Dear dimwit on the phone

We don't travel more than 30 miles to cover events. Unfortunately, that means the only time we cover the state-ranked girls cross country team is the one home meet a year, since they don't compete anywhere within the 30-mile radius. We always run a quote from coach when they send in results, though, which we only do for the in-town teams.

A couple of weeks ago, coach emailed us...

I don't need to subscribe to the Podunk Press if you can't cover my cross country and track teams. My family and some of my friends don't need to subscribe either. Our volleyball team is seeded 8th in their section and are about .500 on the year yet they are on the front page of the sports section every time they play. I don't understand...

Well coach, you have 13 meets the entire year. The volleyball team has more than double that, including 13 events in town compared to your 1. Simple math means the volleyball team will be in the paper more. You are on the front page every time you submit results, just like the volleyball team.

After explaining that and suggesting that we should come to practice to do a feature story on the team's success, she replies mentioning three meets they were at that are over an hour away wondering why we couldn't be there. Did you not read our email, coach? We are limited in where we can travel for games.

Furthermore, we ran the feature story on the girls team, and on the morning it ran I see a tweet from a member of the boys cross country team saying: Does anyone know, does Podunk have a boys XC team anymore?

I give up....

 

Once had a girls cross country mom complain that it was about time we covered her daughter's team.
At the state meet.
She was made we hadn't gone to the regional meet the week before.
Problem was, said team had to travel across the state for its regional while ALL of our other teams ran at the regional here in town.
Granted, her kid's team was ranked in the state, but she couldn't figure out why we didn't just cover that team and forget about the rest.

 

We're still running both Abby and comics even though we're down to two days (effective beginning of October). It probably makes no difference as far as Abby's concerned. If they still want to spend the money on that, and not using the other five columns we get sent every week, then so be it.

But I'm sort of surprised we didn't switch some of the comics to something like "Frank and Ernest," a joke-a-day comic where each one stands on its own. I'm thinking "Alley Oop" makes no sense to our readers now (Yeah, when did "Alley Oop" ever make sense?).

 

Dear Letter of Intent Signer,

When you sign a letter of intent, it is kind of assumed you might be getting a scholarship—either fully or partially funded. So why don't you want it mentioned?
Secondly, you're lucky I'm holding the story for the next edition because otherwise you'd be asking me after the story went to print and that would be, well, awkward.

 

Checked my work email to see if I was OK for quitting on posting our non-working website late last night to find a reader complaint over my use of the word 'stud' in a subhead about a kid who ran for 200-plus yards in a state playoff game over its sexual connotations. Writer CCed multiple editors, the publisher and two female employees to 'invite their opinions.'

 

As one of my high school English teachers used to say, "you can't spell 'student' without 'stud.'" She never complained about any sexual connotation.

 

Do you want to share you Poin Files story?

 

Competitive dance: a sport or not?

 

No, a thousand times no but good luck telling that to a mom of some special child who just won a national championship against four other teams from your state and one state over.

 

We got a nice note from a mother (and then a follow-up from the father) about this.

Two of the highlights:
-The only reason the dance articles and pictures have run in the news section vs sports in the past was because former ME held a personal and (chauvinistic in my opinion) opinion that competitive dance is not a sport.
-Former ME was the only person who really cared about about whether competitive dance is a sport or not. Proof - Dimwit Press is THE ONLY paper in the state to report dance in the news section and not the sport's section! Check it out. He cared so much about his opinion that he refused to put the interest of these girls ahead of his own. He used his position to embarrass these girls and show them up. He may not have intended that result but he certainly achieved it. (please let me know if you want to see how boys are making fun of them for not being in the sport's section)

 

I'd lean no, but it's an interesting enough beat / story that sports or news should pop in every once in a while. Like, plenty of stuff to mine for emotional impact if someone is serious about it, because it requires a shit ton of travel, money and practice. (Same if someone in your area is serious about gymnastics, figure skating, etc.)

 

You could make an argument it is, since it includes elements of gymnastics (well, floor exercise), and figure skating (ice and inline) that are recognized as sports.

THIS! If we could narrow it down to one or two organizations, like in boxing's WBC and WBO, we'd have a little wiggle room. But right now it's as bad as youth sports with so many governing organizations. Podunk East, Podunk Tech and Podunk West can lay claim to titles, since they compete in different organizations. (Sentence what will make many on the board cringe coming). I know in several states, the high school governing body holds championships, and in California, the CIF is looking into how to do it.