Does this irk anybody else about preps coverage?

Let me guess ... not their kid?

 

I've heard that tune. I have to resist the urge to say, "Jealous much?"

 

Co-worker of mine, when he was editor years ago, took a call from an irate parent about the game story saying his son was harried into throwing another (the kid threw picks like the D-backs were his receivers) interception. Apparently, the dad was not only upset about his kid being named, but also because he (the dad, not the kid) didn't know what the word "harried" meant; claimed he couldn't find it in the dictionary.
He received no pity from the other end of the line, only confirmation that, yes, "harried" is an actual word and was used correctly.

 

i love covering high school sports because--drum roll if you would--it still remains basically pure, although the landscape has reached 'big business' proportions in the last, oh, decade. it's the parents that i have trouble dealing with...i work for a small daily where i know practically every parent who has a son or daughter playing or they know me at first glance (or grimace) at the local Wal-Mart. and they have no qualms about showing up at our office to lodge a complaint that their son or daughter got shafted in a gamer or went unquoted. they're usually, nine out of 10 times, pissed because somebody else's child got quoted and made the headlines. several weeks ago, i got a letter ripping the local class 5-a coach for not playing a certain QB enough and then blasting us because we didnt give said player enough pub so people would appreciate him more. i mean, the dude got on us big time. naturally, he or she didn't put their name at the end. oh, they had our name and address, but nah....better not sign this letter.
usually when i do features on prep athletes, i get more gripes than positive or encouraging feedbacks becauses the usual response is that we're building one player up more than the next one. hey, i can't help it if the guy has thrown five no-hitters and is averaging 11.0 K's pesr game. he's a stud and, thus, he warrants a feature. but oh yes, some parents absolutely freak out when "my son" or "my daughter" is overshadowed in the media by somebody else's.
i really try and help a high school athlete as much in possible in how he might say things after a game, etc...etc...in the heat of battle, emotionally distraught over a loss, etc...they're still youngsters, no matter what some might think and they're still learning to deal with a "fishbowl" existence in some casses.

 

A coach of a volleyball team I'm very familiar with (a lot of the players play for my club team) has a policy of cutting any kid who isn't likely to start as a senior - or at least play some kind of role - when they are juniors. It saves him from those kind of parent problems, and also saves the kid from being embarrassed sitting there on the bench doing nothing, or having to decide for himself if it's worth going through all the practices and not get much playing time. Plus it allows the coach to give the younger players more of a chance to develop.

 

digger...honestly, really the few, few times i get put out with being a sportswriter --and i love being one-- is dealing with these parents, so many now who are absolutely fanatic...and it doesn''t help when, now when you tune into any ESPN televised college game in particular, they give the parents in the stands as much air time as the studs on the field. i know they are proud of their sons or daughters and all, but i don't know..it's a little too much at times. i've had so many through the years come up to me out of nowhere and, without even being tactful enough to introduce themselves, lower the boom on us for not putting their child's name in the paper. please...there's starvation in Ethiopia, a war in Iraq, etc...perspective, folks, perspective.

 

Most programs that have any kind of numbers have that policy. We don't keep juniors on the JV, so they usually figure it out sometime during their junior year and "cut themselves." But there's always that one kid that doesn't seem to understand that the best five get on the floor, and that they don't just get to play a lot of minutes (or any minutes) just because they're a senior. They saw the seniors in the classes ahead of them playing, and didn't understand that the 10 other kids who weren't very good in their classes moved on a long time ago ... they also didn't understand the off-season time those kids put into their games.

 

My favorite game interview of coach comes from a district game where the team I cover is winning a girl's basketball game by 40 points at the start of the fourth period.

With about six minutes to play, the coach walks down to where I'm sitting at the end of the scorer's table. She kneels down and says "Got any questions?"

We do the post-game interview while the game is going on, and I actually get back to the office at a decent time.

 

BEST COACH EVA!!!

 

Ha, you must have had an editor with a great sense of humor (or an unlisted number).

 

She is a very good coach and she's not bad looking.

Covered a game tonight and she was coaching. Her team lost and after the game she said "get out that recorder, I have plenty to say." I didn't work today and didn't have my digital recorder with me, so I had to write as fast as I could, because she was wound up. As always, she was a quote machine.

 

One time I lucked out and avoided being in a very difficult situation.
Early in my career -- I was stringing for the local paper while I was going to college -- I covered a high school basketball game in which it looked like this kid was going to be the goat of the game. Well, this kid was my best friend's little brother. I knew the kid since he was 6. The dad was my little league coach, the mom drove us everywhere around town to games and practices and movies. I stayed at their house countless times. They were close family friends.
I forget what he did, but he definitely screwed up in the last few seconds and I was sitting there trying to figure out how to write this. Well, the other team missed a free throw or something and the game went into overtime. And at the end of overtime, the same kid makes a play to win the game. He went from goat to hero. I avoided having to portray him as the goat and it made for a decent story having him go from goat to hero at the end.
How lucky I turned out to be was reaffirmed a couple of weeks later when I was over at their house any my article was tacked to a bulletin board in their kitchen.