Читать книгу That's Great Advice - Matthew Pearlman - Страница 3

When I got the idea to interview pro athletes, nobody thought that an 11 year old would be taken seriously. After all, most sports journalists have years of experience covering games and interviewing athletes.

I also knew that anything worth having is worth fighting for. I decided that reaching my goal was so much better when getting there wasn’t easy.

My mom and dad told me that I have been a fighter since I was born. My twin sister Samantha and I were born 9 weeks early and the two of us together only weighed about 6 pounds. We started our lives in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit of St. John’s Mercy Hospital in St. Louis. We were in an incubator for 6 weeks. My mom said that she knew we were fighters when we arrived home healthy and happy and 3 weeks before our actual due date. I guess we both got ahead of the game as babies.

When I started school, it definitely was not easy for me. Reading and writing were very difficult for me in Kindergarten through third grade. It was very frustrating and I felt like I would never be able to read or write well. With a lot of help, hard work, and determination, it became easier. A big part of my reading success came after I read sports biographies of Jackie Robinson, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Wayne Gretzky, Muhammad Ali, and Michael Jordan. These were very interesting and inspired me to read, research, and write papers about them.

When I decided to be a sports journalist, I worked hard to find out how to reach athletes. I made calls, faxed requests, mailed letters, and e-mailed many people. I was a little discouraged at first and wasn’t sure if I would ever get any real interviews. I decided that I would keep working hard anyway, and I prepared interview notes and practiced mock interviews with my family. I wanted to be as professional as I could. This went on for a couple of months, but no one called back.

In June 2010, I was at home watching a St. Louis Cardinals game. The phone rang and the caller ID said BRETT HULL. He was one of the biggest stars with the St. Louis Blues hockey team and is in the NHL Hall of Fame. Brett Hull was one of the best goal scorers of all time. I almost fell over and couldn’t believe it was really him. It turned out to be a great interview with an amazing player. I realized I had reached my goal.

Brett Hull has another connection to me that my dad told me about after the interview. On the day after I was born, my dad met Brett Hull in the elevator at St. John’s Mercy Hospital. It turns out that Brett Hull’s son was born on the same day in the same hospital as I was. I started to realize we all have more in common than we might think, from sports stars to kids who love sports.

I posted my interview with Brett Hull on my website TeensOnSports.com. I have conducted over 500 more interviews since then.

When I got the idea for this book, I didn’t know if kids would want to read it. The athletes had already given me a lot of advice, so I asked them if they would have read a book like this when they were in school. They all responded very positively. Their responses are located at the end of this book.