Question on high school coverage...

With respect, I always laugh at the dismissal above: "They're doing their job."

In fact, they may be...but not very well. This BadgerBeer guys seems miserable and more on that in a minute, but he's right in that Gate "Nazi's" are everywhere. I've had to deal with it many times at Prep games. The best response is from one already mentioned above. Ask them for their name and the name of the boss. They always look startled. Then tell them instead of a game story, I'll write about the episode at the front gate...that usually does the trick. But I've rarely had to pull that one out. Only once did I just walk in....the lady was never going to let me through and kept saying, "Get out of they way, there are regular paying customers here." After not being able to handle the situation professionally, I just walked on through...she began screaming like a crazy woman and I just laughed all the way to the Press Box...not one person said a word to me about it. The AD could not have been nicer and I didn't mention a word to him about it. A few weeks later I was back and she was not. Don't know if that one sent her over the edge, but it sure sounded like it.

As for the Beer guys wishes to quit the job, why wait til the end of the year....do it now. People around here would have more respect for you.

 

Outing alert!!

I am a gate nazi. As Rosie pointed out earlier, gate reciepts are one of the ways high school athletics closes the gap after the parents write their checks. In the last couple of years at my school we had to move from the kids working the gate for basketball and volleyball (my daughter plays both), to the adults doing it because of the number of people who refused to pay. I have never had a problem with media people, those I know wave on the way in and those I don't have no problem showing me a pass. It's the parents who cause the most trouble, not the media.

Two fun gate stories, at least for me:

6th grade basketball tournament, hosted by the athletic society at my daughters school as a fundraiser. They charge 2 dollars admission. Woman walks up pushing a kid in a wheelchair and tells me "he's free because he's handicapped". I say OK. She goes on, "and I am free because I am his caretaker and it's stupid that I would have to pay to get in to a kids game." I tell her fine, but it's 2 dollars for the chair. Took her money too. ;D.

Same tournament, different year. Guy gets to the gate and tells me since his kid isin't in the game, he was not going to pay to get in, he would just watch from the doorway until he got into the game. I just walked around the table and closed the door in his face. Again, fun for me.

It is two dollars, and it may keep you from having to pay even more when your 6th grader gets to high school. And speaking as someone who has to pay "participation fees", "travel fees", "uniform fees", and other drains on my wallet, thanks so much for your two bucks.

 

I've been to several prep/small college games where I've forgotten my press ID. If I get asked for an ID and I don't have any, there's my super-secret, four-step plan that has never, I repeat, never failed.

1. Show them my two briefcases filled with papers, junk and a laptop computer. Say that if I was a fan, I wouldn't be carrying all this.

2. Show them a business card.

3. Ask for the Athletic Director (if there's time, this almost always works).

4. Show them the money and demand a receipt right then and there. It has come to this only once for me, and they just stared puzzled at me before saying, "Fine, just go in."

It helps to be as civilized as possible. Put on a fake smile, and then make fun of the gate-nazi later.

 

Sorry King, only 3 and 4 are valid. I don't give a crap what you have in your brief/case and a business card is not a press pass/credential.
If you can't remember to have whatever kind of press pass you have on your person when you go to a game, you deserve to be questioned or made to pay.

 

You know, that's it right there.

If you don't have the presence of mind or the good sense to come with a press ID, you can damn well pay the money.

Period.

I think there are a few people who need to remember that you're not doing these high school people a personal favor when you come to cover a game. You're doing YOUR JOB, nothing more and nothing less.

 

As far as having to pay for a program. If they don't give one to you, just add 10 miles or whatever on to your mileage to make up for it.

Some papers might balk at reimbursing for a program. That's where you start tacking on to the mileage. There's more than one way to get that money back. ;D

 

Yes.

They also try to sneak into movies to save $7.

 

Doesn't he know he shouldn't piss off Hank... he's got the Doomsday Device! Tread carefully Badger, jeez.

 

Ah, as long as he kills someone on his way out, it's all good.

 

If you are a freelancer, most papers won't give you a press credential. You aren't their employee, after all, and they sure as hell don't want anything in writing with a photo on it and their signature that you can use to make a claim that you are.

 

Good point, Ace. Of course, I don't think that was BadgerBeer's situation. In fact, we have several people who are simply claiming they don't need to secure documentation because "c'mon, now, it's JUST high school sports."

 

My current gig will not make us press passes because we've never needed them. There are a few times when I am questioned, and I always show them a business card.

Getting them to give me a program, OTOH, can be a pain in the arse.

This reminds me when I was a newbie covering the 2A state basketball tournament in Pendleton, OR. Now by newbie, I was still 36 years old. I had a laptop bag and everything.

The mean age of the people running the ticket counters must have been about 112. The first two geezers, sitting at the ticket table, let me in with no problem.

A third geezer, must have been pushing 150, followed me, though, and asked for ID. I did have a press pass, and showed it to him. Not good enough.

He drug me into the main office and, with another geezer, made me show my driver's license.

They did this for two days. The third day, I said, "I have had enough of this shit," and asked to speak with the tournament director.