Interview in the Men's Locker Room

For my first three or so years of college, I wanted nothing more than to be a sports reporter. I was a journalism major and got a job working for the school newspaper. Of course the first couple years I was doing stories about some of the secondary sports and club sports around the school, but football was the king and that's what I wanted.

Not to give away where I went, but it is a large state university that has a national championship contending team almost every year, so making a name covering them at the school was a ticket to much greater things.

As I entered my junior year, the football spot finally came open as the previous guy had graduated. I figured as a girl, I'd have a tough time convincing the editor to give me the spot, but applied anyway. As he narrowed the applicants down to the final three, he issued us all the same assignment.

One of the star players was notoriously difficult to interview. To him, it was a bit of a game, and he cherished being hard to talk to. Our assignment was to get the interview with him.

For the football schedule that year, the team reported in earl August to start practices for the season. The three of us, two guys and me, all waited everyday trying to reach him. We of course got interviews with other players and coaches, but he was the ultimate goal and he kept dodging us.

Finally, it was in the last few days of the preseason camp, reporters were allowed in the locker room after practice. This was the big one as it gave local and national media the chance to get access to everyone, so when the doors opened, it was a bit of a mad rush.

We got in just in time to see our target, towel around his waist, head towards the shower room. One of the two guys shouted out to him asking if he could answer a few questions. He looked at the group and said, anyone wants answers, they get them in there, and pointed to the showers.

Of course, that meant if someone wanted the interview, they were essentially going to have to undress, and shower with the team, likely in full view of local and national media. I saw both guy's shoulders sulk, and knew this was my only chance.

I went around to the back of the locker room where there were only a couple players. I asked one of them for a towel, which they gave me, and I started taking off my clothes. They stared at me, and I told them what I was doing.

I wrapped myself in the towel, and when I came around the corner, both guys saw me, and gave a shocked look as I gave a little wave. I got to the shower entrance, hung up my towel, and walked over to the player we were after. I stood there, waiting for him to turn around. There were a couple other players in the shower at the time, and my two fellow writers both came and stood at the doorway to see if I was actually going to get the interview. When the guy turned around and saw me, his eyes opened pretty wide. I told him I followed his rules, now he had to answer some questions for me.

To his credit, he actually answered my questions. It meant I had to share the actual shower with him, so our bodies were pretty much pressed right against each other, but I got what I needed and proved I was willing to do what it took to get the story. I ended up covering the football team that year.

As a side note, being a female reporter on the guys locker room meant I saw pretty much everyone on the team naked. Some guys started off shy, but we built a trust. It was amazing for me, and led to a lot of fun throughout the year.. some of those confessions are yet to come!