1. In-depth knowledge. As a sportswriter, it’s very important that you have in-depth, working knowledge on the sports that you’re covering. You must know how the game is played, the star players, its history, and the important statistics that you’re readers need to know. It will help if you have first-hand experience or if you’re actually playing the game. Your readers will most likely to pay attention to your articles if you’re an authority on the sports that you’ve covering.
2. High level writing skills. Of course, it’s not enough that you know a particular sport inside out. In order to give your audience great reading and learning experience, you must also have decent writing skills. You must be able to write your sports articles in such a way that you’ll be able to excite, entertain, and educate your readers. Aside from regular practice, it will also help if you learn from veteran sports article writers. Read their articles as often as possible and take advantage of their writing seminars, if there are any. This is the best thing that you can do to follow their footsteps.
3. Knowing the best topics to write. Keep in mind that you’re not limited to writing games as sports fans are usually more interested in knowing their favorite players or teams. Every once in a while, feature an athlete on your article or talk about behind-the-scenes or team building. For example, you can talk about Tiger Woods these days and not talk about golf and still get the attention of sports fans. As much as possible, find topics that will target human emotions. This is a great formula that can help you get people to actually read your articles.