When the game is over and the arena empties, Larry Young Jr. is right at home staying behind to interview athletes, verify stats and give readers an insight into sports they might otherwise miss.

Young, a senior at Southern University in his native Baton Rouge, gravitated to sports writing after writing hard news for the Southern Digest, the campus twice-weekly newspaper. He said he knew hard news reporting wasn’t the right fit for him and found a home on the sports desk;  he is now section editor.   

Young said it was a smooth transition.

“The writing is pretty much the same; if you can write sports, you can write anything,” he said.  ”I would say writing sports  is more difficult than writing hard news.”

He attributed his ability to shift seamlessly from one aspect of journalism to the next to his laid-back, Southern personality. 

In three words, Young describes himself as a “fun loving guy,” modeling his writing style after Mike Wilbon of The Washington Post.

“He pulls you in as a reader and he makes you not want to put the page down-that’s what I try to do,” Young said.

Sports journalism has taken Young from chronicling kidney transplant donor Greg LaFleur, then-athletic director for Southern University, to the front page of the Baton Rouge Advocate, when linebacker Lee Robinson of Alcorn State was drafted by the NFL.

Young said enlightening readers drives his passion for writing and he sees a future for himself as a professional sportswriter.