Do you have a knack for writing, know a lot about football, and enjoy USF Athletics? Do you want to learn more about digital publishing and journalism? Do you think Kawika Mitchell is still the best linebacker USF ever had and still wonder why it didn't work out for Lance Hoeltke? V5 is looking for (at least) one more writer, this one heavily focused on USF Football.
We are the largest independent voice covering USF sports, and are credentialed so you'll have the same access to the team and coaches as members of the mainstream media. We expect you to be professional, smart, fair, diligent and funny.
Duties: We are looking for someone to add to our original recruiting coverage, as well as be around USF Football on an every day basis. This means practices, press conferences, weekly teleconferences, and every other availability. We want Willie Taggart to know what kind of cologne you wear and for Mike White to make fun of your ugly shirt. In other words, be around as much as possible.
We want you covering the "why" far more than the "what." There are plenty of quality outlets in town that can handle the roster moves and depth chart changes... we want to examine in-depth why they happened and what it means.
We want someone that can take game film, create cut-ups from it, and use it to make our readers smarter. Play charts, spot shadows, still frame pics... use it all to create posts that inform, engage, and entertain Bulls fans across the world.
You will also need to be comfortable reaching out to recruits for interviews, using social media to aggregate recruiting news, and potentially non-recruiting breaking news. Social media mastery will be helpful as well.
Background and qualifications: We're looking for someone with a degree (or in progress towards one as an upperclassmen at USF) that has an extremely high level of understanding about football. You need to know not only what a zone blitz is, but how to diagram one. You know a fire dog isn't a dalmatian, and can discuss the similarities and differences between the Spread and the Air Raid intelligently. You're going to go deep on the X's and O's, and we expect you to be able to keep up with players and assistant coaches when they use technical terminology.
Our ideal candidate:
* Possesses excellent writing skills
* Has a nose for news, both in knowing what is important and identifying where to find it
* Is able to write in line with and adhere to our best practices
* Is able to write and publish quickly while remaining accurate
* Is local to Tampa
* Isn't afraid to ask difficult questions, but won't ever embarrass themselves (and by proxy, us) in a press conference setting
* Has strong knowledge about USF, both current and historical
* Is funny. This is sports, not church. Please crack jokes or just use gif's of dumpster fires sometimes
Compensation: This position will be eligible for a monthly stipend. The size of that stipend will vary depending on experience, quality and commitment, but it bares mentioning that if money is your 100% biggest motivation, this probably isn't the best fit for you. If you would like to get academic credit for this arrangement, we will do everything we can to make that happen for you.
We will also do our best to travel you to as many football road games as possible, as well as the AAC Football Media Days in Providence.
How to Apply: Send a resume and writing samples to usfcollin@gmail.com.