Kevin Morales
Member
I think I've told this story before: I covered a state wrestling tournament within the past few years. For the finals, I'm on press row. Next to me is a woman wearing a tye-dyed wrestling T-shirt featuring a particular school.
The finals start, and she starts yelling. Cheering for every one of the kids she was covering. I held it for about three matches.
"Ma'am?" Didn't hear me. Too busy screaming.
"Ma'am!" Ditto.
"MA'AM!" Finally, she perks up. "This is a working press area. There should be no cheering!"
"Well, I'm sorry, I just get excited for the kids," she says, rather snottily.
"Ma'am, we may be excited for the kids we cover too. But look up and down - none of the rest of us is screaming."
[muttering]
Us and our high-fallutin' rules.
The thing with wrestling is a lot of the people that shoot photos or cover meets for the local paper are just parents or youth coaches who happen to be there.
A lot of papers probably don't cover far away tournaments or meets, so they just ask whatever parent is there taking pictures if they can send a few over and maybe write something up.
Those parents don't know any better and end up cheering for their kids' team. It annoys me, but I cut them some slack because they just don't know.