Dear dimwit on the phone

[Batman]

The coach being tossed is part of the story, especially if they were two ridiculous technicals and the game was a foulfest.

I've been on the bench when stuff like that has happened - heck, I got warned by an out-of-control official when I wasn't even on the bench (I was doing stats. Our player was tripped going over a screen and got called for an offensive foul and I said "she stuck her leg out." Turns out this official has a reputation for zeroing in on the best/most noticeable player on the floor and whistling five times).

I can speak from experience that some school districts - often those with a lot of image-consciousness and administrators who don't understand sports - have rules where if a coach or player gets ejected from a game, they have to write up reports to the school district and have a one-on-one conversation with the superintendent that includes a lot of confession and "this will never happen again," so I'm wondering if that was the case there.

I don't know what the internal procedures are, but it was a big rivalry game so the AD and at least a couple of principals or vice principals were there. The AD is also a former coach, fairly young, so I'm sure whatever internal discipline will be done is a formality. They saw how ridiculous it was.
The shipty part is that the state ashociation ashesses a $350 fine for any coach that gets ejected. The coach has to pay that out of his own pocket. Not putting it in my game story isn't going to get the coach a refund, though.

 

[HanSenSE]

Team B was fouling to stop the clock, and Team A kept missing free throws. Then Team B had a girl, the best player on the floor, who basically took over the game. She kept driving the lane, getting fouled, and converted several three-point plays. So you actually had both teams fouling on every possession for the last 3-4 minutes of the game. Team A shot 32 free throws in the fourth quarter and Team B shot 14.

The amazing -- and frustrating -- part was, it darn near worked. Team A was down 24 in the third quarter, went on a run to cut it to 10 heading into the fourth, and eventually got it down to six in the final minute. Then they missed a couple of shots and ran out of players and it fizzled.
If Team A had made five or six more free throws or Team B missed a few more shots, the coach probably would have called it off sooner. But since the margin stayed in that 8-10 range it made sense to stick with it as long as possible. It was a perfect storm of nonsense.
What would have been really interesting was if the game had gone to overtime. Team B only had eight players dressed out. Three fouled and one got hurt, which is how they ended up with four players on the floor, and all four of them had at least three fouls. I have no idea what would have happened if they'd completely run out of players.

I'll defer to any of the working refs/rules experts on this board, but per what I've been told, a team can keep playing with just one player on the court until it has to inbound the ball. Seen a few 5-on-4 finishes, but that's it.

 

[Batman]

I'll defer to any of the working refs/rules experts on this board, but per what I've been told, a team can keep playing with just one player on the court until it has to inbound the ball. Seen a few 5-on-4 finishes, but that's it.

Alabama finished a game last season against Minnesota 5-on-3, didn't it?
What happens if they do get down to one? Or none? Do they have to forfeit, or is there some provision to keep two on the floor? Like every foul thereafter is a technical?

 

[Della9250]

Dealing with the aftermath of all-state selections right now and a football coach sent me an email wondering why I didn't put his players stats in his bio (kid was a hybrid LB/S). I explained I wrote 25 bios of 65-75 words each and tried to make each of them different. He then fired back saying he didn't believe me and was going to chart the all state selections as to who did and who didn't have stats mentioned.

Is that better than the aftermath that's coming when your coverage area gets shrunk after the fact and your all-area team isn't going to include those schools, especially after they came in for pictures.

 

[MNgremlin]

We've received a number of complaints this season asking why we just focus on the teams in our coverage area in our stories and briefs, even going as far as asking if we think our readers are too unsophisticated for info about teams outside of the area.

No, dummy. If we had all night to put together this info, we probably could. But we've got just 1-3 people nightly who cover their own game while one other part-timer handles the bulk of the roundup for our 11 area schools. Varsity games don't get started until close to 7:30 most nights so most results start rolling in around 9, and the section has to be sent to press by 11. Not a lot of time to spend worrying about kids from schools we don't give a darn about. Plus, those schools don't send us game stats, so we have to hope the local team's 7th and 8th grade statkeepers were paying attention when their team didn't have the ball.

But of course, that wasn't our response. We caved.

 

[Della9250]

That won't happen with me. cutdown was due to subscribers / where ads come from

 

[Kolchak]

Was skimming through an article online about the region's #2 college softball team, and the first response in the comment section is someone bitching about how the article is proof that the paper doesn't care about covering the region's #1 college softball team because it wasn't about them.

