacher Darin Bracy. ``He reads the sports section every day, . . . and he comments about it.
``I tell him he should go into sports journalism, but he says, no, he couldn't do that. But now that he's won the award, I tell him I was right.''
Robinson, 14, who discusses Generation X on her two-minute audio cassette, says she chose the topic out of ``curiosity.''
``You hear a lot of people saying that this is the unknown generation and a lot has fallen upon us, as far as the AIDS epidemic and everything. So I decided to do my speech on why we're called Generation X and some of the things that are said about us.''
With background music from the soundtrack ``Boomerang,'' Robinson talks about a generation ``known to self-destruct and cause havoc and chaos.''
``In my opinion, we live in a cruel, corrupt and crazy world,'' Robinson recites on the tape. ``And it hurts. It hurts. I try to cope because that's all I can do. Cope.
``The only thing that's keeping me on my toes is God and my religion.
``He's the only thing that's keeping me alive and helping me deal with the daily stresses, anger, depression and heartache I feel and face within the eyes of the beholder, society.''
Though only a freshman, Robinson has some definite goals in mind for her future. She plans to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to major in mass media journalism.
``That's the field that I want to definitely involve my life in,'' she says.
After college, Robinson plans to join the Marine Corps.
``I didn't want to go into the Marines beforehand because I felt if I did, I would lose focus and forget about college.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Churchland's Mia Robinson, left, placed first in the audio
competition and Andy Friedman won first in the journalism division
of the WHRO contest. by CNB