HS football page

I'm going to be designing our weekly high school football page (an inside page with no color), and I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas (i.e. what works, what doesn't, etc ...). There will be a centerpiece story along with stats, a notebook and probably some file art from the previous week's games. I have lots of ideas, but I get the feeling they work a lot better in my head than they will on paper. I want to try to use a lot of graphics, but I'm really afraid of the page getting cluttered. The graphics are also another issue. Is there a Web site where I can find some good (preferably free) football graphics, or should I just plan on making my own?

 

If it's a high school intensive, you have to keep your own stats and build a graphic that you can just plug in the leaders and a mug every week. Also, run the standings of the high school districts/conferences every week on the same page. Never fails, but you have to be on top of the records and the stats or someone will come along and blast you.

 

I always liked power rankings. Then it's fun to listen to the coaches bitch about "My brother-in-law said you guys ranked us fourth. That's bullshit, but what do I care? I don't read your damn paper."

 

I do our Metro rankings each week (as opposed to the state sportswriters rankings) and I hear that kinda nonsense all the time. But it's usually followed by something like "Hey, I don't care. But the kids read that stuff and get fired up when you dont rank us."

 

I'm thinking you could have a rail dedicated to standings, top performers from the previous week, season stats (if you keep them) and whatever else you want. I'm thinking reverse text on a gray box, flush left with your header, and maybe with a vertical enough font you have room on the right side for some little graphic (if you can find them, which was kind of your main question, so I don't know how much this really helped anyway).