Reporting on turnovers and missed kicks in high school football

Their beef was portraying the kid in a bad light since I quoted the ump when he told the kid to shut up.

And I wasn't up to par with the local sports radio personality, who is just a DJ who does some play-by-play of the local prep team's games.

The same parents are the ones who criticize the coach for everything he does. They don't like the school system or pretty much anyone who has some authority over their kids.

 

Did he mention that his son works hard?

 

There are plenty of decent and honorable ways of writing that stuff. But you have to write that stuff. If you don't, what in the world are you doing there? I covered a state baseball game a couple years ago in which the shortstop made three consecutive throwing errors that completely cost his team the game and ended their season.

It was painful. I felt horrible for the kid. But I just matter-of-factly documented the plays the way they happened. Got a quote from the coach about it (I couldn't bring myself to ask the kid. He probably would have cried.). I didn't get any angry e-mails of phone calls, either. I've found that as long as you avoid adjectives in your prep sports writing, people don't usually complain.

 

Exactly, just be fair. Don't berate the kid, but he's playing at a high enough level where if he made a mistake that cost his team a game it has to go in the paper.

 

I think the kids handle the situation better than the parents 95 percent of the time anyway.

And these days, kids are more media savvy.

 

kids read the paper?

 

You'd be surprised. They do in my area.

The kid fumbled the ball late, missed the kick, booted a grounder, aired a free throw, whiffed on a one-timer, identify them. Inform the readers and deal with the e-mails later -- because you'll most likely get a couple.

Most of us aren't in the business of making kids look good; we're paid to paint an accurate picture, filling as many holes as possible. The last thing you should want is someone having an unanswered question from your story. What would you want to read? Do you want to know who dropped the ball or do you want to find someone else who was there and see if they know?

You're not going to please everyone. Don't bother trying. Just do what you feel is right.

 

that thing is a bitch, isn't it?

 

Sluggo says so.

 

Or if it's like a 50-yard extra point.

I can still remember the strike game in 1987 when the Redskins were penalized twice on the extra point and their kicker had to make a 40-yard extra point. He did. I think it was noteworthy because of the distance because 40-yard field goals aren't exactly gimmies.

However, it didn't have much of an impact on the outcome of the game because the Scabskins womped on the Scab Giants 38-12.

 

That's it right there. Report the news, be truthful, but don't go out of your way to hang goat horns on a high-school kid.