Hiring standards for stringers for high school sports

Back when we had other part-timers — I'm the only one now, and I was a veteran writer when I joined here long ago — we had a pretty good run with high school and college help.
The sports editor who hired me graduated from one of the in-town high schools and played sports there before earning his journalism degree. I was told he got his start as a part-timer at the paper. His No. 2 guy (not an athlete) went to the other high school in town and was attending college in town when I was hired. Another part-timer who came along a few years later attended the same high school as the second guy (also, not an athlete). He eventually became a full-timer, then was a co-sports editor before changing careers. All three were great writers. The second guy still works in the business elsewhere.
Other high school/college help were also pretty good. One young woman seemed to spend most of her time in the restroom taking safe-for-work selfies in the mirror and posting them online — above-average looking, but the pics far outshone her writing — but she was the exception to the rule. The few other women who worked for us (part time and full time) over the 20-plus years I've been here did just fine.
Now, some of the help needed a little more help than others to get up to speed over the years. One guy who started with us in high school didn't know the visiting team batted first in baseball and softball and was completely lost when it came to football for a while, but he was great at cross country and track right off the bat. By the time he graduated college and headed off to a real career, he was doing just fine in all sports.
Most of the kids, despite being a bit rough around the edges early, caught on pretty quickly and got up to speed in a couple weeks or so. We'd usually start them out in the office, helping with gamers over the phone before taking them to a game and showing them what was needed and how to get it.