The Process of the Preview

By Michael Newman

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I receive so many comments after I complete and publish the Cross Country High School Seasonal previews in Illinois.

“You must be tired in writing all of that”

“There is so much detail in there.”

“Your eyes must be cross with all the writing that you have to do looking at your computer screen.”

The one question that I continue to get asked is how long did it take you to write all of that. I don’t think I ever have given a clear answer to that. Last week, I was driving to the airport and I began to process in my mind what the process was to complete. I have been doing this now for some time, so I haven’t thought about the actual steps. It has always been something that is in my head where I tell myself, “Okay. Let’s go ahead and start with the next stage.”

As the cross-country season is ready to start, I thought that now is the time to share a little bit of this process.

Getting ready to write the Cross-Country Preview is not like any other article or preview that I produce. It is easier to write about track and field. The week after the state meet is over, I have a little note pad and go through all of the events for the next year. Make some bullet points about each event and then put it aside. It sits on my desk until the beginning of December after I get home from Nike Cross Nationals. I’ll glance at it at the beginning of January when I am ready to start to write. That’s all there is with that.

The Cross-Country preview is a journey. Its comparable to getting ready to run in a season. Its comparable in a business retail sense to a busy holiday season like Christmas. Its two different areas that I can seriously relate to in comparing to my writing of my creation. I’ll use both of them in this piece.

Dr. David Frolick was one of my Political Science professors while I was attending North Central College that gave me the clearest advice on writing a paper for him:

Tell me what you are going to say;

Say it;

Tell me what you said.

He wanted us to show facts to back up what we are saying. Perhaps that is why I write the way I write. It is what I was taught but I kind of twisted the process to how I write presently. I tell how I write this preview but without all the formulas that I use to get from Point A to Point B. I would like to keep that to myself.

I – Organization

If you were preparing for the Christmas Sales season, who you wait until after Thanksgiving to start your planning? If you wanted to run in the State Cross Country Meet or a National Meet, who you wait for the last two months before you started your seriously training?

I think you know what the answers are to both of those questions. Your Christmas selling season would be a mess. If you started training right before state, it would be a good bet that you would not be on the starting line at Detweiller Park.

The same thing applies to how I write this preview. If I started in late June, I would be publishing something that I would not be proud of or that something that no one would want to read.

It starts for me in November. The Monday after the state meet, I head to the store and buy 10-12 packets of graph paper. In between TFX meet result uploads and looking ahead to the Nike Cross Nationals, I start looking at sectional and regional results. I have four binders that will be full by the time I get to the beginning of August. Three are for each of the state classifications. The last binder is a national team binder that will have information on every top team that I will look at for the next season.

For the 2018 season, I made pages for close to 600 schools in all three classes in Illinois. In November, with all of the other things that I need to do outside of this, I start the first set of previews. That is deciding if I will be doing research on the school.

The key is by the time you get to writing this preview, there are no questions in my mind on a school. If you have any questions on a school, you create a page. No questions. No doubts, but you have a page on that school. By the time I get on the plane to go to Portland, my three books are ready to be researched.

II – Preparation (Part I)

Would you cut a workout knowing it would help you improve? Of course not. Joe Newton always told us that are no shortcuts on your way to the top of the mountain. The only person to blame is yourself if refuse to do the necessary work.

People who know me know about my work ethic. I had some pretty good teachers with my Dad and Mr. Newton when it came to that.

When I come back from Nike Cross Nationals, its all about RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. I go through every team, start researching who is returning, and start entering their times. I will make notations on things that I see about the team on that page. Those little notes will pay dividends when you are writing seven months later. My cutoff time for the research is at the end of January. Track season starts to heat up, there is more action with entering results in TFX, and coverage for meets starts to grow.

I had all the research I needed done with all of 2A and 3A schools. I had the teams that qualified for state in 1A completed with teams in the top 10 in their sectionals done. I still had work to do in the classification but the time I set is a stop point regardless where I am.

It is something that I do not worry about. The key is having a page for the 2018 season set up for each school.

The biggest point in this section is the pages set up. My books are on my desk within reach if I see or hear something. Take out the book and put down some notes. If I have a thought on a team, put it in the book. I won’t spend time looking through these books for the next four months. My focus is on track. By the time I am ready to begin the writing process, I am prepared.

It’s like doing your workouts during the early stages of the cross-country season. When you are ready for racing or championship season, you always have those workouts to back you up. The same applies to me when it comes to writing a preview. All this information within my reach on my desk.

The last thing I do before shelving the books is to write a loose timeline. I set goals for when I dive back in. I make them realistic knowing how long it takes to put all of this information together. I set a deadline of when I want to publish everything. I put the page in the book. I won’t look at it until June.

III – Preparation (Part II)

When I am driving home from the IHSA Boys State Track Meet at the end of May, I have the music down low thinking of two things. First, how am I going to write the post meet recaps. The second is I can’t wait to hit the books!

