Paper writes story of star high school player's failure to graduate

Page 1? Seriously? This brief an article over a football player not graduating ought to be in the sports section somewhere inside, but not on the front page of either section. Now if there were more to his not meeting requirements (a criminal history, a consistent problem for his coaches because of legal or disciplinary matters -- then maybe on page 1 of the sports section, but NOT front page).

 

I wouldn't lionize them either, but I personally abhor the jock culture in this country.

That said, newspapers covering high school sports appears to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Newspapers cover the "touchdowns and cheering fans" because they want to profit, not because they want to do some teenagers a favor by putting their name in the paper. It's absurd to suggest teenagers should lose their privacy so some journalist can feel that he's doing "real journalism". If you want to be a serious journalist, write a serious piece about the educational system, or, more specifically, how the educational system treats athletes. Don't run a context-free piece shaming a teenager on Page 1 of your newspaper in the name of public disclosure.

 

nm, lcjjdnh said it way better than I did.

 

At least we didn't get this:

RUNNING BACK TO SUMMER SCHOOL
Football star a classroom sucker as he fails to graduate

DUMMY DATELINE GOES HERE -- Heywood Jablowme's high school career was a tale of two halves.

 

What the paper should have done is run a front page story on how this school let the kid get to his senior year without properly preparing him to take his proficiency exams. If I read it correctly and not knowing about Texas policy it sounds like the kid failed to pass 1 of 4 proficiency exams required by the state to graduate. Does that mean he did have enough class credits to graduate?

Wright is listed in Rivals as # 31 RB prospect in the nation so obviously he can play. In the top 50 he is only player that does not have a college commitment.

 

I would agree with lcjjdnh that this odd brief on A1 doesn't count as journalism. Spend the day with the kid and do graduation day from his POV maybe, or come back to it a month or two later with a statistical analysis of graduation rates among area athletes. I just take issue with the idea that we can't ever do a feature or enterprise piece around high school athletes that doesn't have a smiley face at the end of it.

 

Yeah, the guy can obviously play, as he got offers from Baylor, Kansas State and Missouri and interest from other places. It's a Sports story, but not a 1A story.

 

If you already have established in the paper that the kid is a legit D-I talent who want not able to go to one of those schools because of academics, I don't see that this is a front-page story.

Now, if you talked to the kid and he was willing to discuss why he is struggling with the tests or whatever, then it could be a good story. Maybe with an example of what the test he still needs to pass is like with some sample questions or what have you.

As it is, I think it's a brief in sports to note a kid you wrote about a lot still has some work to do to graduate.

 

I don't think sports writers at small papers have the time to do such work, otherwise that gamer on some event that only a few dozen care about won't make the paper. Much easier to shame the kid with a short brief.

 

You can. But you have to come up with a much better reason than "Well, we write good things about them, so we have to write bad things about them too" or because of some need to prove that preps writers are Real Journalists too.

 

It's refreshing to know that a kid who maybe doesn't work as hard as everyone else can make it in the paper, too.

 

The kid in question has also had to deal with the murder of his father last Memorial Day, leaving him responsible for his younger siblings. Most schools knew he was going to be (at best) a close case when it came to his eligibility, which is why they moved lightly with him. These were known facts by the newspaper, which has also been accused of having a level of bias against the city of La Marque of years (which, not so strange, came when the ME arrived there 20+ years ago). I would bet you all the coke in Columbia the ME made the call on this.

Flying Headbutt put it best: it's a bush league move, which, actually, insults bush league. The kid obviously is hurt and embarrassed by having this put out.