Is there a negative stigma to covering high school sports?

When I was 17, I thought all I wanted to do was cover an MLB beat for a living. That's all I wanted to do.

Then I found out that connection to a community, your lifestyle outside work time, might be the No. 1 priority.

One thing my dad told me that stuck: "You work so you can afford to do what you want when you aren't working." If you can get some big moments and thrills out of the work, that's great. Just don't let your life revolve completely around it.

 

Several have already answered more eloquently, but I'll echo bluntly.

Fuck your friends and what they think. The only job sastisfaction pressure should come from the man in the mirror.

 

It seems like the sports journalism universe is set up to praise those who do big stories about big things. But it might be the big stories about little things that are remembered longer. #LocalNewsMatters, as do the local journalists who cover it.

I'm ambitious and I want the opportunity to cover the Olympics, Super Bowl -- oh, wait, did that! -- World Cup, etc. That said, I love finding hometown stories and sharing them with a wider audience.

I do plenty of things that would brand me as a loser. I don't think my job's one of them.

 

I like every bit of this post.

Yes, there is more prestige in being some 27-year-old living on the East Coast out of a box who is one of 2,827 people writing the same rants about politics, in the hopes that one get shared on social media and goes viral. And way too many journalists focus on that and live for that. So do way too many young Americans. It's part of why local and state governments have frankly gone to shit, stuffed to the brim with lemonheaded fools.

Though I get the natural fixation with the Grantlands and Ringers and SB Nations essays and tomes of the world, they're increasingly a dime a dozen.

 

You should only be "discouraged," particularly to the point of wanting to quit, if you think you have no way out of ever doing anything other than the high school sports you're complaining about. And that is unlikely.

Let's say you actually do think you're a loser for covering high school sports all the time. What can you do?

Well, you could do what Doc Holliday suggested (or, the reverse, actually) and seek out some college-level events/features to write about, and start building up strong, varied clips. Even if you have to do it on a freelance basis for someone else, it could be done. Look up AP and seek out college game-coverage opportunities, look for sports stats/recruiting web sites, or specialty sports magazines (I did this quite a bit, and learned to love most of the so-called "minor" sports, and I became very knowledgeable about them). If there are any colleges/universities nearby, contact papers and websites of opposing teams that might be seeking coverage and find out about possibilities of game coverage or features about them.

Or, seek out different types of preps clips, even, that will, even to you, seem better, stronger and show some range. Trust me, you will feel the difference in the writing/reporting, and hopefully, in the finished product, compared to the countless everyday-basis, garden-variety gamers, and will know that you've added to your experience, and probably, your clips by doing that assignment. Even if it is still about preps, it won't feel to you like it is just about preps.

Look for hard-news sports stories involving players, teams, schools, etc., and project/enterprise pieces with broader range, appeal and inclusion in terms of voices, schools, stats, etc. Finding and recognizing these, and reporting on them, actually can be more difficult with regard to preps than with colleges/pros, and doing so will, again, show something good about you and your work. And you, again, will realize the difference. If you want an audience beyond just preps, sometimes you have to write about topical things that are of wider interest, even if they involve just high school athletes. Make the topic, not just the player, your subject. These also are the types of things future hiring editors will be looking for.

If doing preps at a large metro rather than the Podunk Press might make a difference to you, see if you can do some work for that paper, even if it's on a freelance basis, or involves inside phones/agate/roundup work that might eventually lead to more. Just a word of warning, though: If you go that route, do so realizing that it might not ever turn into more. But you'd be working at a big, recognizable paper, and for some people, that matters. Even then, though, you might not want to freelance forever, either. Just be aware of the pitfalls.

Most of all, keep seeking and applying for jobs beyond preps. But the point of all this is, you have to prepare for doing that, first by developing chops, and, often just as important, connections. Then, you can show someone who is hiring that you have them.

 

Wow, I wasn't expecting this amount of responses. Thank you guys so much!

This is what I needed to hear. Yeah, I personally don't think I'm a loser for covering preps. I enjoy it and I've carved out a name for myself in the community. People in my community seek my input on high school sports stuff all the time and I do enjoy it. Would I love to get a pro sports beat one day? Sure, but I keep my expectations realistic, it's just frustrating that my friends' expectations *aren't* realistic.

I'm going to try to not pay attention to what my friends say moving forward. They are pharmacists making 120k a year, so prestige matters in their minds of what you do for a living. But I don't care anymore. I know not all of them actually enjoys what they do. I was just hoping some of you knew where I was coming from on this and I'm glad to see these responses. I needed a place to vent and hear some feedback. Thanks everyone, once again.

 

Can you imagine sitting in a sterile, stuffy office every day, wearing rubber gloves and counting pills 40-50 hours a week for the rest of your life? I can't think of a more boring, miserable job than pharmacy. Those guys might as well have a stamp on their forehead in all caps that reads "SELLOUT." The money is the only thing that career has to offer.

 

Like everybody said, who cares what people say? Do what you want to do in life but do realize that if you are in your 20s you need to take a long hard look at our profession and where it's going. Are you comfortable working in a profession that projects to be dying?

 

Interesting post. I would think a pharmacist has to be pretty locked in during the day lest you make some big mistake that could affect lives. I don't know if I'd call a pharmacist a sellout. There are tradeoffs. If a kid pharmacist is making 120,000 that means she/he can get a great house, support his/her family very well especially combined with spouse's income. True that person may have a much more boring job than you do, but the pharmacist works 40, not 60/70, the pharmacist gets raises, the pharmacist has job security and then some, the pharmacist has what many could term a good life. Not a 24/7 existence in which the newspaper could fold or have layoffs at any time. So let's say it's deadly boring. The person gets to Friday and boom! Weekend fun.

 

Yet another thing you know little to nothing about.

 

There's only a stigma to it if you allow there to be one.