Does this irk anybody else about preps coverage?

in the city where i work, i know many of the parents of the athletes and have covered a lot of their children's youth games. thus, i literally follow their careers year-by-year. and i have found myself in a similar situation, where the son or daughter of a friend of mine has been a "goat" or a "hero." when they are the "goat", i write the best i can to explain what happened. and more times than not, i am granted the chance to interview the youngster even though he or she is distraught as hell. but i think having known their parents and also having covered them when they were even tougher, it makes my job easier to get "inside" of how they are feelling. because they feel comfortable with me. and i usually start out the interview with something like, "okay, i got my job to do here and i gotta tell what happened." or something to that and nine times out of 10, they're okay with it. they do understand.

 

Had a mom of a local elitist "Christian" school call a week or so ago and complain that we referred to her son's team as "pesky." Called it negative and derogatory. Two days later the OKC Thunder is described in an AP story as pesky in a close loss to Houston. Wonder if Kevin Durant's mom called to complain?

 

I don't get it. I don't ever fluff up stories. My job isn't to make the guy who played feel better. For Christ sake, it is for the people who aren't at the game and want to know what happened.

Take the edge off, don't ridicule an 0-11 shooting, just say it was 0-11, but don't hold punches if the kid gets out of line and gets ejected.

And, once the game matters (playoffs) everyone is fair game.

Write it like it was and write it how you saw it.

No sarcasm, no belittling, but no fluff either.

Thick skin, who cares what the parents think.

 

A couple years ago, two rival players fought for a loose ball and one scratched the other. I made a minor mention of it somewhere in the story, said how player clawed the other one.
Few weeks later, interviewing the girl who clawed the other one when her mother walked up to me. Conversation went something like this.
Mom: Did you write that story about her clawing the other girl?
Player: Mom .....
Mom: It was very sexist of you to put it that way.
Player: Mom .....
Me: I wrote it, but how is it sexist?
Mom: Ummm ... I don't know, but I didn't like it (walks away).
Player: Oh my god I am so sorry. That is so embarassing.

 

Here's my deal: I'll be honest. That's fair to everyone.

You do something to win the game, you earned it. You do something to lose the game, well, you earned that as well.

Besides, I'm of the belief that the people reading a high school story the next morning likely know what happened at the game anyway. Nothing the story points out will hurt the kid's credibility when he faces his friends and classmates in the morning.

 

Just got out of a high school hockey game today that featured (and I'm not exaggerating): 35 penalties, totaling 73 game minutes. There were three fights and two ejections.

I guarantee some parent will complain because my game story talks a lot about it.

 

YOU ONLY COVER US WHEN WE TURN A HOCKEY GAME INTO A BRAWL! AND BESIDES, THE OTHER TEAM STARTED IT!

 

Gotta cover the facts.

Star player arrested for theft two hours prior to state tournament basketball game: PRINT IT!!

Star player kicked off softball team for alcohol consumption on road trip: PRINT IT!!

Coach of high school girls basketball team forced to resign after being charged with lewd conduct: PRINT IT!!

If you don't report something solely for the reason it might hurt someone's feeling, YOU AIN'T DOING YOUR JOB!!!