H.S. Wrestling Coverage

Hey Gold, I did the exact opposite -- left a post at an award winning daily newspaper to cover wrestling nationally full-time. You might be wondering that only (4) NCAA Division I championships make money. College World Series, NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, the Frozen Four and the NCAA Division I wrestling championships.

Some problems might arise in coverage from a very very bad wrestling area. When I did the state rankings back home, I would cover a district that might (combined) have 3-4 state qualifiers whereas powerhouse teams are sending 7-8 apiece. Having something to write about helps. Having coaches that are just collecting a paycheck doesn't do the sport any justice and those teams never get better.

Latching on to the local powerhouse might give some good features, but it could alienate the readers from other schools, then again, it is HS wrestling and I doubt you're going to lose readers/subscriptions because you didn't rank a kid #3.

 

And one other thing --

I've been involved in covering wrestling for the last 10 years, but for the love of god, please NEVER EVER EVER write this word.

"pinfall"

This is perhaps the biggest pet peeve I have in wrestling. It's all too commonplace for a clerk to write the term during a roundup or -- where I see it the most -- the Sports Information Directors, many of whom aren't familiar with the sport and just assume "pinfall" is a valid word.

It is not.

It's a pin or a fall, one or the other, they're interchangable, HOWEVER, pinfall is NOT a wrestling term, and the best I figure, was created by the WWF(e)/NWA folks a while back. I remember hearing it on late night TV with old NWA wrestling "Catch the pinfalls" --

Please, again, it's a pin, or a fall, NEVER a pinfall.

 

Question to those who get stuck typing in the wrestling agate:
It rarely happened when I was in the midwest, but here in Dixie, it takes an act of God to get the managers/parents/coaches who send in the results to actually include the time of the pin.
Anywhere else?

 

A guy I went to high school with (a few years ahead of me) eventually became an Olympian.

Where I live now, three high schools are coached by former university wrestlers, all of whom are medalists at the university national championships.

And, finally, there's always a good story. You just have to find it. It's not about the match per sae, but find an angle, a feature and put the class and team results in at the end.
Example: Two brothers (one grade apart) wrestler against each other in the loft of their barn on the farm. They are both provincial-caliber wrestlers, district champs. One got started in the sport because the principal caught him horsing around in the hallway at school. His punishment was to join the wrestling team.