read Ansel Adams books on the dark room and the negative if you’re really interested. In simplest terms you would use an enlarger that would flip the negative into a positive and increase the print’s size from say 36mmx24mm film to 8x10 print. The process is no different than taking an actual photo, but you’re inside the camera now. You shine light through the negative onto a piece of paper that is light sensitive similar to film. The techniques to make an area darker or lighter are simple. Each ‘print’ might be exposed for say 30 seconds, the more ‘exposed’, the stronger the print. By controlling how much area is exposed to how much light, you can “dodge and burn”. It may be as simple as putting a piece of cardstock over the paper for 5 seconds to reduce the ‘exposure’ in that area for 5 seconds less than the rest of the photo. Once exposure is complete, you move the print through the developing process and in this case you can ‘see’ the print develop. How long you leave it in the developer will also affect the outcome, but in this case you may have a soft red or brown light to help/enable you to see what’s happening. It’s quite an experience to watch it come together.
late to the party and it looks like you got good advice, super fast lenses (f/2.8 or better), and IMO know the sport, It really helps, but also know your gear, what you can and cannot do. When I was active I’d be sitting with 30 other photographers and every. single. one. did a spray and pray. Well, almost. I didn’t, and the AP photographer didn’t either, but he’d show up, take 1-3 shots, edit them, upload, and leave. I mostly shot ice hockey and play/knew the game well enough that I didn’t have to spray and pray. I could take a few hundred photos and I’d keep more than 50% and my photos told the story of the game. Whether that’s 51% or 70% I can’t recall, it was 15 years ago and it varied from game to game some better than others, some worse. It was a lot of fun, met a lot of the hockey players I got to photo but it burned me out and I set the camera down for many, many years.