Quick parent rant

This wasn't a parent rant, but it was a letter that was faxed in today:

Area high school football coach _ school is on the extreme fringe of our circulation area _ is done, because his school is joining another school as a co-op next year, and he'll be out of a job unless he decides to be an assistant (the other school consistently has playoff teams, and the head coach has been there a long time).

Anyway, the coach sent us a letter thanking us for everything we do for prep sports in the area, and praising us for the "fair" way we treat kids and teams.

We've covered this guy's team usually just once a year, and if they got into the playoffs. To get a letter like that really meant a lot to me, and the staff.

There are some good people we deal with in this business, and it makes us for the jerks that we hear from on a daily basis.

 

Definitely agree with you there, JB. A compliment from one reader means more than 20 complaints (even though I talk more about the complaints ).

 

I don't know why but the more "fringe" a team is from your paper the more they appreciate the coverage.
I go to one of our fringe schools every year for a couple games and preseason stuff and they are tickled to death to see me. Treated very well.
The local school is a much different story. The expect/demand coverage and treat us like shit to boot.

At my old paper I covered one of my current schools- they were playing one of our main schools - and the coach was praising me and the paper for the outstanding job we did covering our main school. He said they never got that kind of coverage with their hometown paper.
Fast forward a few years and I am working at said paper. I have to say their coverage of several core schools is excellent. Way better than the paper I wokred at before.
The grass is always greener ... is guess.

 

Agreed.

But what we get anymore is this:

"Metro" schools think we cover the "fringe" schools too much.
"Fringe" schools think we cover the "metro" schools too much.

You can't win.

We used to have a high school basketball coach at an area school who we would cover about 3-4 times a year. He would praise us about how we covered the area.

Then, when he took a job at the main local school, he wanted us to preview all of his games, home and away, and when I told him we didn't have the time or space for such stories, he said, "Well, why don't you quit devoting so much coverage to the area and concentrate on the local schools." He soon rose to No. 1 on my list of all-time assholes.

 

Sports parents are bad enough, but how about when you get the band parents complaining that there's not enough coverage? No shit, some parent complained that band members are athletes too and should be treated as such.

 

Ask them if they open the sports section for CD and concert reviews.

Also, I can't stand bands that think the crowd is there to listen to them, they do there 5-minute jam session during a home team drive and everything.

Hey band geeks, we're here for the football! You can play in between plays, during possession changes, timeouts and you even get to go on the field at halftime. When they get up to the line of scrimmage let me show you were you can stick your trombone.
I would LOVE to get a bunch of buddies together and have a pickup football game going on while they're performing in a band competition. Little 6-on-6, play across the field from backline of the end zone out to the 15-yard line. We wouldn't get in there way, but it would let them know we're taking a little attention away from them.

 

There are a few schools around here that have 30-45-minute halftimes because the band's show takes so long.
After one game earlier this year, I was trying to chase down a player to interview after a game, trying to get to him before he got to the bus. The home team's band was going out the same door, double file, very slowly. Eventually, I ran out of patience and snuck out the door. The band people weren't too happy that I messed up their exit, but I didn't get arrested, so I couldn't have done anything that bad.

 

I was in marching band in HS cuz I couldn't play sports worth a shit. We were a great 275-piece unit, but we were by no means athletes.

People didn't go to football games to see the band. They went to the marching competitions for that. Even as a former band member, I can attest that band parents suck.

Further more, bands in Idaho suck. They suck and they have no sense of when it's not appropriate to play. They have the nerve to play during the middle of a fucking play. You don't do that. In 'Bama, teams were penalized if the band didn't cease when the ref blew the whistle to start the clock. Just ranting, but here, there is no respect for the teams.

 

A parent rant from today:

Dumbshit lady writes a letter to the editor to say that I'm biased against, I don't know, somebody because the cross country scores I reported were incorrect.

According to the print outs from the meet's manager, I'm right. She's wrong.

So, I have to tell my SE that there's no way he can run this letter because this woman's information is faulty. If he does, he better put one hell of an editor's note at the end. If he doesn't, well, I'm already shopping around resumes, but I have no problem leaving early over this. I refuse to be thrown under the bus again because of some psycho parent with an axe to grind.

By the way, she wrote "Go Stallions" at the end. We don't have a team named the Stallions in our coverage area (and maybe in the state). WTF?

 

she's a big fan of Rocky movies.

come on man, duh.

 

Crimson, don't quit over a cross country mom. She may buy ads if her letter is printed.

And then in the future, figure out who her kid is, then cover every cross country meet and ask her kid critical questions, i.e. Why didn't you finish the 5K in less than 15 minutes? What can you do to increase your time? Why is your team struggling right now? Does your performance have anything to do with your team's struggles?, etc.

But don't quit. You don't want to be in my boat: willing to work, but being forced out of a job because the ad sales people can't do their jobs worth a fuck. And I'd have to move a long way away to find another sports writing job. Fuck that.

 

RE-- The Band.

Atttended my alma mater's homecoming game, and was astonished to see a kid in full football uniform playing with the band at halftime.

I turned to one of my buddies, who was a two-time all-stater for dear old Hometown High and asked what he thought of that.

"He'd better enjoy the fuck out of it, because if I'm coaching, that's the only fucking time he sees the field."