High school coaches ripping officials in interviews?

Isn't it past your bed time, old man?

Besides, spnited's right. The story serves no one but the losing coach. Also, if you had run them, you would have been deluged by calls and e-mails from refs. They band together like no other.

 

You forget one ting, doc. The older you get, the less sleep you need.
I'm down to about an hour and 20 minutes a night. ;D

 

More time to make with the love, eh? ;D

 

:-X :-X :-X

 

I'm just hoping BYH happens upon this exchange and spontaneously vomits. ;D

 

In eight seconds or less?

 

One can only hope.

 

No, you made the right call by not using them. Don't let the coach dictate how the story should be written. If you felt the calls were unjust, if he really did have a legitmate beef on a crucial play that determined the game, then by all means go with it. But don't run quotes about officials just because a coach wants to.

And if you do blast officials, it's not the worst idea to get their take for balance's sake.

 

If the officiating wasn't the story, then there's no reason to insert the quotes just for the sake of doing so. I have no problem with hanging a high school coach if he/she puts themselves out there. But if it's not the story, it's not the story.

 

If the coach believes that the refs played a role in losing the game, then that seems pretty newsworthy to me. It certainly sounds like something that readers would want to know and since the coach feels it was an important contributor to the loss, I would say you should include it somewhere in the story.

 

Wrong. A coach might feel officials cost him every game during a single season or his coaching career, but I wouldn't make it a point to appease him by saying as such. Some coaches will always whine about officials regardless.

 

In the past three seasons, I've used quotes about refs twice -- once game on a controversial was he in/wasnt he with the winning touchdown at the goal line as time expired and on a fourth and inches go for it on a drive late in the fourth for the go-ahead touchdown that came down to a spot that went against the offense.

Both times I didn't have a problem and the coach didn't either, at least not that he said anything the following week about the quotes -- and he lets me know when he's unhappy.