Dear dimwit on the phone

Gotta agree with Matt here. Covered a football game between rising Podunk and defending two-time state champ Centralville. Centralville special teams muffed a pair of punts and snapped a ball over the punters the head. Podunk's points off those turnovers gave them a win they probably shouldn't have. Wrote in the story that special teams sabotaged Centralville because that's exactly what happened. Even asked the coach exactly that.

What happens happens and we report on that. Nuff said.

 

Also in the camp of naming players who make game-changing errors/mistakes/missed PAT to tie the game at the end, blah blah blah. Stating a fact is not passing judgment. That's a line I oft repeated during the five years I covered high schoolers. More often than not, no one complained that I did it.

And as someone who also worked the crime beat, you can't always name minors because the law doesn't name them in things like affadavits or other unsealed court records. Still, if a child was a murder victim or arraigned in adult court, you get to name them.

 

I agree with Matt as well. There is a difference between "Little Johnny missed what would have been the game-winning field goal" and "the team made a bunch of mistakes and Little Johnny was the worst."

The former is a part of the game that is crucial to the outcome and isn't about picking on the kid. The latter one is outright picking on a kid.

Besides, most high schoolers will tell you that, when they miss a field goal to win the game, that they should have made it. If the high schoolers are honest with you, you need to be honest with the readers and say who it was.

We don't need to treat high schoolers like the pros and insist every detail of their lives be public consumption, but we don't need to act like they are still in the peewee league in which mistakes mostly happen because kids are learning the game.

 

An interesting few pages on here...good discussion.

My personal policy falls somewhere in between.

If it's a mistake made in the game (a fumble, a missed free throw, etc) we'll refer to Podunk High fumbled at the 2-yard-line instead of naming the kid.

But in the case of sportsmanship issues, I don't have a problem describing what happened and naming who did what. At the same time I take into account whether this is a one time action or a pattern of behavior. Worst case, I had was about 8 years ago during the soccer playoffs. I noticed one side making a series of rough/questionable plays early in the match, then during an early timeout I overheard the coach implore his team to play dirty. Couldn't believe my ears. The rest of the match was much of the same. Ended up writing a column to accompany the gamer for that one.

 

To add on, if you don't want to mention the news when someone does bad, then treat good things the same way:

"Podunk High threw for a state-record six touchdowns in the first half …"
"City Charter had 23 assists in the game, leading to 46 points …"

 

Again, what good does it do to focus on the failings of an individual, when in preps, you could be dealing with someone as young as 14? Just saying, "That's reporting the news" doesn't cut it.

Odds are, they're feeling badly enough. Do you need to compound that by letting everyone know in your coverage area that the kid was the reason the team lost? I don't think so. Not if you don't absolutely have to.

So, you spread the mistakes out to "special teams" instead of focusing on the individuals, which is actually agreeing with me.

 

"That's reporting the news" does cut it. Facts are facts. It was not my responsibility to make people feel good about themselves whether they succeeded or failed. They have parents for that.

 

If it's a mistake that decides the outcome of the game -- whether it's a fumble at a key moment, a missed 3-pointer at the buzzer in a 2-point game or a strikeout with the bases loaded for the third out in a 1-run game -- you can't not put the kid on the spot. That's life.

I once covered a high school state championship baseball series where one of the stars struck out four times in a first-game loss. His name was in the story, because he personally left about six runners on base in scoring position in a 1-run loss, and that was the story of the game. The next game, he hit a walk-off home run. Afterward, he gave me one of the best quotes ever: "I went from a zero to a hero."

You shouldn't just gratuitously point out a kid's failures, but players, especially stars, know when they screw up, and they know you have to take the bad with the good. And you have to report it that way. Anything less is not being honest with your readers.

 

If you want to make people feel good be a motivational speaker. If you want to inform people what happened then report the damn news. Good, bad, indifferent it gets reported.

 

Like I said the last this came up, you can point out an error, but shouldn't belabor it like you would in a professional game. Kid knows he booted a grounder, missed a free throw, etc., not having his/her name in the paper doesn't change that.

 

Name the kid, but find ways to mitigate the damage whenever possible through explanation. There was a strong headwind. The grass was wet. The field was torn up. The snap was low. Don't make stuff up, of course, but provide the telling details that give the reader proper perspective.

That can require some reporting, but often some simple observation will suffice. Of course, that's the basic element of the job.

And, yes, athletes simply choke sometimes. But in my experience, participants are willing to talk about what happened if you ask the right way. Don't be an accuser, don't be the proxy for disappointed fans ... just ask the right question. You'll probably get a better story ... one that everyone can live with.

 

That was well-said.

In the last high school basketball game I covered, a kid missed a long jumper that would have either tied or won the game for his team, but he missed and his team lost. After the team met together in the locker room, I talked to him about the shot and just asked him about it. He said he had a clean look but just missed it. It was part of the story. I had to ask him about it, and he was mature in the way he handled it.