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.

An introduction

First and foremost, I want this space to be a resource for anyone interested in Marshall University's search for a new Athletic Director. As hard as it may be, I will put MY opinion to the side and present the different facts and perspectives on the issue.

In addition to that, there will be things posted here not relating to the AD search from time to time. This blog is part of a new method of teaching the Reporting Public Affairs class at Marshall and will be used to post things related to that class as needed.

Feel free to comment. I feel like this is going to be a VERY informative exercise.


Here is a list of links relating to both Bob Marcum retiring and the search for his replacement from several sources in the Huntington and Charleston markets:

Doug Smock - Charleston Gazette

The Associated Press

Jack Bogazczyk, Sports Editor - Charleston Daily Mail

Anthony Hanshew - The Herald Dispatch

Staff report, The Herald Dispatch

Eastman & Beaudine (the firm hired to help with the search)

This obviously isn't everything that has been said on the issue, but it is a good starting point.

I'm curious about naming an interim AD. Will it be anybody on the private firm's list? Is there going to be a difference of opinion among the Marshall contingent and the group from Eastman & Beaudine? This will all play out in the coming weeks.