Tuesday topic #1: Writing strong leads

Hi everyone,

One of the topics we will be discussing in class is writing strong leads. We will discuss the do's and don'ts of leads in detail. Here are some real-life examples from last year's class. We will discuss each of them in class.

Example#1
Believe it or not, Jamie Balzarini’s job is not to keep the scoreboard operator as bored as possible during games. It’s just something that she does on a regular basis. The scoreboard was the one part of the stadium that didn’t see much action in the Marist College women’s soccer team’s 1-0 victory over Loyola on Sunday.

A single second-half goal was all that Marist (8-6, 4-0 MAAC) needed to knock off the defending Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions for the first time since 2001. It was also only the second victory over the Greyhounds in program history.
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Example #2
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.- Steven Morales ran down the field to his teammates after scoring his first goal of his final season at Marist College. His goal came in the 75th minute on an assist from junior Krystian Witkowski. Witkowski passed the ball between three defenders to Morales who finished the job by scoring on Howard goalie, Larry Turner.

Morales and his team (3-3) shut out the Howard Bisons (1-6) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Tenney Stadium at Leonidoff Field after a tough loss to #2 ranked Virginia on Tuesday, September 14.
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Example #3
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - When told he had just lost his first game as Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School’s varsity football coach, Brian Bellino paused for a split second, and then laughed to himself.

“Had to happen sometime,” Bellino said.

He didn’t seem surprised, but his team did.

The Minisink Valley Warriors (4-2 overall, 1-2 division) defeated the FDR Presidents (5-1 overall, 3-1 division) in Section 9, Class AA, Division II play on Friday, 24-21, in Poughkeepsie.

It was FDR’s first loss the season, a season in which they have already clinched a share of the division title and a spot in the playoffs for the first time in 35 years.
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Example #4
The Marist College intramural soccer players waited on the sidelines for their games to begin as the seconds ticked down in the varsity match. For the varsity Red Foxes, however, the game ended too early.

The Marist College men’s soccer team fell to the Fordham University Rams 1-0 at Tenney Stadium on Wednesday night when Fordham’s Tim Richardson (Palmerston North, New Zealand) scored on a corner kick with four seconds left in the first period of overtime.

In what would be the final seconds, Fordham’s Marcus Axelsson (Jorlanda, Sweden) caught the rebound of a shot by Julian Nagel (Kiel, Germany) and sent it on to Richardson. “You dream of scoring goals like that,” said Richardson, who was voted the Rams’ MVP last season. “I knew if we kept trying, we were going to create chances inside their 18-yard box. Marist has a great defense and it’s hard to break through, but eventually we managed to get through.”
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Example #5
It’s no secret in soccer that strong goalie play produces more victories, and Marist women’s senior goalkeeper Jamie Balzarini has provided just that, leading the Red Foxes to a 4-0 record to start Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play.

Balzarini tied both the Marist career shutout record and the single-season shutout record in Sunday’s 1-0 victory over the Loyola Greyhounds (5-8, 1-3 MAAC) at Marist’s Tenney Stadium. It was her 14th career shutout and seventh of the current season, which helped improve Marist’s overall record to 8-6.