Erie Times-News early deadline on H.S. football nights

Oh dear. That will be a problem if it's true. If they're not home and not playing rival Rome, the closest game is a good hour away in Syracuse. I know it's just a matter of finding a hotspot, but the teams that they'll be playing in Syracuse are in neighborhoods that you should really get out of after the game.

 

Yup. That's the Proctor scenario in a nutshell, and the deadlines don't make it any easier for the 6-8 other football schools in their proximity if they're playing on Friday nights.

 

Our deadline is 12:45 a.m. with a 1 a.m. press start. Family-owned newspaper that prints just one paper -- we live the good life.

 

Last fall, after a lot of lobbying, they extended our deadline to 12:15 a.m. When football season ended, I mentioned to our EE that we could return to 11:15 if necessary, but she said no, keep it going. We were usually out by 11-11:30 anyway during hoops and spring sports, and usually within minutes of the last out being made in MLB in the summer. So one day the production manager sends the EE an e-mail wondering why we were still on fall deadline, to which I replied a) We're six weeks away from Friday Night Football, why switch just for a few weeks; and b) Check the logs and check with the paginator, we're kicking ass. Best e-mail I ever sent.

 

I feel spoiled now. My appx. 30K daily has a 1 a.m. deadline on Fridays. Most kickoffs are at 7:30. I wasn't able to get down to writing until 11:15 tonight, but still had plenty of time to beat deadline.

 

This is why I'm glad we don't publish on Saturdays ...

 

We're 12:45 a.m. on Saturday morning (Friday night). And I couldn't imagine not having a Friday night football edition. I'd feel like I'd lost half my paper.

 

Midnight Friday night deadline, kickoffs at 7 and the team at the main high school in the coverage area has been running split-back veer since 1993. Most games are over around 9:30. Even during the years when they have a decent throwing QB and pass more, most of the opponents haven't caught on to the spread offense yet and the two league opponents that have use it to widen running lanes more so than to throw.

This year, the juco decided to open football season on a Thursday night with a 7:00 kickoff. I knew I wouldn't be out of the stadium before 10:30 (and I was wrong, it was 10:15), so I told them I was shooting for midnight. Got done at 12:10.

Their response when I told them midnight was, "Yeah, OK. We can print one of the shoppers while we wait." At least the press room gets it.

 

This is my Friday night life, now. We have a press time of 11:45, so our last page has to clear by 11:25. Last night, I had a 7:30 game that featured 35 (count 'em) penalties, plus a few stoppages for players cramping (it was 93 degrees and humid at kickoff). Game finished at 10:15, I was able to grab quick quotes from both coaches and a player, ran to my car, drove about six blocks to Mickey D's, arriving there at 10:35. I spent about 5 minutes getting my laptop powered up and adding up stats, banged out a quick summary, sent it, then started my story. It was 10:45 at that point. I blew through a 15-inch gamer in 20 minutes, and had it in the desk's hands by 11:05. God, I love my job.

 

That is what you're supposed to love about the job. I fell in love with the business as a teen-ager by working a near-impossible deadline.

 

The paper I do some heavy freelancing for no longer has a Saturday paper, but it did during the first fall that I worked for them. I know the staff doesn't miss having to put together a Saturday paper with stories involving 20 or so teams, but I miss the rush of deadline. I knew this business was for me during that first year.

In fact, because I now have my own site to run covering high school sports and am often at early college football games on Saturdays, I still push myself to treat it like I'm on deadline so that they have my story. I think it keeps me sharper for those moments where I do have to turn something around quickly.

 

There's a paper near here that has an early deadline Friday nights -- probably something like 8-9 p.m.

I go to their website and they have an 8" quickie story and a refer to "for more, check Monday's paper."

High school football, 60 hours after the fact. That'll pull 'em in.

Not surprisingly, this paper is owned by Paxton.