Is there any way to avoid a preps gig as your first job?

I do a hell of a lot more than write fucking gamers. Gamers are the easiest and most minute part of my job. But I'm still not good enough to work for you.

Perhaps I wouldn't want to work for someone so close-minded.

 

Apparently it is not good enough.

 

Lighten up Francis.

Sub out news for desk work and would you be so so bothered?

I'm guessing not.

 

I've done desk work, too, Marilyn. When you've done this for 24+ years, you've done it all.

You're closing doors on many people who are more qualified and capable than you realize.

 

Covering high school sports isn't that bad. Sure, there are days where you're writing boring stories and covering awful games. But a lot of times it's fun and this is coming from the guy that never wanted to cover preps. If I'm stuck in preps forever, that's okay.

Most coaches will talk to you after a win or loss and will thank me for coming just about every time. I can count on one hand the times a high school coach refused to talk to me after a game. At the highest level, I'm pretty sure it's a thankless job and good luck building relationships with the parents and administrators. I've found that to be easy doing preps - most of my story ideas have come from parents and administrators not the coaches.

Sometimes talking to a teenage athlete can be tough but most teams have at least one solid athlete that will talk your ear off. Nothing beats the smile from a player that has never been interviewed and had the game of their life even if they say less than 10 words to every question.

 

The funny part is you all are arguing like people actually do get hired in this business from time to time.

 

I cover sports venue and broadcast technology. I recall talking to an architect who related getting a call from a high school in Texas about building a football facility. He told his secretary to politely beg off. She returned momentarily to add that the schools has a budget of $10 million. He picked up the phone.
As sports — the only real guaranteed moneymaker in content — expands, it can only broaden downward. High schools want to emulate the majors and collegiate, and declining technology costs are allowing them to get closer every month. Combine that with some insane alumni donations and it becomes a pretty interesting landscape to cover. And notd the ad for a sport editor on today's edition of this blog:

"The Daytona Beach News-Journal seeks a sports editor who has great ideas and the talent to make them reality. Daytona Beach is home to Daytona International Speedway and the Daytona 500... ut there’s more to sports here than racing. Our sports staff covers more than a dozen high schools..."

The bottom rung of the ladder is looking more interesting than ever.

 

How many stringers on "our sports staff"?

 

Why is covering 12 high schools hard to believe? Does that seem unrealistic to you?

At our sub-10k daily, we cover 12 schools too. "Our sports staff" consists of one SE, one FT, two PT, and zero regular stringers.

 

Our sub-10K paper covers 15 high schools and two colleges (one D-II, one D-III). We have two full-timers (sports editor, assistant sports editor) and I'm one of two part-timers. We also have a very experienced and talented stringer who was a sports editor before getting a postal job years ago.

 

If Daytona doesn't cover more than 12 high schools, something is wrong.

 

Not to be "that guy" but those jobs are pretty few and far between as it is. Sure, start as "high up as you can." But with the industry being as it is, more and more "big" papers are cutting back. What's left? Smaller dailies with more preps coverage than college/pro stuff.

It's incredibly naive to think someone starting out in college who maybe has experience covering D-I sports for a student newspaper is going to be more favored than someone who has paid their dues slogging through real deadlines for a real newspaper. Editors value professional experience, and unless you're Joe Posnanski (maybe there'e a more relevant famous sports media person, but either way, you're probably not him) right out of college you're not going to get that job.