Preps Under Attack

[Dick Whitman]

You used to go to the paper for info on fantasy sports? First year we had a fantasy baseball league we did that, but only because we got our stats and standings mailed weekly from a state service, can't even remember the name of the place.

No. What I mean is that more interest in sports is driven by fantasy sports than it had been in the past, thereby rendering the information you can get from the newspaper less relevant.

 

[hondo]

Pet peeve of mine, regardless of coverage: we need to stop calling it "preps." No one outside reporters who cover high schools and the newspapers for which they work call those schools "prep schools" any more. It's an archaic term, with the odd exception of a school that actually has the word "prep" in its name (Tampa Berkley Prep, for example) and there aren't many of those. Call them what everyone else calls them: high schools. The only reason they're still called "preps" by newspapers is that the word fits in a one-column sig.

 

[silvercharm]

We're page-view centric at our joint, and high school sports still has a place. But all sports can't be covered equally. It's football, football, football first. Then boys basketball. The rest have very little interest. Perhaps girls basketball rises above the also rans, but not by much. The rest can be covered with photos, for the most part, outside of the odd compelling feature or state track or wrestling.

 

[Bronco77]

Pet peeve of mine, regardless of coverage: we need to stop calling it "preps." No one outside reporters who cover high schools and the newspapers for which they work call those schools "prep schools" any more. It's an archaic term, with the odd exception of a school that actually has the word "prep" in its name (Tampa Berkley Prep, for example) and there aren't many of those. Call them what everyone else calls them: high schools. The only reason they're still called "preps" by newspapers is that the word fits in a one-column sig.

Even though I used the term "preps" in my post, I agree. Our sports stylebook had an entry banning "preps" and specifying the use of "high schools" As was the case with so many things that made sense, it was a Craig Stanke edict.

 

[Liut]

Pet peeve of mine, regardless of coverage: we need to stop calling it "preps." No one outside reporters who cover high schools and the newspapers for which they work call those schools "prep schools" any more. It's an archaic term, with the odd exception of a school that actually has the word "prep" in its name (Tampa Berkley Prep, for example) and there aren't many of those. Call them what everyone else calls them: high schools. The only reason they're still called "preps" by newspapers is that the word fits in a one-column sig.

Not to thread jack, but I cannot stand the use of "falls" for a loss. Unbelievable how many clumsy teams exist today. OK, carry on.

 

[playthrough]

Which paper had the best preps coverage in the heyday of the 1990s and early 2000s, before the asteroid hit?

"Best" is subjective, but when I was at the St. Pete Times (when it was the St. Pete Times), there were about a dozen full-time high school writers, a half-dozen part-timers and an army of stringers covering stuff across five counties. There would be a full page of sports six days a week in each county's separate section, then live event coverage would go on a page in the main sports section, rotated out for the different areas. Once a week on the front of the main sports section would be a "prep focus" story of some kind, either a feature or issue-driven piece. And the Tampa Tribune was solid back then, making for some great turf battles.

That was a very, very long time ago, and mindblowing to think about now.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

The Times once paid me $50 for a seven-inch wrestling story.
Long time ago indeed, lot of water under the bridge since then.
There's part of the power bill, or at least some beer and book money.
I can recall days when a paper would staff the probable next playoff opponent - sometimes many miles away - of the local football powerhouse.

 

[playthrough]

We all knew guys back in the heyday who stashed some pretty good money stringing for multiple papers when the stringing budgets were fat. I remembered a guy who went to the state cross country meet and filed for eight different papers. Didn't have to be Hemingway, just had to track down Jenny from South High for a quote on her 39th-place finish and send agate.

 

[ChickenDinner]

People just don't care about it very much. They cared about it 50 years ago when entertainment options were more limited. Now there are 300 cable television channels and an endless number of apps, games, and websites to keep people occupied. Preps is a cheap night out when you have a kid, and it's great for participants. But as something newsworthy, in general, its time has long passed.

bingo. more entertainment choices than ever. dont need to see fbs-johnny on the gridiron or future 6-foot-2 naia hoops star brendan hitting 12-foot jumpers for kicks. nearly everyone has every major league and big college game available at the click of a button. or can binge-watch just about anything else.

 

[Dick Whitman]

bingo. more entertainment choices than ever. dont need to see fbs-johnny on the gridiron or future 6-foot-2 naia hoops star brendan hitting 12-foot jumpers for kicks. nearly everyone has every major league and big college game available at the click of a button. or can binge-watch just about anything else.

I even think it's reasonable to discuss, as a matter of ethics, whether run-of-the-mill high school sports played by 15- and 16-year-olds should be covered.

 

[I Should Coco]

I even think it's reasonable to discuss, as a matter of ethics, whether run-of-the-mill high school sports played by 15- and 16-year-olds should be covered.

Should ... you've obviously been out of newspapers for a while.

If play-by-play of animal husbandry prompted someone to take out an ad, we'd cover it.

 

[ChickenDinner]

I even think it's reasonable to discuss, as a matter of ethics, whether run-of-the-mill high school sports played by 15- and 16-year-olds should be covered.

there are reporters who think you cover the kids like the pros. i wouldnt want to be the one asking a kid why he "choked" and ive heard that line of questioning.