 

[HanSenSE]

We've received a number of complaints this season asking why we just focus on the teams in our coverage area in our stories and briefs, even going as far as asking if we think our readers are too unsophisticated for info about teams outside of the area.n

No, dummy. If we had all night to put together this info, we probably could. But we've got just 1-3 people nightly who cover their own game while one other part-timer handles the bulk of the roundup for our 11 area schools. Varsity games don't get started until close to 7:30 most nights so most results start rolling in around 9, and the section has to be sent to press by 11. Not a lot of time to spend worrying about kids from schools we don't give a darn about. Plus, those schools don't send us game stats, so we have to hope the local team's 7th and 8th grade statkeepers were paying attention when their team didn't have the ball.

But of course, that wasn't our response. We caved.

Ah, this is one I've wrestled with a couple of times, in different ways. If you're working for the Podunk Gazette Podunk High is making a run at a playoff spot, you need that Springfield-Shelbyville (both outside the area, but in the same league as Podunk High) score to see where Podunk High lies in the standings. Don't have to staff the game, but a call or two or a quick check of the web can get you that. If staffing all the games of teams in Podunk's league takes away from covering other schools in your area, then, too bad for those who want comprehensive leaguewide coverage.

At one stop, one season we had about a half-dozen kids who enrolled at Springfield Catholic, a good 40 or so miles out of our area, but a few parents wanted stories on the games. Sports editor finally worked out something where we'd highlight the local kids in the roundup. After I left sports there, I heard some administrators at a small school maybe 25 miles out of town thought we should run things on their games since they lived in town. That was rejected, and rightfully so.

 

[crimsonace]

Was skimming through an article online about the region's #2 college softball team, and the first response in the comment section is someone bitching about how the article is proof that the paper doesn't care about covering the region's #1 college softball team because it wasn't about them.

This was my life as an SE.

Four schools in the coverage area. One in the county seat (bigger, but not by much, than the others) who hasn't really had much going athletically in years. But the community is very insular and expects the newspaper SE to be an unabashed homer for that school (and that school only). Two nearby schools whose enrollments are pretty similar to the "big" school who have, combined, won something like 10 state championships in the last decade and a half. EVERY time we'd centerpiece the county schools that were on their way to another deep state tourney run, I'd get calls, emails, anonymous letters accusing me of being biased against their school, hating their school, not covering their school. (Let's see ... the team I'm covering is in the state semifinal. Your team went 1-9 and its season ended four weeks ago).

 

[Flip Wilson]

I freelance for a local monthly magazine that's kind of a feel-good magazine for the city. It has lots of feature stories on local folks, stories about home remodels, blah blah. Every city has a magazine like it. Last year, a lady I knew from a church I attended years ago emailed me to pitch a story about a local nursing home where her aunt received some outstanding care. I had no interest in the story, but sent a nice reply saying that I had forwarded it on to my editor, which I had done. The next day, the lady left some information about the story in the box on my office door, at my job that has nothing to do with the magazine for which I freelance. It's hard to get to my office; there's no public parking close to my building, and my office is at the end of a hall. It's a destination location; you don't just happen to be pashing by.

Today, the same lady emailed to thank me for helping to get a story published about a local nursing home where her aunt received some outstanding care. But the thing is, the story was in ANOTHER magazine entirely, a magazine I have nothing to do with. But she was very thankful that I had pulled some strings and gotten the story published.

You're welcome?

 

[flexmaster33]

Memorial Day deadlines meant that our print edition coverage for state track got bumped an issue down the road.
So here comes the call Monday morning with a parent intent on getting out his entire rant, despite me breaking in several times and calmly ashuring him coverage was already online and would appear in print in the next day's paper due to the holiday.
I don't think he heard a word I said, he was so keyed up to get his obviously rehearsed complaint to my ears since we suddenly stopped covering the area high schools entirely

Finally, rant over, I communicate the holiday deadline delay one last time.
Some mumbling and a click.

Can't please some people.

 

[fossywriter8]

Memorial Day deadlines meant that our print edition coverage for state track got bumped an issue down the road.
So here comes the call Monday morning with a parent intent on getting out his entire rant, despite me breaking in several times and calmly ashuring him coverage was already online and would appear in print in the next day's paper due to the holiday.
I don't think he heard a word I said, he was so keyed up to get his obviously rehearsed complaint to my ears since we suddenly stopped covering the area high schools entirely

Finally, rant over, I communicate the holiday deadline delay one last time.
Some mumbling and a click.

Can't please some people.

I'm readying for this because not only have the higher-ups decided to cut one day of print from the paper, they decided to make it a Sunday paper and to implement the cut this week, which is the same weekend as our state track meet.