Dear dimwit on the phone

If it comes to taking time out of my weekend to cover a cheerleading event, or getting out of the industry. You'll find me at your nearby electronics store hawking flatscreens and laptops.

 

I tend to agree with your approach to this, but at the same time I'm bothered by the number of times I thought I was doing something good by writing a nice feature about a niche sport that rarely if ever got coverage only to have the subjects complain, typically in a backhanded way, that they didn't want a nice feature with interesting photos in the Sunday paper but would rather start seeing someone out at their games and running all their box scores.

 

What Rhody said.

If it's a matter of it being out of town on a weekend, it's like everything else, it's on the coaches/team parents to get stuff to you. If they're doing something in town, maybe an advancer and send a shooter to the event for a photo spread since, from what I've learned about cheerleading competition from here, they're not gonna announce scores anyway, just who won what.

 

Agree with the chorus on the cheerleading. Yeah, I don't really care to watch it, but it tends to actually be somewhat low stress when it comes to coverage - Send a photographer, and gets the scores from the coach afterward. A couple girls out here made an All-State cheer team, so I'll do a profile on them. Otherwise, the "game" coverage is kind of simple - it's not like most (sane) people are going to expect you to write 800 words on a two minute routine.

 

The worst sports guy in our chain barely manages 600 readable words on his "favorite" sport - basketball.
Then he goes to a cheerleading meet and turns out a spectacular story for our weekly and another for his paper. His co-worker was amazed.
I'm not saying go out of your way to cover it, but if the choice is between some hoops team you've seen a handful of times and a cheer meet, spice it up.
But if they bitch, fuck 'em. One of our coaches wouldn't talk for a preview because she "didn't want teams to find out what they were going to do." No different than a crazy hoops coach, but if you're a fringe sport and you want coverage, you do whatever the media wants.

 

I once had a volleyball coach refuse to give up any info on her team for a state preview -- A STATE PREVIEW -- for the same reason, and volleyball is far from a fringe sport.
Her team was going to play one of ours in the semifinals. Her censorship did her no good as the local team was in the midst of a five-title run.

 

Cheerleading, band ... activities in this state, not sports.

Says so right on the athletics/activities association's website.

I want those things in the paper. Just not in the sports section.

 

I'm fine with this stance. It would infuriate me at one paper because they would refuse to cover things like indy pro wrestling, cheerleading, etc. that came to town, which would draw several thousand people, but every single god damn planning board meeting had to be staffed, even if there was only one thing on the agenda.

 

I'm pretty sure I would drop everything to cover some indy pro wrestling.

 

this

 

Cheerleading is recognized as a sport by our state's Interscholastic League but it's lead to an incredible amount of discussion among pretty much everyone who comes in contact with it.

We have one cheerleading coach who is really good to us and, thus, we reciprocate but when we really joked on our Facebook Page about not covering cheerleading until we get our 500th like (Which we would never really do), someone came in and said "Cheerleading is not a sport!". So, yeah, I guess it's in the eye of the beholder.

Me? I don't mind covering it. But I don't mind covering most things a couple times per year. Except miniature golf. FUCK miniature golf.

 

Great. We agree.
But in my state, it's recognized as a sport.
Remember your stand if your state switches cheerleading's label.