Full Court Press is on again in Houston

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"Full Court Press," the annual USBWA sportswriting seminar and scholarship competition, will begin on Thursday, March 31 at the Crowne Plaza Houston, the media hotel at the Final Four.

The session will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a panel discussion led by USBWA members.

The 11th anniversary event provides opportunities for college and high school students interested in a career in sports journalism to meet leaders in the industry and compete for a $1,000 scholarship. Students may enter a writing competition for a scholarship in honor of the late Larry Donald, the only two-time USBWA president and the founder and longtime editor of Basketball Times.

Reminders: • Read the winning stories from the annual Best Writing Contest • USBWA member/award programs

At the center of the seminar is a 90-minute panel discussion featuring USBWA president Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and past president and USBWA Hall of Fame member Jim O'Connell of the Associated Press. The discussion, which will include a question-and-answer session, is expected to include topics such as the influence of social media, the state of the job market, navigational skills in a 24/7 digital era and survival tactics to deal with increasingly difficult deadlines.

The seminar is being organized by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State University. The Curley Center, the first of its type in the nation when it was founded in 2003, is directed by past USBWA president Malcolm Moran, the school's inaugural Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society. Moran will be the moderator of the panel discussion.

Students electing to participate in the writing contest will receive assignments to cover events surrounding the men's championship, including news conferences and practices on March 31 and April 1. One student will receive a credential to cover the national championship game at Reliant Stadium on April 4.

Contest participants will be notified of their specific writing assignment about a week before the event.

The deadline to register for the event is March 15.