The Athletic keeps growing .......

I once had a professor that said “if you can cover a high school football game, you can cover the Super Bowl.”

After some of the schools I’ve worked with, I’m starting to believe that.

 

I think it's easier to cover the Super Bowl. The level of writing required is far higher, obviously, but the logistics are a breeze compared to a prep football game on deadline in the rain.

 

Not to go too deep off a preps threadjack - I should have also mentioned above that in addition to multiply the workload by three or four, you also have to multiply by the number of schools in your coverage area.
Has anybody ever done a a "Preps Night" meeting with coaches and athletic directors, explaining what newspapers need when games are phoned in, how stats are compiled etc? Or even host a low-rent Media Day for a district or coverage area?

 

Saw a similar tale of woe once covering an all-star softball game at the local D1 stadium. Run by a community group, not the university. College kid on a freelance assignment (turns out, for a weekly in our chain) apparently was used to having everything handed him by the sports information people and did not know how to keep score. Asked if he could borrow our scoresheets ... of course I said no, mostly because I needed them for my story on deadline.

Young writers on this site, learn to keep score. Develop a system for keeping play-by-play and stats in football, basketball, soccer and any other sport you'll be asked to cover. I still keep my own notes when covering the big boy games. Easier to find it on my own when writing and I get a better feel for the game.

But to get back on topic ... I get the sense that the preps audience is not what The Athletic is seeking.

 

They're claiming Andy is a direct competitor of the Roanoke Times (he is) and that there's no way he would organically be able to grow a following of 27,000 Twitter followers in such a short amount of time. They're also salty that he was basically trying to market The Athletic on an account that he had while working for the paper.

 

I've wondered about doing something like this. Or at the very least, most of the schools in our coverage area are in the same region, and that region holds committee meetings one block down from our offices. I've considered going down there to discuss these things there.

 

Could've at least taken a picture of your scoresheets with his phone, no?

 

What I'm guessing, is the Twitter handle either had the previous reporter's name, or originally had the name of the paper. He inherited whatever followers the account originally had, but changed the handle somewhere along the way. It wasn't a handle he created.

I've seen this at a couple of shops, but not quite to this extent. I've seen reporters keep the company's handle, but use their own name as the user name and upload a mug or other personal photo on the company account. When they moved on, they gave the account back to the company.

 

I've been to both the Super Bowl and many many high school football games. There might be more of a struggle to find an original angle off such a huge event. Access can also be a struggle. But being handed pregame notes and stats and all that... I could've been spoiled quickly.

My guess is, if the freelancer doesn't know how to do a proper box score, he doesn't know how to read one either. (I never learned the baseball/softball scorebook. I write everything longhand. But it works for me -- and other people can read it... if my handwriting is legible.)