The "Homer" sports writer

Yeah, I see that. But inside that is hoping that 200-some of your local kids see their football season end ... for a lot of them, the last football season of their playing lives. I know that's not the intention, but if you get what you want, that's the end result.

 

Cursing a referee or umpire or whoever for poor officiating is no more professional than cheering for a team. It's unprofessional. There is no way around it.

If you get angry at the officials because they miss calls, then you don't understand your job. Your job is to inquire later about a questionable call and see what a player or coach thinks about it .. NOT to get so mad that you cuss the official whether it's before the game when you see who is officiating or with .3 seconds left and you are on deadline.

Neither is professional. I've never cursed a referee as a journalist and I never will. It's not my job to make the calls and it's not my job to scream at them if they make mistakes. Those of you who think it's ok need to re-examine your own professionalism.

Your job is to cover the game, all aspects of it, including the officiating, and put it together in story form that is interesting. That's it.

And it's just too damn bad if a ref makes a bad call or the game gets extended beyond your deadline. I'm sure you curse overtimes too. Deal with it. It's part of of the business.

 

I never said I cussed at the referees. I said I cussed because the refs were calling fouls and I just wanted a shitty game to end.

 

I apologize in advance, because I try not to get into flaming situations. So if I'm doing it wrong, or if anyone has any suggestions or tips, please advise.

That has to be the biggest load of happy horseshit I have stumbled across since being told Cookie Crisp is part of a nutritious breakfast.

Professionalism is professionalism, news is news, and this idea that one should lift up on the gas pedal when it comes to prep sports is nothing but pure grade send-in-the-clowns stupidity.

Some of the best reporters I know are prep guys. Some of the newsiest writers I know are prep guys. Maybe they do preps because they're young and looking to prove themselves, or maybe they just prefer it over other sports. They don't have a "high school mentality"...they have a news reporter's mentality. Which is as it should be.

If you go into high school coverage for the "excitement" and the chance to be used in a scap book, then yeah, stick to radio. But I still have this very silly, very outmoded belief that newspapers still hold a responsibility to spark public discussion of relevant issues.

So guess what? If you work at a newspaper, and you approach covering the home team just like any fan would, then you're not doing your job. And that offends me, because there are scads of unemployed young writers just begging for a chance to get into this dying business at any level and do it right. So if some yokel in a pizza-stained team t-shirt is churning out howdy-doody copy on the local team and getting paid for it while some fresh-from-school kid is working as an agate clerk and hoping to one day get a byline, I get sort of pissed off.

Let's see: Private schools recruit athletes (allegedly), young male coaches sometimes have the unfortunate tendency to find their fingers in the panties of their female players, most schools are unprepared for on-court cardiac arrests in basketball players, recruiting has become a zoo, elite players transfer from school to school, unqualified high school coaches with four-star recruits suddenly find themselves fielding job offers from Division I schools (imagine that)...but fuck all that mess. Let's just write about how Johnny Fullback ran really hard in Blueball Consolidated's 47-6 loss to Buttfuck Junction.

So don't allude to the "high school sports mind," because that's a fancy-pants way of excusing laziness. If that's your worldview, write for a fanboy prep sports website or do color commentary for the local ten-watt tower of power. But don't even imply that such is an acceptable way for newspaper people to act and approach their jobs.

News is news, and news is everywhere. And even a prep writer for a small town shop should have a sense of responsibility toward the news.

 

But if "my" 200 or so kids win, someone else's 200 kids lose. Whose to say that my kids are better than theirs? Because, I swear to god, my kids kind of suck.

If you're going to win a state championship, keep on winning. But I'd rather see a 6-5 football team go ahead and lose early.

 

My standing rule for coaches who make the playoffs is if you're not getting my ass a trip to the state championships, go ahead and lose in the first round. I've had more than one team get two or three rounds deep and people start thinking maybe they've got a shot, only to get knocked out on a half-court buzzer beater or a 3-2, two-out grand slam in the bottom of the seventh of what hat been a one-run game.

I saw in our boys basketball playoff pairings for West Texas that two qualifiers both have records with single-digit wins and 20-plus losses. And these schools are Class 5A, the biggest in the state. If you can't even win one-third of your games, you probably shouldn't be allowed in the playoffs in the firstplace.

 

Kaylee,

This is one of the best responses I've ever read on here. If I could, I'd take you out for a couple of beers for that one. Impressive.

 

Angola: 4A-D1

 

WFFW.

I've sent one or two of my student writers long e-mails in which my message is direct: I edit a professional newspaper and I expect professionalism regardless of whether you're covering the Buttfuck Town Fair or Gelding High's junior sock prom.

If you're the type of person to mail in a story on the local garage sale, I don't want you writing for me. Turn in a slam-bang story on that and you're the first person I consider for the story if Obama gets elected president and he decides to have his victory rally at my county's community college.

Do the small stuff well first if you want to get into the big time. Do it poorly and you won't get that chance, at least from me.

 

High school football playoff game. Powerhouse loses. After the game, sportswriter is interviewing the star QB. They get through talking. Sportswriter leans in for a hug, and the QB leans away awkwardly like, "What the hell?" Very uncomfortable.

 

Yeah, Kaylee, I've got to say, that's pretty good stuff.

And yeah, I can't argue with that either.