Proposal No. 1

To: Burnis Morris
From: Tom Bragg

RE: Story outline: Gas prices impacting travel for high school sports

Subject: Rising gas prices limiting travel for some high school sports teams.

Scope: I will research to see how much of an impact the rising price of gas has had on travel for high school athletic teams in Kanawha County, W.Va. West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the country, so the price to travel from (for example) Charleston to Wheeling by car or bus going up is going to severely limit the number of teams, fans and parents able to make that trip. I want to find out if there is any difference between the different school's in Kanawha County budget for athletics. If there is a difference, do the schools with deeper pockets that are able to play a broader range of teams fare better on the athletic fields than the teams that can not travel as far?

Need: To find out if the schools being treated fairly by the Kanawha County Board of Education. It has never been much of a secret that some schools are in the "have" category and others are in the "have not" category in Kanwaha County, but is the price of gas playing any part in a teams ability to compete?

Methods: This story can be put together by researching how much money is put aside in the athletic budgets for gas and travel. I can find this by contacting (or actually going to) the Kanawha County Board of Education and by speaking with officials from the different high schools (including principals, athletic directors and coaches).

Sources: I will compare weigh the difference between the schools that have more money for travel versus how well they do on the field. I will try to draw a correlation between winning (and competing for) state championships and being able to travel more than other teams in the same sport. Coaches and Athletic Directors will be able to weigh the pros and cons of expensive and long travel against how successful their programs are.

Presentation: This would be a single story with the possibility of a sidebar on college sports and gas prices impacting how they travel. The story would be an overview of my findings.

Follow-up: This could be something followed up each semester. As the gas prices rise and fall things will change for better and worse.