Dear dimwit on the phone

Yes agreed...but cover it with your schools reporter.

I take band photos each year at the annual big-town parade and we run them in schools, but they don't get much more mention than that it seems.

 

As strange as it sounds, I would love as part of a football season preview to know what halftime sets each school's band will be playing that year. I sometimes take a break from my writing or notes when I hear it announced at halftime that a band is going to do something cool or unique. I wish I could remember what school it was now, but I once saw a Florida high school band do a superb ELO medley.

I guess I know of another list we'll be adding to our prep tab this fall.

 

Our papers usually covered marching band competition with news-side folks. Lots of people at those events.

 

Our paper does a marching band advertising tab (!) every fall. Hell of a thing, especially since I don't have anything to do with it.

 

Yes, but it's mainly a function of how our paper is constructed. It's easier for us to include it on a deadline sports page than to wait an additional day to put it in features, and typically the nation/world pages are complete at night before the contest is over.

 

Well you know what they say about excuses ...
If you have a hard line about your local teams that participate cheerleading, it's unbelievably hypocritical to include Westminster.

 

KYSportsWriter and I are at 20K six-day daily. Never included Westminster.

Rodeo has made it in a couple of times, but not horse shows. But horseshoe pitching has. So go figure.

As far as cheerleading, all seven of the public schools we cover offer it and the Kentucky High School Athletic Association is close to sponsoring it as a sport (bowling was sponsored by the KHSAA for the first time this school year, archery and bass fishing are close) and no longer as an activity, but there's a greater chance we'll need to cover archery and bass fishing before we get to cheerleading.

While the few cheerleaders I know who I have dealt with in other sports (one is all-area in soccer, another all-area in volleyball) are glad cheerleading is being considered, I'm not sure they thought it through.

Transfer rules would now apply.
Weekly grade checks.
A state-appointed season (no more traveling to out-of-state meets in August and April for example).
A limit on competitions.
A limit on how much practice you're allowed each week.
A state-mandated dead period (no practice, no fundraisers, no team/parents meetings, no contact with coaches).
Coaches have to have a certain amount of college hours (not a rule currently).
And lastly, no more waiting until the last squad has taken the mat to find out who won, meaning as soon as squads get done competing, their scores would be posted on the scoreboard/announced before the next one takes the mat (kind of like high school diving judges or gymnastics).

Once the girls found out most of that, those two were like, "Well, to hell with it. We don't want THAT."

 

You know, I never thought of it that way, but this may be the answer we give to people who want to know why many of us don't consider cheerleading a sport. I guess in places where the state association sanctions it, these sorts of rules would apply. But if it's not sanctioned by your state, then chances are these types of rules aren't being followed. Might seem like a bunch of excuses to the cheer moms, but I think you could make the case that there's a legitimate distinction to be made. Follow those sorts of rules and you're a sport. Don't follow them and you're not.

 

One mark in the "pro" column for making cheerleading a sport.

 

Speaking of bowling, I'm going out Monday to cover my first high school bowling tournament. State association has had bowling as a sanctioned SPORT for several years now, but this is the first time a state regional has been held in our area. I'm going to give it the featurized game story treatment, and see how it goes.

 

You're the one who has created some sort of moral equivalence between cheerleading and dog shows. I'll gladly leave you on that island, alone. But when you write that column, save me a copy.

 

Bowling is fun to cover. Don't drink too much.