Reporting on turnovers and missed kicks in high school football

My boss covered a state title game in the midwest a few years back where the kicker shanked a field goal in the final seconds with his team down one. The kid was a good kicker, headed to a major D1 program on scholarship, but just lost his head and pushed it. Bad.

My boss IDs him in the paper. Three days later the kid hangs himself.

Was it due to his name running in the paper? Shit, probably not. Since then though, he says, he won't identify kids in situations like that. Frankly I can't say I blame him.

That all aside, I'll ID the kid every time.

 

This is the correct answer.

 

Here's a bit from a recent story I wrote as the QB fumbled on his own 30-yard line with 30 seconds left to set the other team up for the game-winning TD:

"With less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, Smithfield quarterback Jeff Jones coughed up the football after taking a big hit.

Bishop McIntire linebacker Ryan Jones recovered the fumble on the Smithfield 30 yard-line."

 

Last year, I had a small argument with an assistant coach the week after his team lost. At the end of the game, the kicker attempted a 44-yard field goal and missed, allowing the other team to win the game.
He felt I was out of line to report it was it happened. I simply wrote that the kid attempted what would have been a game-winning 44-yard field goal and he missed. That's it. I didn't call him a goat or anything like that.
The coach said I should have said the coaches decided to kick the field goal or some such thing.
He also pointed out that even pros don't always make 44-yard field goals. True, but if that's the case would any reasonable person read the story and say "Gee, that kicker must really suck"?

 

It's tough in some situations (especially missed kicks), but for turnovers, it's easier to just identify the positive (ie: the defense causing the turnover) if it's two teams in the coverage area.

Joe Smith's interception in the end zone with 10 seconds left preserved a Podunk victory.

instead of...

A late comeback by West Side fell short when Jim Jones threw an interception with 10 seconds left.

 

and what was your response?

 

Basically that I have to report things as they happened. He disagreed and we let it go at that.

 

any more "discussions" with the guy after that about your work?

 

No. We both kind of got past it. He didn't convince me I was wrong. I didn't convince him I was right. He made his point. I made mine and that was that.

 

My first prep editor put it this way: If a guy fumbles on his way into the end zone in some random game, then write a player fumbled on his way into the end zone in the random game; if it's a championship game, gotta name the guy.
The point being, it's a judgement call, and if I'd like to think the major metro SE is at least as interested in how we handle tough judgement calls than that our hook-and-lateral yardage stats adds up.
If you're covering the De La Salle/Don Bosco game, you apply different standards than when you're covering an inner-city Baltimore game because the essence of the games are entirely different. Play in front of a national audience, and your protecting-kids threshhold is greatly reduced.
If you're covering an inner-city Baltimore game, be aware of the underlying narrative. You should know where the kids you're covering come from. A lot of them have relatives in prison or who've been murdered. Some are in, or are being pressured to get into gangs. High school sports, for society's most disenfranchised, represents hope. Look, we're writing gamers, not sociology essays, but the cornerback that blows coverage or kicker who shanks the game-winning PAT is handled differently in different environments.

 

Finding that balance isn't always easy either. But yes, in high school I tend to be easier on the players. Yes I'll mention missed kicks, etc... if they are critical.
The key athletes know they have to take the good with the bad, it comes with being a key athlete. Just like linemen know they are hardly ever going to get recognized (no matter how many letter their mom's write to us).
And amazingly, I do find the goats are often willing to talk. Yes many of them (especially in bigger games) are rightfully upset, even crying, but they still like to talk just for no other reasons to begin to work out their emotions.
How key is the element to the game? One year, covering the district opener of Podunk High after Podunk High just went to the state title game, and were predicted to go back having lost only four starters, the starting QB is ejected from the game in the first series. That loss was critical. The QB started at a D1 school in college as a true freshman. The second string QB was out of action that week, so the team had to go with it's third string. He was horrible. And Podunk lost the district opener (they did make it back to the title game though).
You can't write why they lost that game without mentioning the ejection and however delicately, the ineffectiveness of the third stringer.
It's just what happened, and it was critical to the outcome. That's why you mention these things.

 

Some of it depends on the timing of the missed extra point. Was it in the first quarter? Then, yeah, sure it made a difference in the end, but so did a dozen other plays. Cash in a third-and-4 in the second quarter, and maybe you kick a field goal before halftime that changes the equation. You get the idea.

I think you have to ID the guy and point out both mistakes, but you don't have to necessarily write it as, "Joe Balldropper missed an extra point and bobbled a punt snap to hand Opposition High an undeserved victory." Write the bobbled snap, write the missed extra point. Let the readers draw the connection.

And Billy, you mention every single scoring play in your story? Why? That's why you HAVE a summary in the first place. If you're writing about a touchdown, you don't need to add that so-and-so kicked the extra point. Just write that so-and-so scored from seven yards out to give Podunk a 7-0 lead. People aren't dumb.