A splendid story falls in my lap courtesy of a talented water polo parent

I agree with both of you, Meat and Baron. Our 5-year-old has a tendency to try and be bossy or demanding. When he demands something, he doesn't get it because of his attitude. When he asks nicely, as long as it's an appropriate thing for him to have (in our judgment), he gets it. Seems like some parents could learn that lesson.
I have no problem with parents who call or e-mail about a team that works hard, has been doing well and would make for a good story. Doesn't mean we'll do a story, but the odds are better than when parents make pissy or snide comments about why the hell we haven't covered a team everyone in the town would want to read about and we MUST call the coach today at this number and cover the next game at this time. My favorite is when the latter type of parent singles out a particular athlete to focus on and proclaims "Of course, that's NOT my daughter!"

 

I don't trust anyone who fails to understand why current or former prep writers like to vent about crazy parents. Either they haven't done any or much of that kind of work, they're the kind of person I would simply not get along with or (most likely) they're saying things they don't fully believe.

 

Last time a parent asked why we don't cover JV, I politely told her, "You obviously have a family you like to see. So do we."
Amazingly, she seemed to understand that.

 

If you have five girls playing who never played the sport until two months ago, then this is a most fraudulent state title. For fuck's sake.

This parent had bile and venon in her letter, with a more than a dash of "LOOK AT US!".

Fuck her (assuming its a mom).

 

Update: We did what turned out to be a short story on this, basically going off the stat sheets provided by the tournament organizer (who was great at getting us results each night of the event)...of course my four phone calls to the coach went unanswered...typical of the entire season.

 

Yep, another great moment in sports parenting.
Soccer mom: "How come my daughter's four goals weren't in the paper?"
Me: "Haven't heard from your daughter's team all year. Your coach needs to call or email us with the scores and highlights. We sent letters to every coach in the county with my business card explaining how to contact us."
Soccer mom: "Is that how it works? OK, I'll talk to him/her."
And I'm still waiting ...