Behind the Story

A couple of weeks ago, after my first of several articles ran in my local paper, I had a family friend tell my in utter surprise how impressed he was with my writing. He meant it as a compliment and I took it as so, but I told him that the last four years of my life had been spent working on my writing, so hopefully I'm pretty good at it, right?

It was more of a joke than anything else, but as I look back at my few weeks spent in Montana this summer I will be thankful for many things. But one thing that will stand out is the opportunity to tell a few incredible stories to the community that I was raised in. So often the media gets branded as a fishing entity, one that only stirs up controversy and finds the worst in others.

Well, much of that is true, but on the same token, there are good stories to be told out there... actually, there are good stories that need to be told out there - because they're newsworthy.

Over the last eight days, my life has centered around soccer for the first time in 15 years. I had the incredible opportunity of witnessing recent high school graduates giving a clinic for at-risk youth, kids who suffer from all sorts of mental and emotional trauma.

I think we, as a society, oftentimes forget how impressionable other are. We take simple interactions for granted, never pausing to think how we impact one another. The impact on that morning was visible and nothing short of inspiring. Who knew that 30 minutes could make a week? Or, by god, a life?

This week, I got to spend time with a friend that I grew up with, talking with him and his family about his upcoming adventure to Africa, to work with the non-profit Grassroot Soccer. This is a humble, down-to-earth individual who genuinely cares about others not only in his immediate world, but in the global sense, too.

The story behind the story here is simple: this kid is the real deal. So often we are limited in writing by cliches and simple language, but to know and understand an individual and his or her 'cause' is to see them in their true light. His light will shine on others... how's that for cliche?

My hope is that these stories exist in the tennis world, as well. That stories like James Blake and his father, Andre Agassi and his school and Ana Ivanovic learning to play tennis in a pool don't have to be anomalies, but rather the fabric that makes up the world of tennis. Yes, you must find the good ones to make them worth writing (and reading) about, but they're there, it's just a matter of finding them.