How do you keep up with prep football games?

I actually DO keep time of possession. I do it by possessions. Team A gets ball with 8:42 left in quarter, punts it back with 3:19 left, so that's 5:23 of possession time for Team A. (I count the entire time of the punt play as possession for the punting team, not switching the very second the ball is caught.)

I really like doing cumulative rather than PBP. I have a spot for the long gainers and number of first downs a player picks up as well.

I realize that a one-man stat operation is not going to be as detailed as a three or four-man team in a booth with spotters, but it works pretty well.

 

Oh, I loved the long yellow notebooks that had extra lines on them.

If I could fit one quarter on one side of one page, I was a happy hacker.

 

I can fit a whole game usually on one piece of steno pad paper.

Mine is set up like this:
K12:00-20: 42-25, 33-27, 88C-55 (circled for first down), I-55, X-#45 9:26
L9:26-33: 22-99, 22-TD 8:23 (7 kick) L 7-0

So, play by play
#42 ran 5 yards to the 25
#33 ran 2 yards to the 27
#88 caught a 28-yard pass to the opposing 45-yard line (I use a 100-yard field, so the opponent's 1-yard line is represented by 99). If a team uses two QBs or a halfback pass, I write the number of the passer above the play.
Incompletion
X=Interception the #45 represents the interceptor
On Loserville's first play, #22 went 66 yards. On the next play, he scored from a yard out.

I use P for penalty, etc.
If I am in a press box, I will mark that way for play by play and keep running tally on a separate sheet. If on the sideline. I do a running total at half and the end of the third quarter. If it is a close game, I will add things up to date during timeouts.

 

Because I work for a weekly and I'm not on deadline right after the game, I don't usually add up the stats until after the game.
Sometimes, however, in the middle of a game or immediately after it somebody will ask me for a player's stats. If I tell them I don't know because I haven't added it up, does it look like I don't know what I'm doing?

 

I carry a legal-sized clipboard with a legal pad on the front. Line down the middle. Home team's plays on the left, visitors on the right.

Above the start of each drive, I mark the time. All scoring plays get boxed, for easy access. Plus, having the open side next to the plays means I can jot down any pertinent info about a particular play.

Plays look like this:
1-10, OWN 15: pass inc (82 drop) -- (if applicable)
2-10, own 15: 26 run 4... etc.

I have a stat sheet taped to the back, and I just flip the board over after each play. Don't know how to describe the stat sheet, except to say it works for me. PM me a fax number, and I'll get you a copy.

I"m sure my system isn't perfect, but it allows me to cut to the chase pretty quickly.

 

I miss writing 15 Friday nights a year. And if I didn't live in Pennsylvania, I'd miss it 15 Friday nights less.



If on Sept. 4, I was assigned to cover a high school game on the sideline while taking photos, keep the play-by-play and have a gamer expected 90 minutes after the final gun ...

... I'd pay that newspaper for the opportunity to relive my youth for a night.

 

You can definitely take good pictures and keep good stats at the same time. It just takes lot of precision and timing, and some familiarity with the teams you're covering so you're not asking every play, who ran the ball or whatever. It also helps if you're a fairly skilled juggler. The good thing about being on the sideline is that you'll always have someone around to talk through the game with.

Taking pictures and keeping good stats during basketball is tough. What I typically do is sit down under the basket and keep a running score and jot down who did what to score. I can keep some trends that way. After the game, I go to the official scorer and get totals. The hard part is that it's easy to lose some of the details of the game, i.e. rebounding, flow of the game, ball movement.

 

When I went from my previous daily to the Web site where I now work and have to take photos, basketball was by far the toughest sport. I used to keep pretty detailed play-by-play and that was tough to let go, but I feel keeping track of trends more than anything else hasn't hurt my stories.

 

Shooting and keeping stats in football is a bit to juggle, but the one time I tried to do it in basketball, I was absolutely miserable.

I just ran pxp down my notebook, alternating colors for teams and tallying stats at the end of the quarters. Also, I have probably written the most boring football stories.... ever.

Got some good photos though.

As a side note, this very topic is what brought me to SportsJournalists.com in the first place, four years ago.

 

I've seen the weekly guys do the double duty and I can't imagine how they could do a good job of both at the same time. They manage pretty well. I have a hard enough time keeping basketball stats (I gave up on rebounds and assorted stats like that).

'Course, one guy admitted to me a few years ago he just wings the gamer part, then cleans up his notes by cribbing from the local dailies before he files. Not sure if he was kidding or not.

 

If you are a weekly, and the story is not running for a few days, I think better art (which is not seen in weeklies enough) would be better than stats that night.

 

You are absolutely correct.

And like Shotglass said, for as much stress as it caused, if the SE asked me to shoot and cover a Friday night football game this fall, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I can still picture all five plays in the Manistique Emeralds' offense a dozen years later ... (unfortunately, so could their opponents)