By Hannah, Zoe and Lily, School Reporters Myers Grove School, Sheffield
BBC Sports Personality of the Year is being hosted in Sheffield on 13 December and Sue Barker will be presenting along with Gary Lineker and Jake Humphrey.
On 20 October 2009, Sue visited Myers Grove School in Sheffield. She was welcomed by 15 pupils from both Myers Grove and Wisewood Secondary School.
Before she entered, the students were quizzed on a Question of Sport special quiz. When Sue entered the room, they were ready and raring to go. All the Year 10 students each got a turn to ask Sue a question. There was a wide range of questions from her tennis career to her presenting career.
A number of Year 10 Creative and Media students asked her questions on her life before presenting. They asked about her past experiences, like winning the French Open and about future events, such as Sports Personality of the Year and Wimbledon.
She was asked who she thought was in the running for an award. Some of possibilities include Jenson Button, Jessica Ennis, Beth Tweddle, Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss. They could be up for many different awards such as Best Team Player and Best Individual.
She is also looking forward to presenting the special awards such as the Unsung Hero Award, which could be someone like a PE coach who trained for no money whatsoever.
We asked why Sport Personality of the Year was being held in Sheffield. Sue gave two reasons: One, they want to move around the country and they have been to London, Birmingham, Liverpool and now Sheffield; Two, Sheffield has a fabulous arena. Sue said: "If you have a city with knowledge of sport, then you have a good start."
Sue says that live presenting is harder than playing tennis because there is lots of pressure with people watching you. She said that in the build-up and during the show, "everyone is so nervous and emotional and it's very nerve wracking." She's also quite worried and terrified about the fact that she is presenting in front of 11,000 people this year!
Her favourite part of the whole show is giving out the award at the end of the show. She says it is a real honour to see the faces of the lucky winner. She also enjoys the after-show party.
Sue looks up to Chris Hoy and Roger Federer
Unfortunately Sue could not give us any inside gossip on what is happening, but she did reveal it will be a very emotional night.
'More of a hobby'
Sue's glad that she has been able to watch, play and commentate on sports, as this is what she loves doing.
We asked how she fell into the line of presenting. Her answer was quite simple: After she retired from tennis, she started out on a local radio. Then an Australian asked her to do a little bit of presenting and then the boss of Sky asked her if she would do some presenting in England.
After a short period with Sky presenting sport, the BBC asked her if she would like to do bigger things. She agreed straight away.
One of the things that made her want to present sport was simply watching her favourite sports. She said: "It's more of a hobby than a job."
Her favourite event which she has presented is the Olympics. She thought this was "absolutely brilliant".
Highlights from the Olympics include seeing gold medallist Usain Bolt break the world record for the 100m sprint.
Strictly tennis
Sue believes herself to be very lucky in the fact that she has been able to interview so many famous and other well-known people.
It's really difficult for her to choose a favourite person that she has ever interviewed but if she had to it would probably be Muhammad Ali or Princess Anne.
One of her sporting idols is Billie Jean King. If she were choosing an idol today she would choose someone like Sir Chris Hoy or Rodger Federer. She thinks children should look up to these great sporting heroes.
She likes working alongside Phil Tufnell because he is "mad, competitive but sometimes speaks before he thinks."
Sue finds him extremely funny and thinks he is funnier off screen than he is on camera.
Sue is watching Phil on Strictly Come Dancing and votes for him every week. She has been asked to join Strictly but has declined the offer because she does not think she is very good at dancing and would have lots and lots of bloopers.
Inspiration
She was inspired to play tennis by her sister, who used to take her down to the courts, normally to pick up all the balls.
She was also inspired by her PE teacher. When she started playing the game at school, her teacher gave her extra lessons.
She said that many people think the sport is quite a male-dominated area but Sue has never found it hard to get into the business and has never played against men as there has always been a men's league and a women's league. She also said that there are a lot more female sports presenters nowadays.
Her favourite part of her career was playing for her country. She enjoyed winning the French Open, as she had dreamed of this for many years, but playing for her country was a great highlight.
Injured
She no longer plays tennis as she pulled a tendon and the doctors said it could happen again so recommended a less demanding sport such as cycling.
Her retirement from the game was as the result of an injury in California.
Unfortunately when Sue was about 17 she had to move to California and the ground where she practiced was too hard. She did not have the right shoes and this caused Sue to have an injury - and she had to give up playing professionally.
She carried on playing afterwards as a hobby but she ruptured her tendon and stopped playing altogether. It was one of the hardest decisions she has had to make in her entire life.
Top tips
Her tips for young presenters are to be knowledgeable about the subject you are presenting and to gain experience working on a school magazine or for a local radio station.
At this the question and answer session was over.
Later on, Sue returned and there were more questions. Children in all the other years got the chance to ask their questions.
Afterwards Sue signed autographs and posed for pictures. It was a very memorable session and I'm sure no one will forget it.
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