SPORTS WRAP

Owatonna High School senior Ramala Dahir is learning what it takes to gather and report the news. The second-year Magnet student has learned not everyone calls you back.

            Last year she was working on a political story. “It was a very interesting piece because we actually reached out to (New York City Mayor Zohran) Mamdani. Although he didn’t respond it was very fun to do that… I think that’s one of the pieces I’m most proud of. It was a joint story with my friend,” said Dahir.

            Dahir is a writer and section editor and says there’s multiple positions and opportunities to climb the ranks in Magnet.

            “I had a lot of senior upper classmen (last year) that guided me. We publish stories. We edit them. It’s a whole process. And learning that with your friends, with your peers is a very fun thing.

            “I would recommend any high schooler to do it. You learn a lot of essential skills that you take outside of the classroom with you,” Dahir stresses.

            Senior Lucinda Ornelas is a first-year writer. “I’ve loved writing since I was little. I’d write little stories. I’d write random things. I’ve loved writing, anything about it. And I’ve taken all the writing classes. Then my friend Aliah Fischer told me about Magnet, was like, ‘You should join.’”

            And she’s already hit the big time with a story on making senior year memorable. “That one just got published in the Steele County Times. It’s my first-ever story that I’ve ever done and it got published. So, that was really awesome.”

            She admits it takes work. “You have to do a process with it. You have to send it to multiple people. You have to interview people. You have to get your own pictures. It’s a different writing style than doing it freely however you want.

            “Everyone on the team helps out. It makes it really fun,” Ornelas adds.

            The Magnet (ohsmagnet.com) has an active online and social media presence and publishes three physical editions each year, covering news, student life, A & E, sports and opinion.

            Tristan Gibart heard great things about Magnet his freshman year and took journalism. Now a junior, he is one of numerous first-year reporters. Sports is his beat for now. “I think sports really call to me because I play tennis and I want to let people know about it… I try to write about every single sport.

            “With Magnet you don’t have to stay in the section you’re in if you do want to write about other stories. For example, I could switch to A & E whenever I wanted.”

            Gibart says they go on field trips. “We just took our first one to the University of Minnesota and went there for a press conference. We learned a lot there and it was also really fun as an experience.”

            Sophomore Lamya Hussein is in her first year. “I heard that you get the chance to write about stuff that’s going on in the school, in the community and anything around the world.

            “I like writing because I always liked English. I feel like writing is another way to express something. I like reading a lot and I like writing my feelings out, so I joined the club because I want to write about other things going on and have students’ voices be heard.”

            Her early stories included interviews with homecoming royalty and digging into one of the big topics around school, “I found out how students feel about the phone ban. Why there’s positives and negatives with the phone ban. A positive is you get to interact more with your peers and you’re more focused in class. A negative is not having your phone on you all the time.”

Behind the presses

            Magnet interviews offer me a fun perspective of asking questions to these students who are getting used to asking questions for their reporting.

            Myself a former writer for the student newspaper at Hibbing High School, I never imagined then that I would be doing this as part of my job now.

            Ornelas told me interviews need to be done face-to-face. “There are a lot of people that just want to type out their answers which you can’t do here. A lot of people don’t know what to say. So, they get nervous and their mind blanks.”

Likewise, I prefer in-person interviews. But I’ll take an email, or even a text, for a coach’s comment about a game.

            Everyone carries a phone with them, ban notwithstanding, that can record interviews. I prefer my 20-year-old digital recorder that burns through AAA batteries like it’s Christmas morning.

Wow moments

            I put on my own right sock the other day. Tying my shoe remains a pipe dream. I’m celebrating small victories in my recovery from hip surgery. Attending the Huskies football playoff on Saturday was a bittersweet experience due to the game’s result.

            I don’t know the standard ‘return to work’ timetable is, but my job largely consists of sitting on a chair watching a game and talking about it. That’s not much different than what I did at home the day after surgery.

            A few of my exercises have shown me a glimpse of how my new hip will operate. It is quite exciting, but I’ve still got a way to go.

            Some time last week the local anesthetic – “muscle juice” as my recovery nurse called it – in my quad fully wore off, several days after surgery. My muscle felt like it was trampled by a herd of horses.

            I was feeling great the first three or four days but knew that was coming.

            Doctor’s orders include going for a walk four or five times a day. After a few days of bumping along with a walker on neighborhood streets, I transitioned to a trekking pole. You can call it a cane, but I don’t. It is the same device I use for extreme trail events.

            Speaking of running, I am not inclined to defy the directive of waiting a couple of months. The thought of jarring my leg is not pleasant. But I’ll keep walking and take it one day at a time.