What types of parents are the worst to deal with???

Yes.

And it, for whatever reason, pisses me off more than the "they work just as hard as the varsity" folks.

 

A few years ago, I had a parent come in while I was on deadline and ask why his son was not on another paper's all-star team. Luckily, I was able to answer his question (The top two doubles teams from each individual sectional tournament were selected for the team. His son and his doubles partner did not compete in the individual tournament). I found it somewhat amusing that he thought I has anything to do with a competitor's all-star selections, especially considering that I have a strict policy of not mentioning other papers' all-star selections in my paper.

 

Here I would say it's soccer parents. For 10 years now, we've been hearing from them that "soccer is the fasting-growing sport in the United States" and 10 years later, we only have about a dozen high schools (out of about 50 in our greater metro area) which play soccer.

What's worse is that they seem to have organized, because just about every phone call we get has some form of "You should just drive out to Podunk Park on a Saturday morning and see how many people are there watching the kids play soccer." Granted, Podunk Park on a Saturday morning is completely packed, but when you've got 1,500 kids aged 4-8 years old playing soccer and their parents and their grandparents and great-grandparents watching little Billy or little Sally run around in his/her cute little uniform, of course it's going to be packed.

One of my favorite journalism moments was a local high school game featuring the state's No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the highest classification playing in town. Got dozens of phone calls leading up to the game saying I needed to cover it, because it was going to be "the biggest thing to happen in this area" ever. So, I covered said game (was planning on doing it anyway), and at halftime, I actually counted the people in the stands. It was easy, because everyone was sitting on the home side. Final count was 128. That included myself, the PA announcer and a fan filming the game.

The next day, in my story, I put the actual attendance and had a parent write me an e-mail saying "You see, I told you there would be a lot of people there." I responded to her that when the two football teams from the same schools played each other earlier that year, the crowd was at least 1,500 (home side was completely full, visitors side was 3/4). And the two football teams had a combined record of 7-9 at the time.

We've also had soccer parents get upset because we have whittled an All-Conference team featuring 25 first-team players down to a manageable 12. The conference in question had only four teams, with one team having 11 first-team players alone, meaning their starting lineup all made first-team.

Because of that, I've made a vow that my kids will never play soccer. And when people ask, I'll tell them why.

 

back to the interruptions by fussing parents at deadline, but--again--the folks up front don't seem to understand that, once we come up to the front of the office to listen to these people, our deadline is shot and then the bosses are fussing at us. i had a lady last week absolutely insist that she see me to check on something that was in the paper and I told our receptionist, "no, I gotta get this paper out." she finally relented and told me the lady was upset that I couldn't see her at that very moment to probably discuss the World Changing News that Little Joey failed to get his name in the paper.

 

This is totally off the subject but on the subject of people interrupting you while you work.

Was covering a Texas Division Class 5A football state championship game at San Antonio's Alamo Stadium. Which is an old rock stadium which was a WPA project completed on 1940.

There's little room in the press box. And somehow the Mayor of San Antonio ends up on the row behind the writers with his cronies.

He's yelling and screaming during the game and finally says "Hey aren't you guys excited about this game."

One of the writers turns around and says "Man, I could care less who wins."

Our other writer suggested we should go to the mayor's office on Monday and start yelling and hollering and see how long it would be until we were thrown out.

One thing I love about covering playoff games at Texas Stadium was at the sign of anyone cheering. The head of security in a loud booming voice states "This is a working press box. There will be no cheering in here. If you feel you can't compile with this, then please go to the stands now."

 

okay, how many of us yearn for local teams to get eliminated once the playoffs begin?
traditionally, our area is strong in prep basketball to the point where every damn team qualifies.
then, once they do, all of us who have to deal with it all but cheer when one gets eliminated. yep, one less team to cover and parents and yahoos to deal with, right?

one time i made the fatal mistake of expressing glee when a local team got eliminated and a fan from the school overheard me. she could not believe i wasn't rooting for the school to keep its season alive. all i said was, "lady, until you've been in this business, you wouldn't have a clue as to why I wasn't heartbroken your team didn't keep playing. nothing personal, but that's just the way it is."

 

(Why do I do this? But anyway...)

That's the line I draw in this bitchfest.

I've been in the business for 35 years. And if I hear the local journalist cheer as my son or daughter's team is eliminated, I'm going ballistic.

That's not to say my department doesn't do it. But I don't like it.

 

I have a family too. And when there are seven local basketball teams still alive in the playoffs, I don't get to see them. Dang right I cheer. I keep a little sheet of paper on my desk with a list of every team, and take great joy in crossing them off one at a time.

When it's down to a reasonable number, or they are down to a game where winning won't mean extending the season another week, I'll root for them a little again.

 

But I'd never, ever express that glee in a place where there was any chance a local fan could hear.

 

when I say "cheer", i don't mean going into a cartwheel, screaming hissy...it's one of those silent utterances of relief..."one less team to worry with" at this juncture of a season that seemingly never ends....trust me, i have enough friends and people that i know whose sons and daughters have gone through tough losses. i am just saying that, for a sportswriter who deals with a team--particularly in the never ending basketball season that now overlaps with spring sports--that seemingly has its season going on for half of the year, it's a welcomed event when some of them get ousted. pardon any offense i might have caused to those who have sons and daughters on such teams.

 

I don't have any, just to clarify on that. Just saying that if I were a parent ...

But I'm really talking purely as a journalist. To me, if we have a team playing on state finals weekend, we have a better chance for a kick-ass section. As teams get knocked off, fewer such chances remain.