High school football press boxes

Yeah, it does seem that even as they build the bigger stadiums they make the pres area smaller and smaller. It's a bit crazy. We have a room for the PA guy and 4 spotter, the clock operator and two other guys, our VIP area, our administrative area, coaches area, scouts area, Radio booth, Replay/camera/video board operator room, and oh yeah, two seat for newspaper guys.

I covered a 2A game at one of the DFW stadiums a couple years back and I always call or email the stadium when I know when and where I am going. I called this stadium's school people and they assured me my name would be there, go to Will Call...blah blah.
I get to the stadium, the little old lady looks at her list, sorry sir your name is not on here. I tell her when I called, who I spoke with, etc... "Sorry sir, your name is not on here. We have a list." I know you have a list, I called to get on it. We talk a few minutes, I tell her I need in ask her if she can check with someone. She says "I can get you in, just not in the press box, there's no room which is why we have the list."

After a few minutes, I finally convince her to call someone. She picks up walkie talkie, asks that someone "There's a Joe Schmoe here from Podunk Press whose name is not on the list and he wa..." "His name's not on it? it should be. Give him a pass and send him up."
I get up there I am the only media person in the five seat newspaper section. No room huh? Ugh.
The other people working there were awesome though, I chatted with the person in charge up there most of the night. The parking lot attendant even allowed me to park with the school officials, so I was right next to the main exit, and after the game, the guy who locks up said "You can stay as long as you need. just turn this light off and exit to your left at the bottom of the elevator, it goes to the parking lot, otherwise you'll get locked in." And before he left he offered to get me something to drink or eat from the concession stands (chips or candy).

 

Or worse: I always make it a point to enter the names on my basketball stat sheet as they appear in the official book. Someone could be sick, forget their uniform or get called up from the JV, right? At least once a season, a team will enter first named only! And they get mad if you dare ask them the players' last names!

 

Countless times I have run into there only one copy of each roster in the press box. Talk about lame. How hard is to run off a few copies? And names in a basketball scorebook? Ugh. One school had last names only. I asked if they were like Brazilian soccer players. When at first no one wanted to volunteer the first names I said I could just make up some for my story, the names were quickly given to me.

 

So who won the game the next week?

 

This thread that brings back a lot of memories. After I left "the biz,", I did some prep stringing for my local daily. One of the teams in that coverage area was pretty good, but it was in their early edition area, so that paper loved me (I always got them something workable and in before deadline). Anyway, at this time the little pocket lasers were all the rage. The PA announcer, every game, would warn attendees that pocket lasers were verboten. Anyone found using one would have that it "con-fist-i-cated." Priceless!

 

Which he did not.

 

This.

The only people in press boxes who are bigger fucking nerds than the dorks who think they are cool because they are allowed to sit in the press box for high school football games because they are friends of the AD are the losers from small papers who think they are king shit because they are "beat" reporters for the local high school and they know all the kids and their families personally and thus love to gush about them as if they are all going D-I.......

And the idiots in the high school football press box - right down to the janitor who tries to lock the place up even though there are five guys trying to file their stories arguing with him -- need to be told they are idiots on a weekly basis buy anyone who comes across them.

 

About eight years ago, I experienced a "press box" the likes of which I never saw before or since. It was in Wilkes-Barre, where Memorial Stadium hosts, I think, three of the city's high school teams. It was hosting a state playoff game.

The media, upon showing credentials, were escorted into the school building adjacent to the field -- a turf field, amazingly. We were guided through hallways that smelled of urine and into a circa-1920s classroom that smelled of urine. The windows were open; they were about 15 feet behind the top row of the bleachers. Our "desks" were the window shelves. One reporter to a window, and if the fans sitting atop the bleachers decided to stand during a key play, you were SOL.

I don't recall them hosting a state playoff game again.

 

Wilkes-Barre somehow was able to host the Class A state final in '91. The guys from my paper who went up there basically had the same story.

 

I was pretty happy when I saw this:

The two teams we primarily broadcast for will be playing as part of a tripleheader (back-to-back games) at Warren Central -- a 4,000-student school on the eastside of Indianapolis that is probably best known as ex-NFL QB Jeff George's alma mater. I'd worry about doing back-to-back games with no break, but it's the only high school press box that not only has more than adequate working space (on two levels -- the regular press/game workers on the bottom, we've always broadcast from the coach/video level in the past), but a large fridge fully stocked with soda and a loo on each level of the press box about five steps from my broadcast position.

My now-deceased color guy once said on his Indiana football website: "about the only thing they don't have for us is shrimp cocktail." The AD read the site.

Next game, guess what was waiting for us at our spots?

 

This thread spiraled out of control somewhat, and I have not read all the entry's, but covering preps is a balancing act.
If you cover one school a lot, you can get a place in the press box or dugout or scorers table, but not if you do not learn how to get along.
Was the parent wrong in cheering, sure, but as many have said this is not the NFL or SEC, this is High school, you learn to live with it. You Never degrade a team like that even if you know it to be true, because it is sports, weirder things have happened.
As for the no room in the press box, I have always been able to get my way with schools that try to pull that kinda stuff.
Most times I like to be on the field, you get a good feel for the game and you can catch info all game long that you can use in your story. My goal in covering any game is to see something in the game that even the people there didn't see, sure in a 45-3 laugher that is tough, but being on the sidelines is always option one.
However, if it is cold, or raining, I will use the press area. I always show up WAY early and stake my place out. Once I am in place, if I am asked to move I ask why, and then always find another place to sit before moving my things. I have coverd hundreds of games all over Georgia and South Carolina and never been kicked out of a press box by parents or hangers on to make room for them.
Most important thing to learn in this is just keep your mouth shut, when you are talking about someone's kid or the kid's team, you can't win, get your info, get to the office write your story and move along.

 

The one in our town has wireless access and is four stories. And lo and behold, it's not in Texas! Go figure.