Prep reporters, chime in please

I know that's common for weeklies and some smaller daily papers in sports like basketball or baseball, but how can you possibly keep accurate stats at a football game while also trying to shoot photos?

 

Press box because I'm a bitch and I hate the cold. ;D

 

No offense to the sideliners, but from a bosses' perspective, I want my reporters in the press box regardless of their preference.

If for nothing else than to make copy flow easier in the office, because the gamer can and should be worked on during the game. It's not like basketball, where stat-keeping is so labor-intensive that you can't write between plays, a football gamer should be at least 1/2 done by the end of the game with a box in progress.

And having done a million gamers, most from the press box, but plenty from the sideline too, I think the whole notion of seeing and hearing more from the sideline is really overrated. Especially keeping in mind that you hear nearly as much "inside" stuff from assistant coaches screaming up in the press box anyway.

And I prefer the statistical aspect of the press box. Good luck getting an accurate read on a kick, punt or interception return for a touchdown from the field.

 

This wasn't football, but it fits this question.

I once had to cover a state playoff baseball doubleheader at a school in rural Central Georgia. Road games for our team.

Well, the stepladder-contraption to the one-room, second-story "press box" behind home plate ... umm ... had been misplaced. That's where the scoreboard operator had to sit, too, (plus it was where the only unblocked phone line was, which is how I sent my story afterward).

They actually went inside the school, brought out a real ladder, and that's how he and I got up to the press box.

I became quite adept at shuttling down that ladder and back up again. I doubt I'd try to pull that off now. I'd take my chances with the parents in the bleachers if that was my other option, you know?

 

It's tough but I've done it. Because whenever I've taken the photography responsibility, a usable, clear image is the basic requirement. So I try to get in in the first half of the first quarter and then put my camera away for the night.

It helps to have an ally (either another reporter or the team stats guy) to help in case you miss something.

 

As long as your reporters make deadline and the stories are good, what does it matter where they choose to work from? I'll work from an end zone cherry picker if that's where I work best.

 

Honestly, it's not that bad. At least there's a little time in between plays to jot down stats/check photos.

I'd much rather shoot and cover football than do double duty in basketball -- or the absolute worst -- volleyball. It's tough enough to get a good volleyball shot without worrying about how many digs Susie has.

 

I have never walked the sidelines for a varsity game in 18 years in the business. I now cover a school with a listed enrollment of more than 4,000 and the home stadium seats about 20,000. Three road games have been/will be played at 15,000-seat stadiums and my game this week is at a 10,000-seater in the Metroplex. The smallest facility I will cover a game at this fall seats 6,000.

All have pressboxes with ample seating and room to work, but the ability to the Internet seems to have been an afterthought at most of these places. My home stadium has NO phone lines on press level. Ethernet and wireless are not included in the language spoken by school district officials. The only phone jacks in the whole place are upstairs in the radio booths. It's easier for me to go home and send than it is to do it from the stadium or drive eight miles back to the office.

My first road game of the season was last Thursday at a recently remodeled place. Those folks did a great job on the pressbox and were even thoughtful enough to include an ethernet line. One little bitty, teensy-weensy problem -- that school district's server blocks access to all outside e-mail service (hotmail, yahoo, ect.). I found that out the hard way when the game ended less than 20 minutes before my incredibly early deadline.

Of the other two stadiums in our district, one is just four years old and the other is in the middle of a three-year renovation project. Both have ethernet and phone lines, but it's always something of a dogfight with the other reporters when we try to send at the same time.

Oddly enough, the best place I've been this year was also the smallest. On my way home from the Thursday game, I spent Friday in a little oilpatch town of less than 4,000. The stadium seats 6,000, has FieldTurf and WIRELESS!!!! in the pressbox (it was even labled Pressbox Wireless on the menu).

It's amazing what a few (hundred) pumpjacks can do for a school district's facilities.

I'm anxiously awaiting this week's trip to the big city just to see what kind of setup I'll have there. I haven't covered a game there in something like seven years, and then it was for an afternoon paper so I just drove back and wrote at the office.

 

There's not THAT much time in between plays unless the teams are passing a lot.

 

You can do it, but I am not sure how one or the other doesn't suffer in the process. Weeklies, stats can always be gathered from the coach afterwards. There's not a deadline crunch to the 9 p.m. Friday night game. But, especially in basketball, how can you expect to take the best stats you can and take photos? Photo quality suffers if you spend too much time on stats and stats suffer if you spend too much time on photo quality.

 

I have wireless and before the game I scout out the places in town where I can get a (free) signal. There has been at least one occasion where I have parked on the curb in front of somebody's house and sent in my gamer.

Without surfing for porn, thank you vey much.

 

When I know my Fri nite deadline will be tight, I take my laptop with me to the sideline, write my running and first half box from there...We're all writing our stories in our heads as the game goes along anyway...again, aside from a handful of places, I work in a state that has virtually no press accomodations, so the argument is generally academic, here...(or heayah as the locals say...)