Dear dimwit on the phone

This is part of why I've sworn off all banquet coverage, except for the two high school hall of fames that always invite us and not only understand all we're going to do is take the "execution at dawn" shot, but are very happy that we're taking it.

This is why I'm frustrated with kid swimming too. One club begged us to shoot a meet last year. We did, after I got a promise from them to send me results. The next week they had another meet and asked if they could just submit photos. I said OK. I got a bunch of photos of kids "having fun" ... but no agate. They didn't run. Want a pool party in the paper? Contact lifestyles or buy an ad.

This is what I don't get about kid baseball/softball either. I'll get a team photo in the paper AFTER they win regional (which I do run), which was either held in town or an adjacent town. But wait, there's more. They need to raise money to go to the next level and can we run something about our car wash/crab feed/bake sale/whatever? Sure. Oh, by the way, can I get a call or e-mail from the next tournament with results? Sure they say ... but I'm still waiting for the phone to ring or the chime that signals incoming mail to go off.

So, I'm sure they're wondering why the wrestling teams, softball clubs, ect., get their photos in all the time? Simple, they called ahead, or sent an e-mail, asking "how do we do this?" and played by the rules. It would be nice to get out of the office and cover some of these things, but if the local leagues want to sit around and do nothing, I can do that too.

Because it's much like Ape said. One day this summer I had two voicemail messages when I came in. One was from a kidball team mom telling me about a game that was to take place about four hours before I got in the office. The other was from the flak for the boxing promoter at the local Indian casino, trying to set up a conference call for a fight that was four WEEKS away. And that's part of why the fight gets a little more play.

 

Ace,

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate swim meets. I've seen four future Olympic Team members swim here when they were younger.

The State Meet was the lead story Thursday and centerpiece Sunday (don't have Saturday paper and don't cover Thursday because all there are are the 1,500 swims) and today (after local team finished fifth and was the best non-metro team in the state after finishing like 16th last year).

Swimming is also our centerpiece tomorrow (lap pool is being enclosed for $1 million, which will help the fitness center's club team since it has to compete in winter meets off site).

The coach is a cool dude. He's appreciative of anything we do. I've known the owner for most of my life. The computer stat keeper can get me results in any format (therefore saving me looking through 50+ page 3-column printouts for only local kids; plus I can hand her a USB flash drive and she can save the results to it in an easy-to-modify format, which saves minutes-to-hours of typing in).

During yesterday's final day of competition, I was sitting right in front of said Swim Dad when he loudly asked the computer keeper, "When is the Podunk Press finally going to show up?"

The computer keeper then pointed out to him that me and our photographer had been to the site numerous times - and sometimes having to park really far away because even with a bank and two shopping centers nearby, parking still isn't enough - and there had been front-page coverage in 2-of-3 editions.

Swim Dad then said he saw all that and asked who I was.

I asked, "Are you sure? Because I wrote a column - which includes my photo - that ran right next to the big swim story?"

He was speechless ... for the first time.

It's bad-apple-spoils-bunch territory.

The only thing worse than a swim mom is a swim dad (and Swim Dad's wife never says anything to us).

 

I'm with you. I got dragged into doing a feature on a 10-year old kid who was going to participate in some baseball skills contest in between innings at a MLB game. The kid's dad wouldn't leave the SE alone, so it got dropped on my lap. No problem, it's summer, nothings going on.

I made it very clear when I met with this kid's dad I would appreciate it if he could drop an email, call whatever to let me know how little Jimmy Shitbricks finished in the competition and we'd run it in the briefs the next week. After all, I didn't want to leave our readers on a cliff after writing a 50-inch preview on the area's own future A-Rod and this skills competition that was going to put his name on the national map.

So, after a few weeks of hearing nothing and Dad not returning my phone calls, I find out through an intermediary that Johnny Shitbricks, the greatest baseball player to come out of Northeast Bumblefuck County in 50 years, finished dead last in the competition last month.

 

I shit you not...an e-mail sent to me hours ago...
****
Cheerleaders, not just another pretty face.

With the understanding that many of her Cheerleaders are planning on carrying their cheer careers on into college, Cheer Coach Smith has realized the value of adding a competition cheer squad to our athletic line-up. And these athletes are not your grandmothers rah-rah girls. Cheerleaders once thought of as non-athletes, this squad is comprised of our varsity gymnasts and tennis players, a varsity golfer, and members of the varsity soccer and track and cross country teams. Arriving at practice by 6:30a.m. every morning since the first week of June these athletes are turning the heads of players, coaches and administration alike. Training, running and tumbling on a daily basis among other things and all before 7am. Adding a competition squad provides advanced skills that these girls will need to cheer on into college or simply the excited of competing in cheer at a whole new level.

Summer high school competition squads compete at country fair cheer competitions around the state and they will compete in their first event this Thursday at the county fair, and will end their season in August as they compete in the State Fair cheer competition.

This story is definitely worth consideration, contact the cheer coach at XXX-XXX-XXX to learn more about these awesome athletes as they prepare to represent our school as their first ever competition squad. The girls have dress rehearsal wednesday evening at school, a perfect photo op to highlight their hard work!

Thanks for your time, I hope you take time to learn more about these awesome girls!

Competition Cheer Mom

*****
*Smacks forehead and rolls eyes*

 

Yeah, an enthusiastic parent sent you a heads-up for an event four days in advance with contact information and practice times. What a nimrod.

 

True, but it's not a sporting event, so why send it to sports?

 

I am not talking about swim meets specifically, but events in general where a large group of competitors comes to town but it's mostly recreational or a step above. It's a big deal for the competitors and maybe financially for the community but often hard to wrap your arms around and cover.

Also, you rarely has someone in charge of the PR who knows what the press needs as far as timely results, story lines, access, etc.

 

Yup, and let's make sure to stop adding up stats at halftime of the football game this fall and make sure to take pics of the band instead as well.

Cheering/band playing is a part of the background of football...not the main attraction.

 

Cheerleading's not a sport. No sports section should cover it. I agree.

But this lady was just stating some info and asking you to a consider a story. She wasn't demanding coverage or complaining because you don't cover them. She was polite, if naive and overenthusiastic. Hardly your typical "dimwit on the phone."

 

Doing the occasional story on cheerleading isn't going to kill you. It may suck, sure, but what's the harm?

Oh, that's right, I apologize. I forgot readers are only interested in the things that interest us as reporters. My mistake.

 

I wouldn't mind writing a story on cheerleading. In fact, I did just that when the local college added it to their list of clubs. That story went in the news section.

If I were only writing stuff that interested me, we wouldn't even have a sports section in the spring and summer. HS and Legion baseball is so boring I could cry.

 

I just wrote a story on a cheer camp for last week's sports page. Of course, it was a camp for little girls and I stuffed it on B8, but the girls enjoyed the coverage and thought it was cool talking to the newspaper guy.