How does DCI find thier Required reading.

[WesHender]

So their was this article written about me in a news paper here in New Mexico. For some reason some one found it and sent it in to DCI.org and DCI but it up on the website. I think it is really cool that it got put on the website, I am just wondering how, and who sent it to dci!

Required reading: Cascades member covers sports

1/15/2007 -- 9:24 AM CST

The Observer, a community newspaper serving Rio Rancho, N.M., and the surrounding communities on Albuquerque’s West Side, ran an article about Wes Henderson an aspiring sports writer who covers the University of New Mexico basketball. Henderson, who outside of sports writing plays the trumpet, spent the 2006 summer as a member of the Seattle Cascades.

Reqired Reading: Cascades member covers sports

From the Observer

Go, Wes; young man covers sports

By GARY HERRON/OBSERVER SPORTS EDITOR

Wes Henderson has set his sights on being a sports writer.

"I enjoy sports so much, (I have learned) sports journalism lets me show my passion for the games I love," he said.

Actually, his sights are set on the media in general.

"I'll work for anything - radio, newspaper, television - anywhere in the sports world," he said.

Told it's a hard way to make a living, he had a great answer:" I'd rather be happy than rich."

The way he's attacking it, it shouldn't be too long before his mission is accomplished.

A member of Rio Rancho High School's Class of 2005, Henderson has been getting his feet wet in the craft by covering University of New Mexico basketball for the Red Menace, which is a cherry red-and-silver fan club that has a Web site to cover Lobo sports.

A self-proclaimed "Navy brat," Henderson was born in Holland and lived in South Carolina, Florida and Oklahoma before the family moved to Rio Rancho. He attended Enchanted Hills Elementary and Mountain View Middle School before entering RRHS.

Although he had played sports before, Henderson didn't participate in sports during his days as a Ram, although he did take a semester of sports medicine - "the hardest class I ever had," he said - and played trumpet in the marching band.

Music teachers and band directors Kurt Schmidt and Brad Dubbs were among his favorite teachers, he said. "They were always there for you," while Humanities Academy teacher Bill Ross "gave me the right tools to succeed."

Also always there for Henderson were his parents, Wayne and Debra Henderson. IN addition to his father spending time with him at sporting events, he said his mom hauled him all over during his days as a Cub Scout, Boy Scout and school activities. "They made a lot of sacrifices," he said.

Henderson said he had a 3.0 grade-point average in his classes (English, geography, astronomy and public speaking) at central New Mexico Community College in the fall; he's hoping to enter a four-year college later. Ultimately, he'd be happy living again in Florida, and God knows there are plenty of sports teams there, from university to professional teams.

In addition to his CNM courses, he works two jobs and still seems to be recuperating from a 19,000-mile trip over the summer as part of the Seattle Cascades, a drum and bugle corps that crossed the country from Seattle to Madison, Wisc., over a two-month period.

"I can tell you anything about Rio Rancho High School sports the last five years," he claimed, adding he once received the year-end "Spirit and Sportsmanship Award" after his junior year.

He was recommended for the honor by former RRHS girls basketball assistant coach Lori Stephenson, who heard Henderson talking Rams sports one day.

"Coming from Kirtland, I was so surprised how few people attended the games," Stephenson recalled. "Here was this young kid who never missed a game, and cheered and handled himself the way he should. He just never missed any games - volleyball, basketball and soccer ..."

He still gets to a few Rams games; he's working on a feature on college prospect Marcus Williams (football? basketball? both?) for RedMenace.com, and could be "stringing" a few sports stories for The Observer in the near future.

He joined the Red Menace's staff after being intrigued by that group's presence in the north end zone of University Stadium. Henderson and his father have been regulars at Lobos games, and Henderson took it upon himself to learn more about the Red Menace, often identified by their wearing of outrageous red wigs and pro-Lobo gear at games.

He checked out the site's message boards and went to a pre-game tailgate party.

"I asked, 'Can I give it a try?'" he said. "That was about a year-and-a-half ago. LeRoy (Lucero, AKA "El Bandito") said, 'Send me something.' I did a Lobo women's basketball story, then did a mock interview with him over the phone."

Henderson gets to write for RedMenace.com without literary license, which is how most Web writers and bloggers write, and any and all objectivity goes down the drain.

Here are some recent Henderson entries at RedMenace.com:

"You know, those guys that went 5-0. This team is good when they are in the open court on the fast break; they need to do more of this, so I think a full or 3/4 trap would help pressure the ball a lead to the Lobos strength, which is speed," Henderson wrote in a recent entry. "In the last 10 min of the game the Lobos got back to this and extended their lead to 20 plus and more importantly, the team got back to having fun on the court again. It was a great effort by the Lobos as they were lead by Aaron Johnson's 14 points and 11 rebounds and JR's career high 25 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals. Final score 69 to 50

"Was tonight's good 2nd half what the Lobos needed to snap out of the lethargic play they have displayed lately? We will see Tuesday at 7 verses Charlton Southern. One more thing will you be there? Sunday night's attendance was a dismal 10, 586 officially in The Pit tonight the lowest in about 30 or so years? I challenge you Lobo Fans to support a team that has their ups and downs to come out and help lead them to victory ..."

"Real" newspaper, of course, cannot take such liberties and Henderson knows that.

Still, it'll probably be hard for him to leave his fan gear and attitude at home when he secures a sports writing job and is sent out on an assignment.

To make that transition easy, he said, he hopes to "cover a team I'm not passionate about."

Maybe so, but after meeting Henderson, it's easy to believe he'll always be a fan at heart.

"I'm not gonna lie; I'm a homer," he said. He enjoys getting close with the Lobos and said former Sandia star David Kanyinda and Aaron Johnson are two of the nicest guys he's met in sports.

During a recent interview with The Observer, Henderson was asked why he was wearing a maroon sweater, maroon being one of the school colors of New Mexico State University, a rival of his beloved Lobos.

"Grandma got me this shirt for Christmas," he replied. "And she's still in town."

What else would you expect from a nice guy, an Eagle Scout - with 11 years under his belt in Scouting - who likes playing golf with his dad and reading sports biographies?

Edited January 17, 2007 by WesHender

[MGCpimpOtimp]

You can set up google alerts for keywords, like "drum corps", and google will search the internet and online newspapers, and when it finds that word, it will e-mail you the link. Not sure if this is how DCI does it, but it certainly would work.

[ampfan]

This summer, I was an intern at a newspaper out on the East Coast and I wrote an article about drum corps for the newspaper I was at. I simply emailed the link to the DCI.org webmaster, and it was up within a couple of days.

[WesHender]

Ok thanks guys!