Dear dimwit on the phone

While at a former paper, I tracked down a coach via the phone at his local watering hole after a football game once (the wife ratted him out) and got another at an assistant coach's home (accidentally dialed the wrong number from the phone list, but hit paydirt) after a game. As far as I know, those two never missed a call-in again, especially the second guy who was extremely surprised that I found him.

 

I'm with Ace and Other Guy. My responsibility is to get the information in the paper. Whether or not someone else dropped the ball further up the line doesn't change that.

 

Hey spike, you have a small enough coverage area that you should make the attempt to get the stuff as long as you're not bumping up against deadline. But because you have a small coverage area, you're also in a situation where I think you can really make some headway if you have a few coaches who just refuse to call in their stuff after repeated requests. You go to the AD. If that doesn't work you go to the principal. And if that doesn't work, then you've done your part. When the angry parents call, you can tell them you went two levels above the coach's head and he still wouldn't cooperate. Let them go to the principal and then see if anything happens.

At my place our coverage area is larger -- about 30 schools. So we get what the coaches provide and that's it. I've been to the ADs and even talked to a couple principals, but usually it doesn't work. You can't make them care.

 

It's also not fair to the coaches who do call in. If they start seeing that the games get in even if they don't call in, they'll stop, and you'll be making twice as many phone calls.

In my one-man shop days, I prioritized. I got in all the results that were called/sent in. If they weren't sent in, I'd call once or twice. After that, I'd tell them that if it wasn't called in, that unless it was a huge game that I thought needed to get in, it wouldn't get in. And I did the same thing with the parents and ADs, where if they complained, I told them to nag the coaches.

 

There are few things on the planet more frustrating than keeping your own stats, using them for your story/box and then then having someone e-mail you to ask for a correction as the official stats show he had 70 more rushing yards. Then you have to explain you sat next to the stat keeper in the press box. You were working diligently on tracking every pass, run, catch and tackle while he was on the phone with his wife, making jokes to the announcer, openly admitting he rounds most runs up a yard or two for easy addition and then not making use of that eraser at the end of his pencil when a penalty calls a long, long run back.

 

I'm of the camp it's worth making a quick phone call if you haven't heard back within a few minutes of deadline in hopes it keeps your readers believing you are a quality source of information on those teams. If nothing else, leaving a message might guilt trip the coach into calling the next night.

 

I hate to say this, but I think whether to chase down a coach depends on the sport and the magnitude of the game.
We're a small shop with only a dozen or so schools to keep track of, so during football season we'll call. During playoffs for basketball, baseball and softball playoffs we'll call. If the coaches are typically good about calling in regular-season games, we'll give a courtesy call.
For a regular-season softball game, with a team that never calls in because they're 2-20 and laugh, "That doesn't need to be in the paper," when you ask why they haven't called? Fuck 'em.

 

Posted this on the things you hate about your state sport association thread, but in R.I., coaches are required to call/fax/email results to the state's big paper.
No mention of contacting the little guys.

 

Not if the guy you're stringing for wants them.



But then sportswriters know how to score and do boxes.

Billy
Sure. I'll cover that.

 

They were the paper of record for a long, long time and are still one of the few papers that run results for an entire state.

Of course, they were a lot better back then.

 

I used to kind of prioritize the game.

For example, if Coach X didn't call after a game against some non-conference team in the middle of the season, I wouldn't be in such a hurry to drop what I was doing and call the coach. If it was against a conference foe with conference title position on the line, then I may be more inclined to call.

I think we've ALL run into coaches like this, though: If they win, they're calling the second the game ends. If they lose, they don't bother. I've found this to be the case with many coaches in my time.