covering preps

If you do dedice to cut back on the agate, be prepared to hear a lot of bitching from parents for a while.

"You covered everybody for years, but NOW that my Johnny is getting his shot, you stop? That's not fair! What do you have against my Johnny?!"

Then they threaten to go over your head. Remember, logic does not apply with the parents of prep athletes. You'll probably hear it from some coaches, too.

Management might take their side, too. If little Johnny's name is in the paper, that means mommy and daddy will buy a copy, maybe more than one. If he expects to be in the paper a lot the upcoming season, maybe that sells a subscription.

I say screw 'em. Make little Johnny actually earn some attention by doing something exceptional. Put the energy and resources into improving the quality and quantity of stories in your section. Just be prepared to take some criticism for it from the readers and the bean-counters.

 

That's incomprehensible. It'd be like looking at a chick with one tit.

 

It's either a full box, or no box.

 

There was a time last year when we had two of those wrestling dual tournaments, where two local teams wrestled four times in one day. If either coach had walked into our newsroom, my part-timers would have committed murder.

 

Agreed, about the full box part anyway.

 

That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in my life. I think you all agree.

 

We have a few coaches that call in and don't have the other team's individual stats. It's frustrating, but at the same time are you not going to run the local kids' stats because the coach doesn't have the stats of a team 50 miles outside your coverage area? Of course not. I'd rather see full boxes, but I'm guessing there are about zero readers that care if the kid 50 miles away scored 5 points in the basketball game.

If we can get the opposing team's stats, we'll run it every time. But, I've never had a complaint for not running stats on a team not in the coverage area. But, if you don't print ONE box score from the local team, you get calls.

 

We've never really had that problem. Fortunately, 99 percent of our high school coaches are good at getting the information. Lot of long-time coaches who know what exactly we need. And since most FAX their box scores, especially in basketball, the information is there.

 

Most of ours are good, as well, but we have a few that don't do both teams. We have many that fax, but we have a couple basketball coaches who fax their team's stats and not the other team's.

Like I said, it's frustrating, but we're not going to nix the whole box just because we don't have the opponent's stats.

 

BH, with all due respect, they do that because you haven't laid the hammer down when they've failed.

A couple of times they don't get the boxscore in because they didn't have both teams, and they'll start making sure they take care of that little detail.

I'm not normally one to say you turn down news, but they have to learn.

 

You bet they learn, especially when some kid's mom calls them at 7:30 in the morning the next day.