{"id":5968,"date":"2022-06-20T17:32:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T21:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=5968"},"modified":"2022-06-20T17:32:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T21:32:52","slug":"cost-of-a-game-winning-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=5968","title":{"rendered":"Cost of a game winning goal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1st Place, Feature Writing – Sports<\/strong>
2021-22, Division 2, Yearbook Verbal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ethan Smale<\/strong>
Warrior
Utica HS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a close match for the JV soccer team against Romeo. After coming off a close loss against this same team earlier in the season, they were determined to win this time around. With the clock running down in the second half, they managed to get the ball to the other side of the field and take a shot.

\u201cGOALLLL.\u201d It was a Chieftain score, and the team immediately began to celebrate. This celebration, however, was short-lived as the player that scored the goal, sophomore Neo Gjekaj, was screaming for a completely different reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeo\u2019s leg looked turned out of place,\u201d sophomore Gabriel Capelj said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really see how it looked from the sidelines.\u201d

The Romeo goalie hit Gjekaj in the leg in a weird way after the ball was shot. The coach ran onto the field to check on him. The trainer ran onto the field shortly after the coach, and EMS was immediately called to come pick him up.

\u201cIt was stinging a lot where it got dislocated, and I was in shock,\u201d Gjekaj said. \u201cIt was not hurting as bad as you would think.\u201d

During all of this commotion, the scorer was too overwhelmed by what had happened to realize what he had just done.

\u201cIt took me a minute to realize I had scored,\u201d Gjekaj said, \u201cand I only found out when the coach came to me and told me a little bit after.\u201d

With all the hard work paying off, the Chieftains had taken the lead against Romeo with the score being 3-2.

After EMS had arrived, Gjekaj was rushed off the field with time on the clock. The Chieftains did not want to lose this game.

Sophomore George Ackerly said he was thinking to himself, \u201cI\u2019m gonna get back at the kid
who did it.\u201d

This led to the start of play once again, but before they got back in play, the Chieftains huddled up and shouted for their injured teammate, \u201cNeo on three, one two three, NEO.\u201d

For the rest of the game, the Chieftains played hard defense against Romeo, not allowing a single goal into their net. This kept the final score at 3-2, making Gjekaj\u2019s shot the winning goal of the game.

After the game was over, many athletes on the team wished Neo well through his surgery. The doctor told him his ankle was dislocated and his leg was broken in two places. The surgery called for three screws into his ankle, and he was required to wear a cast.

\u201cI don\u2019t regret it because it was a really good goal,\u201d Gjekaj said, \u201cand my mom recorded it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Y-04. Feature Writing – Sports<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A single story that goes beyond traditional news coverage of a game or season to spotlight an unusual aspect, a controversy, team life, a key athletic competition or any other human-interest angle (who, why and how) relevant to student athletics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging Criteria<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  • Clear, relevant, engaging human-interest angle<\/li>
  • Solid lead that draws reader into story<\/li>
  • The conclusion ties back to the central point of the story and leaves an impression on the reader by using a powerful quote, vivid anecdote or important point that acts as a “kicker.”<\/li>
  • Meaningful student quotes that enrich story and reflect effective interviewing<\/li>
  • Evidence of adequate research<\/li>
  • Story meaningfully adds to sports coverage; may include personality profile, informative, interpretive (why), and\/or human-interest feature specifically related to sports.<\/li>
  • Adheres to rules of good journalism including: short paragraphs, effective transitions and use of active voice, freedom from editorial comment, careful editing and proofreading to eliminate mechanical errors, correct use of grammar<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    1st Place, Feature Writing – Sports2021-22, Division 2, Yearbook Verbal By Ethan SmaleWarriorUtica HS It was a close match for the JV soccer team against Romeo. After coming off a close loss against this same team earlier in the season, they were determined to win this time around. With the clock running down in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[103,3,11],"tags":[182,21],"class_list":["post-5968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sportsfeaturewriting","category-yb","category-ybverbal","tag-2021-22","tag-division2","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Feature-Writing-Sports-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Feature-Writing-Sports-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Morgan Womack","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=12"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Feature-Writing-Sports-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1656&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1yg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}