The True Dakotan welcomes Wessington Springs High School junior Wesley Molnar as one of this semester’s student journalists. He will be covering local sports with a weekly column highlighting the Wessington Springs Spartans and Woonsocket-Wessington Springs-Sanborn Central Bucks, while also producing video interviews for the True Dakotan’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
A multi-sport athlete himself, Molnar suits up for the Bucks in football and for the Spartans in basketball and track. His love of athletics naturally feeds into his interest in journalism.
“I am interested in being a sports broadcaster,” he said. “I really like the idea that what you see or read is the result of someone always being behind the scenes taking stats and interviewing people.”
In the classroom under the guidance of English and Journalism teacher Devena Jackson, he is learning the building blocks of reporting — everything from AP style to structuring stories and keeping the audience in mind. On the field and court, he hopes to bring readers and viewers beyond the box scores.
“There’s a lot more to sports than the games people see,” he said. “By uploading videos, younger people will get more interested in the paper. People closer to my age will bring in more readers to see the great content in the True Dakotan.”
Look for Molnar’s first column in this week’s print and e-edition on PAGE FOUR and follow along on our social media channels for his new behind-thescenes video interviews with local athletes.
“I’m excited to finally get to write in the newspaper and be able to start doing journalism,” Molnar added. “I’ve always been interested in being a sports journalist. This experience at the True Dakotan will help me see if it’s a career I’d like to pursue.”