All-area team bitching, what say you?

So the changes are acoming to our setup, brought on by higher ups.

Normally the all-area team comes out. Standard stuff -- Player, Newcomer, Coach of Year, first team, second team honorable mention.

But now we are not releasing Player of the Year with the team. we are listing 3 finalists for the award in each sport and then at the all-area banquet in June and in a magazine in late June/early July announcing the Players of the Year.

And the two other players are just viewed as finalists for Player of the Year. Not first teamers.

I voiced my opposition but was outranked. Am I wrong in thinking this doesn't make sense? Is this common practice now and I just missed it? We did it the usual way last year and kids still showed up to get the plaque and take the picture with the pro athlete speaker. Am I worrying that people are going to want to know who the best player is when they look at the team?

 

Terrible idea. You're telling me if I'm a high school football fan in DellaVille I have to wait until June to find out who the best player was in the area?

Sounds like a ploy to make the All-Area Banquet a bigger deal, thereby selling more tickets. Problem is, most general fans won't care enough and will just move on after a while and forget that you didn't have a player of the year.

 

This. What's wrong with announcing the Player of the Year, then recognizing him again at the banquet in June?

 

Agreed about the timing.

Far as finalist/first team goes, as long as all the kids are on the same page with same layout most readers will take that as being all the all-stars. The distinction between the first runner up and the "allstars" is a little awkward if you deep dive but my thought is most people wont consider it on that level

 

When did newspapers get in the awards banquet business?

 

Globe has their own awards. Providence Journal started doing it for HS stuff. They cover it too.
I don't blame the ad people going for it. It sells out, they make money on ads, etc, etc.
It's a good idea if it works, but when media covers themselves it feels gross.

 

These are all the things I brought up. No one cared what the sports person understands.

We did add an overall Male and Female athlete and overall Coach of the Year which we announced at the banquet and I thought that made sense because you saw who would be in the running as the year went along. I was told that I was talking out both sides of my mouth because I wanted some things released but others not.

 

That is what we did last year. It worked. Off the top of my head, volleyball, both football players (we do big school small school), girls basketball, girls cross country, girls track and field, boys track and field, baseball, boys swimming were all there. Softball and girls swimming would have been but they had competition conflicts.

The only ones I think that didn't come were boys basketball, boys cross country and wrestling.

 

By waiting until spring, your bosses may be costing a kid a scholarship.

 

When the phrase "revenue generating" started to make its way into the newsroom. I remember two years ago having this conversation at the paper I was working. We did (and they still do) a very nice banquet at the end of the year that the athletes and parents really enjoy. They wanted to figure out a way to make money off it, instead of just letting it be about the kids being honored.

First idea was to sell tickets to the event, instead of letting everyone come for free (every athlete got a +2, then additional people paid for meal), but then I pointed out to them that Joe Blow Fan isn't going to pay $20 to watch high school kids honored. So, second idea was to invite big-name celebrity athlete to speak, thereby making it interesting for Joe Blow Fan. Of course, getting a big name to come to your event is going to cost money. My paper didn't want to spend the money. Other papers did. Lafayette (and I think Shreveport) Louisiana got Drew Brees and Peyton Manning the last two years. Montgomery got Emmitt Smith. From what I heard, all those speakers were in the $25K to $50K range. Lafayette just announced Dak Prescott was guest speaker at this year's event.

I don't know how much of a money-generating event it is, but I know the Lafayette one has sold out the last two years, so they must be doing OK.

I'm fine with making it a big deal for the athletes. I'm fine for inviting a guest speaker to give it a special touch. I don't like the idea of waiting until that banquet to unveil major award winners (outside of the overall Athletes/Coaches of the Year, which we did that night also).

 

Name the 3 finalists and let the people vote online. Let them vote as many times as they want.

 

The local paper in our area has had Tim Tebow and Matt Ryan speak. Their speaking fees could have been used to have stringers at some more games, or even hire a part-timer...