It was the same way I felt at the end of my junior year. I could not wait to start training for the next season. The first priority is of course state meets uploaded, videos, recaps, and review my TFX staff’s work from this busy weekend. The third is starting the cross-country research. This year, that started the following Sunday. Two meets in St. Louis and Chicago was my focus. It was a busy weekend personally and on Sunday I was looking forward to escape.

All my information for my next track season is in a book and ready to be opened in January. I spend hours looking at the books and information I have written in them. I then pull out the outline and start notating on that. I finish researching the rest of the 1A schools.

Right after the New Balance Outdoor Nationals are done, I am ready to go to the next stage.

IV – Ranking the Teams

Before even starting to analyze the teams, I have to wait until the IHSA posts the classifications for 2018-2019 season. Make a list of those schools and go through and switch school pages from book to book. Then the ranking of the teams takes place.

My one huge belief is that bias has no place in this process. If your ranking for a team shows bias and you published it that way, people will see right through you. It shows lack of research, lack of character, lack of ethics. I make sure I have the stats ready looking at the books as well as Athletic.net to prove a point mainly to myself.

The same applies to the rankings on the national side as it does when I do state. Yes, I cover Illinois teams, but I do have a strong handle on what is happening nationally (in most cases). You would like to put the Illinois schools up high, but I leave that to when I am crunching numbers. If it is deserved, then I will go off with what I calculate.

First - the thing that I do is figure on who projects to be in the top seven for the team. I will get feedback from coaches later on (we will get to that).  It is on a school by school basis. You figure time calculations and look at their page from the previous season. I never compare from school to school. I learned that early in doing this. It took six to seven years to find the right formula to get the correct team projection. On a team to team basis, I will give 10 runners a calculated time. It takes a ton of time. This year, it was over 600 Illinois schools, over 250 schools nationally. The work pays off in the end. Just like in a workout. Just like in a race.

Calculating can take up to two weeks to do this.

Second - it is getting all the team numbers by classification on a page so that you can evaluate from team to team. You have all this data that you have spent months on. You have eliminated a couple of teams (perhaps less than 5%) that you will not rank. There is either not enough information of just by looking, you can make the decision that its not worth going further on the evaluation of the team.

Third - It is time to put all those numbers to use. I do it like a state meet. Rank the individual runners by ranking time/points. There are eight different rankings that I do (6 state, 2 national). I do all of them at the same time. It takes a week to process all of this.

Fourth – Calculate the scores for the teams. There is not a direct number for the team. There is a range of points that can give you an idea of where the team will fall in the rankings. You have six pages of point totals for each classification. Then, you place them in order. It is July 8. My initial list is done. It will change by the time you write the previews. The lists are your outline on how you are going to write your previews.  It determines how you write your introduction and so on.

V – The Coaches and the Previews

By the time I get to Detweiller at Dark at the end of July, the national previews are done. I am itching to start to write. I wait to send out my questions to the coaches. I have determined the teams and individuals that I will write about. This year, I sent out over 350 e-mails.

Why do I wait until the end of July? Mainly, it is silly to send them out at the beginning of the month. Coaches are into the dark period (no contact) with their runners. In most cases, I receive better feedback. I ask basic questions. I won’t ask who do you think will be in the top seven. Most coaches don’t know that when they are writing you back. They have an idea. They wait to see how the first couple of meets work out before that idea is.

When I send out those emails, I have done my research. I know mostly about your team. Now, I want you to tell me about your squad.

All of the data that is sent to me plus all of the research that I have done equals hopefully a good team preview.  The more detail I have for the reader, the better read it will be for my audience.

I can relate to detail from what I learned while I was in management. If a customer comes into your store, a company will want to make sure that the item is in the store for the customer to buy. Otherwise, the customer will go someplace else to make the purchase. It apples to a preview as well. If an article that you are reading is vague, it will give you the feeling to look for more information of a team. The more the detail, the more information you can give to the reader. Detail in an article is always greater than an article that is vague or is a “fluff-piece”.

The six Illinois team previews that I produce takes about a week. I make sure I put a wall around myself when I start to write. No wandering onto other websites. My focus is on everything that I have researched since December plus the emails that are sent. Plagiarism is unethical. It is something I despise. Don’t believe me? I have a ton of info that I can show you. It is so much greater to create something that you can be proud of instead of questioning if you will be caught. Again, you don’t do your training during the season. The results from your race will show if you have done your homework.

One more thing. All of these previews not only prepare you for the upcoming season, but also gets me ready. It sets rankings, it gives me an idea of what road I will be traveling and knowing the little things at meets that makes me a better writer. If there is any advice I could be in all of this is be a sponge. Absorb as much information that you can because it gives you an edge in the long run. It is the same way in running at Detweiller Park in November. You’ve done your homework and now you are ready to show the fruits of your knowledge…and running a personal best!

I hope this gives you an idea of what I go through. It’s the things that I have learned from my parents, my teachers that I received wisdom from, and my faith that fills me up that want me to write for all of you.  I learned so much from running on a prep, college, and professional level. What I have done over the many years is just to give back to all of you that information I have received.

Because life is about giving and passing on what you have learned to future generations.

Thanks for listening. Have a great fall cross-country season. Thank you for your support. See you at Detweiller Park in November.