Youth sports rant

BillyT · Oct 8, 2007

The youth sports people are simply practicing to be high school parents.

Cansportschick · Oct 9, 2007

Smallpotatoes said:

I had two e-mails today about three Pop Warner articles that didn't make it into the paper. One said they were "very disappointed."
A quick glance at my inbox, deleted items folder and sent items folder (youth copy is always sent to typesetters for cleanup and formatting) showed that I never received the pieces in question. Somehow I don't think they'll believe me when I say that.
1). I'm so sick of hearing "I'm very disappointed" from readers. I've heard it so often, one might think I'm not doing my job correctly. Life is full of disappointments, get over it.
2). While I've taken some steps to get some youth organizations to consolidate their articles and send them to me from one person, most groups prefer to leave it up to the individual teams to send me stuff directly. Many of these articles look alike and I have a hard time telling one from another. With one youth soccer league, I've started keeping a handwritten log of all incoming e-mails from that group, then checking it against what makes it into the paper. It's kind of ridiculous that I should have to do it, but I guess it's my responsibility to know what goes in the paper.
3). One of the complaing e-mails said that the articles should be published in their entirety, never mind that you have an 8-year-old football story that is almost as long as the high school varsity's story and in some cases longer (I know for these volunteer parent writers, part of the fun is making it sound like their kids are as heroic as their favorite NFL players, but is a full report of every series, starting with the coin toss really necessary?).
4). These people seem to act like their copy was a paid advertisement and they have every right to expect it makes it in the paper, as is.
5). I know this would never fly at my shop, but is there anything wrong with telling these people maybe their article will get in, maybe it won't. I can't make any guarantees and if it doesn't make it into the paper, I may not even know why it wasn't published.
6). I'm getting a sense that checklists are becoming a big part of my job, and that it's more important to fit all the youth sports in the paper than to do high-quality writing and layout myself.
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Welcome to the world of covering high school soccer in the Maritimes. I had this problem with a few coaches, but I hate that coaches think we are obligated to publish their stuff just because they answered some questions, or did a questionnaire and submitted it in. I know that last year, my boss did not put it in because he wanted money for advertising and I only wish coaches would understand that publications need to make money.

One coach had the nerve of saying that he was ignored. Give me a break. His team had no newsworthy stories for us to write about last year. I wish I had told him to take a pill and shut up. But the professional that I am, I did say that if you don't wish to talk to us anymore, you don't have to (like I pulled a gun up to him to make him talk : ).

BillyT · Oct 9, 2007

buckweaver said:

BillyT said:

The youth sports people are simply practicing to be high school parents.
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But they work just as hard.
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How come there is no youth band?

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Youth sports rant

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