Monster.com: Were you always interested in sports?

Kristie Ackert: My parents were interested in sports and they always encouraged me to play sports. My father coached high school basketball and played tennis and my mom plays golf and tennis. I played high school basketball and ran track.

Mc: Did you always want to be a sportswriter?

KA: I knew I wanted to be a reporter early on, so in high school I took a job clerking for a local paper, The Oneida Daily Dispatch (circulation: 10,000). I wanted to get experience for my journalism program at college. The first job they give you is taking scores over the phone. When they didn't have someone else they'd let me go out and write stories, so I started writing about high school baseball and basketball. That's how I got into sports writing. And when I got out of college I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and there was an opening at a local paper. I got it because of the clerking, it gave me a leg up.

Mc: How did you get from a small town paper to the New York Daily News?

KA: It was a long journey. Fourteen months into the job in Oneida, an editor at The Modesto Bee in California saw my byline and offered me a job. I covered college sports and minor league baseball.

Mc: Is there a high turnover in sports writing?

KA: There is right now. In the last year there was a huge shift in jobs. People were going to online sites, ESPN is launching a weekly magazine. There seems to be a lot more movement now.

Mc: How is writing for a major daily paper in a big city?

KA: It's fun, there's a lot more energy and diversity in what you can do. I'm on one of the lowest rungs of the ladder, and I report on high school sports. I have a side responsibility of covering college basketball, and I also cover the Liberty, the Women's NBA team from New York.

Mc: What does your work day consist of?

KA: I don't have regular hours; my assignments dictate my schedule. Yesterday, I had breakfast at 11AM with St. Louis Cardinals manager, Tony La Rusa. They are in town playing the Mets -- they lost to them last night – and he's promoting his charity for animals, ARF. Then I drove to Brooklyn and I was interviewing a high school baseball player in Bensonhurst. He is one of the better pitchers in New York City and is deciding between college or going pro. Then I went back to the office, checked in and went home.

Mc: Do you have editorial meetings?

KA: Not really, you and your editor talk and they'll let you know what to do or you come up with an idea. The pro beats are dictated by schedules: every day in summer there'll be a baseball story, every day in winter there will be a Knicks story.

Mc: What are the positive and negative parts of the job?

KA: The work is interesting and fun, but you can get burned out. In March, besides my usual beat, I was helping cover women's college basketball. I was in Nashville and Kansas City for two weeks. There were days where I would write two or three stories a day. The hours aren't great but the Daily News people are great. Once your main responsibility is done, they want you to go. When your season is over, they tell you to take time for yourself. [The negative is] when you're covering games you are working and everyone else is having fun. It's not easy to have a life. And some of the people you have to deal with are jerks.

Mc: Isn't that the case at any job?

KA: In other fields there aren't fans. People are strange at sporting events, they turn into obnoxious animals.

Mc: How may women sportswriters do you work with at the Daily News?

KA: Out of twenty-five to thirty writers, three are women.

Mc: Wow, how is that?

KA: I'm used to it, I've never been in a situation where it's any different. I'm always a minority. I wouldn't say it's hard, but it's not easy either. They are very good about assignments, in terms of fairness, who gets what. It is weird being a woman sportswriter, most days I forget I'm a woman. The people I cover and occasionally the people at work remind me.

Mc: How?

KA: Someone will call and ask, "Can I speak to one of the guys?" Or the people you interview will treat you like a you're a nice little girl or a secretary.

Mc: Are more women moving into sports writing?

KA: I have a few women sports writing friends, there's not a lot of us, but it's changing. There are three women sports columnists in San Francisco. It's not an easy lifestyle. If you're a mom and your kid is at Little League practice you might have to go cover batting practice. You have to get the right boss and the right beat.

Mc: Do you have any suggestions for breaking into sports writing?

KA: You have to write a lot and get clips, there's no getting around it. Editors want to see you can write. Get internships and part time jobs, or volunteer at a paper. Small papers are usually understaffed and they'll take your help. In a sense you have to get lucky. There's a lot of networking in this business. I maintained a friendship with someone I worked with at my second job and he has helped me get other jobs. An organization I found helpful is the Association for Women in Sports. And the journalism program at Syracuse was good. It's just hard work, when you are first working it's not much pay and you are putting in a lot of hours to get clips.

Mc: How are the salaries?

KA: Seven years ago when I started out, I made $12,000. My salary doubled the next year. You start out small but when you move around it jumps. The Daily News -- it's the biggest metropolitan paper in the country -- pays well. You can make money but you're never going to get rich.

Mc: My last question: what are your favorite teams?

KA: I used to love to watch college basketball, I love Syracuse, I'd root for my alma mater all the time. But the job cured me of being a sports fan. Sports is my job, so it's not what I want to do in my off time. There's still pleasure in going to a game but I do it forty hours a week.