Dear dimwit on the phone

Can we say someone signed a NLI if their signing period isn't open? I've gotten an email from an AD saying someone signed to play volleyball and another for basketball, but only open signing periods are football and soccer. Would like to recognize them, but unsure of how to approach it in print.

 

I don't see why not, if you preface it right.

 

They didn't sign anything today, because they can't. When did the actual signing in question take place? It sounds like either the AD totally missed out in the fall, or it's just a verbal commitment.

My big headache is the Patriot League, because some schools give athletic scholarships in some sports and others don't. It used to be much simpler when the Patriot and Ivy Leagues didn't participate in the NLI program, and therefore had no signings.

 

This is where I am. Junior college ball is actually nothing to be ashamed of here. In football and baseball it's almost preferable to going to an FCS or D-II program, and for a lot of girls sports it's the only realistic option to play in college. The stories and pictures are easy, they fill space, and occasionally you get a good feature out of it. I have a policy in my section to do as many of them as we can.

Walk-ons are generally in the "call me when you make the team" category, but can be deserving of their own story in the right circumstances. We had a guy a few years ago pass up some quality FCS offers coming out of a juco to be a preferred walk-on at an SEC school. There's a good chance he'll be a starter next season. We did a story on him at the time about his decision and another last year about his journey.
So I guess it depends on the talent level of the player. If they're obviously a very good or high profile player in your area and they take a walk-on spot as a stab at playing at a bigger program? Probably worth a story. Peter Scrubini who is just trying to make the team at a mediocre D-II school? Not so much.

 

They emailed today with subject line "signees," email body just had three athletes and where they're playing college ball. It's a fringe school with an enrollment under 150 (town pop under 750), I don't think people will mind that we didn't run anything.

 

I think it depends on where the kids is walking on and what's he's hoping to do. A couple of years ago, we had a pretty hotshot kicker from a private school who was going to be a preferred walk-on at an SEC school. I included his picture, along with another kid who was signing with a juco, and mentioned him in the general story I did. No biggie.

BTW, just got through my first signing day as an SID, and it reaffirmed just how much I hate football recruiting.

 

Still shaking my head over a signing day a few years ago. One school had a couple of swimmers signing early, but the AD called and said he'd rather do a big ceremony for all signers in February. Worked for me since we were stretched thin. Of course, parental units of one swimmer called to complain since we weren't there for the real signing.

 

We stopped covering signings in person many years ago, except in really rare cases. It seemed weird to see the competition showing up here, there and everywhere on Wednesday. But we wrote a couple of stories (one for Wednesday, one for Thursday), built a chart of everyone going D-I or D-II -- even the Ivy League kids -- and got photos via e-mail and posted them to a gallery and social media all day.

One mom e-mailed a photo from November. Uh, OK... That'll go somewhere in the back of the gallery with the other photos that were sent on time, but thanks for paying attention!

 

Got to deal with an overprotective parent at a high school soccer playoff game today.

I shot some pictures of one of the keepers walking off the field after giving up three goals in the first half. He'd hurt his hand (probably had it kicked and bruised it; he didn't come out of the game), came to the sideline and dunked it in a cooler full of ice water. I came around to the other side of him, stood a good 15-20 feet away, and shot some more pictures. It was a great visual that told the story of an ass-whipping in progress.
I wasn't up in his face, wasn't running around like a madman or being obnoxious about getting in position for the shot, and he wasn't seriously injured. I wasn't taking a picture of a broken leg sticking out of his skin or anything. He was grimacing as much from the ice water as his injured hand.

Unfortunately, I was too close to the fence and his parents saw me taking pictures. The dad chastised me, saying, "You're really going to take pictures of MY injured son!?"
Told him I'm doing my job of capturing the moment. He didn't like that one bit.
"No. Go over there. Go away," he said, and he made the shooing motion.
Being a professional and having gotten my picture anyway, I told the guy it was my job and walked away. I wanted to swing my camera upside his head, and then smack his wife around as an object lesson. She was right alongside him (with her own camera, ironically) chiding him on.

Hey, asshole. I'm not 5 years old and neither is your kid. Sports involves winning and losing, joy and pain. He's competing in a public forum and occasionally people are going to document the happenings. Grow up.

 

Dear dimwit,
We didn't cover your semifinal game 70 miles away because other games had priority. The in-town team had its own semifinal game on the road, while there were two other semifinal games in town. We don't have the manpower to cover more than that. We only had a small writeup because that's all any game gets when we're not there to cover the game. It's called a brief.

 

Dear Dimwit Freshmen Boys' Coach:

We put the score of the freshmen and JV games at the end of the varsity article. Maybe, if I get the info, I'll put in the leading scorer. That's the way it's always been. It's nice that you bring the scorebook over so I can glance at it and get what I need.

The reason you think the freshmen girls' coverage is "better" is because they actually don't turn in their score until the next day. I still have to print it anyway because of freshmen girls' parents that went over my head to the publisher, so he gets the score and does a write up which I then edit down into something more like it should be (what was the score, who scored the most, when's the next game, edit out the quotes and play-by-play). So that little freshmen girls' story is printed by itself and has a headline because their coach actually sucks at getting a score in.

Until such time as the KSHSAA starts holding freshmen state tournaments, your results actually aren't important to anyone who wasn't at the game.

(Said publisher just resigned, so maybe I won't have to do this any more.)

 

Not a dimwit on the phone, but.... Have you ever had to run a Westminster Kennel Club dog show story in Sports just because News didn't want to run it? And not only that, be told to come up with agate for it? I ask that for no reason whatsoever.