Ka’Deem Wynn | Writer

My name is Ka’Deem Wynn. I am a junior at Flagler Palm Coast High School, as well as a cross country and track runner there. When I’m not running, doing homework or working, I write the sports section of my school newspaper. In addition to that, I write for DistancePreps.com.

Today marks the ninth month since my first article was published on DistancePreps, thus starting my journey as aspiring writer and journalist. Over the past nine months, I have learned many different things about writing, sports journalism, media coverage, and I’ve met some amazing people along the way, as well as getting the chance to talk to several of the nation’s top high school athletes.

When I first began writing for DistancePreps, many people kept asking me the same question: how did you start writing for DistancePreps?  I think it’s time that I told the story.

Something New

Honestly, it was by the grace of God. In all that I do, I give Him glory for all of my successes and opportunities because I know that it’s only by Him that all of this happened.

One night in late February or early March, I was scrolling through my Twitter, and tweeting things that were on my mind. One of those tweets were about how people had always told me that I was a good writer, and that I should do something with it. At that precise moment, the eyes of DistancePreps were scrolling through Twitter as well and saw my tweet.

Soon after, I received a DM from DistancePreps on Twitter, asking me to contact them. After giving them my email address, I received an email from the DistancePreps Twitter scroller, who would identify himself as Bob Cooke. He said that he saw my tweet about creative writing, and asked if I could send him some of my work, which was mainly school assignments and a few poems that I had written. After reading them, he asked me if I would be interested in the possibility of writing for DistancePreps. I said that I would certainly like the opportunity, and took it.

My first assignment to test my skills were to do an article on my own track team at FPC, but more so the key members of the boys team━myself included. Most of the interviews took place after practice while we were icing and stretching after a hard workout. It was weird in several aspects. The main one was the article itself, and how all of a sudden I was now a journalist, coming to my teammates like “Hey. I’m writing an article about our team and you’re one of the top people so I have to interview you.” Writing about myself being one of the top runners was one of the most weird, and hardest points in the article, but then so was the whole thing. I didn’t want to write about myself in a way that would seem to put me above everyone else. Yes, I was our top guy in the 800 meters, but certainly not the biggest “star” on the team. Most would think that since I’m writing an article about my team, it’s going to be glorified. However, I made my mind up that in all of my future articles, I would not be biased to my team or any athlete. My motto was simple: tell it exactly how it is, whether it be good or bad. That is something that I still hold true to.

After about a week and a half, I submitted the article to Dr. Bob, who loved it. It went up on DistancePreps.com on March 12, and since then, I have been writing full time.

Writing Now

It seems like yesterday that I had received that email from Dr. Bob, but here I am, nine months later. Within those nine months, I have written and published 31 articles, done about three live interviews alongside Dr. Bob, and covered an entire meet on my own, complete with a meet preview, results, photos and videos, and a recap. I’d say that uploading everything from that meet was probably the most boring and longest day and a half of my life. Though it was extremely time-consuming, as much of my writing is, I loved every bit of it.

Every now and then, Dr. Bob will pitch me an idea or two, or give me a specific assignment. Other than that, I think of something that I think would be interesting, and I write about it. Dr. Bob has taught me how to conduct live interviews, or interviews in general, more efficiently, how to get good shots of race footage, tips for writing, and how to upload my own articles onto the site. He’s also taught me different ways to angle an article in a way that will really capture the focus of the article, something that isn’t always the easiest. He has been a true mentor in my life, and I can’t thank him enough for it. The most memorable moment I had with Dr. Bob when at the 38th Golden South Classic where I conducted my first live interview of an athlete immediately after I had just ran the 800 meters, finishing with a PR. I was nervous, and as you watch the video of me interviewing Reilly Friedman, you can tell. But just before, Dr. Bob gave me the quick rundown, telling me how I should conduct it. “You want to build a story around it,” he said. After that, I did it, and that was that.

I sometimes sit and think how it’s going to be when I’m in college in less than two years, and how that will affect my work with DistancePreps. Then I just think to myself “You’ll probably still be writing for them.” I laugh when I think that, only because it’s probably true.

Over the past nine months, many things have changed. 2014 has definitely been a year of great change. Juggling school, running, work, and writing isn’t the easiest thing. I suppose that you can say that it’s about time management, or good planning. I just think that it’s God enabling me to do all of the things that I do, and to do them with quality.

Working with DistancePreps.com and Dr. Bob has been a great experience, and this has been full of very developing moments in my life, and made me think about my future.

I don’t know what the future holds, and I don’t try to pretend that I do. I do know one

thing for certain though. From the moment Dr. Bob gave me that first assignment until now, I have loved writing for DistancePreps.com and I look forward to continue playing a part in it’s success in 2015.

Thanks for everything Bob.