AAU basketball tryout notice

I figured as much. I am going to start a semi-pro football team called The Producers.

With any luck, we'll hold a bunch of tryouts and never have to play a game.

 

Merry Christmas, everyone. This thread is the gift that keeps on giving.

 

I hate when smallpotatoes goes into reruns. Do new episodes start in January, or do we have to wait for sweeps?

 

Nothing.

Publish it when and if you have room for it, i.e. no other NEWS.

Otherwise, he can buy an ad.

 

That's our policy as well. If he wants anything more than what's in the calendar, he can buy an ad.

 

Maybe it's spiteful or unprofessional of me, but I'd be more inclined to help the AAU basketball guy if he didn't say that he would keep sending the brief unless I promised that I would publish it.

I've told this story before, but a few years ago there was an AAU baseball guy who really leaned on me to put a tryout announcement in several papers in our unit. I told him that I'd do what I could but I couldn't promise anything. I also told him that local groups like Little League have priority over regional groups. He couldn't understand that. I tried to explain that we're a local paper and our first obligation is to the people in that community and that there is no interest in regional news, but he wasn't buying it.
The week before Thanksgiving that year I had two teams playing for state titles. A swimming team in contention at the state meet and features for the upcoming Thanksgiving Day football game. Naturally, I made sure that I covered all that stuff as well as I could. The problem was I neglected to put his freebie in the paper. He complained to my supervisors about it and I was told to make it a priority the next week.
I'm sorry, but taking care of his AAU announcement is nowhere near as important as the other stuff. I know I shouldn't let having to do one thing be an excuse for not doing another, but really, other than this guy, is there likely to be anyone else in our readership who cares more about the AAU tryouts than the state championships or the Thanksgiving Day game?

 

Run it, but make sure you get ALL the info before publishing it, and tell him you'll need all the info. For instance:

* How many players are you looking for?
* Is there a fee to try out?
* How many games will you play over the course of the year?
* What are the expected expenses the families will incur during the course of this year?
* How many practices per week?

If he balks on telling you any of it, say thanks but no thanks to the brief and move along. That way, you're putting the work on him to be upfront about what the intentions are, and you can spell those out in the brief.

If he says no, then it was his decision, not yours, not to run it.

 

Who are these supervisors of yours, and did you explain to them WHY you didn't run it ... that you were busting your ass for the betterment of your readers? That's weak.

 

If the bosses tell you to run it, run the paragraph or two. The job can be tough, but it's just a brief.

 

Other SportsJournalists.com posters through the years have gotten more pub, but for my money, smallpotatoes would be on any all-time SportsJournalists.com list.

 

smallp has an interesting mix of a stiff spine and a crushed spirit.

 

Got the same thing at my shop a few years ago. Had the AAU coach on the phone blistering me. I told him to give me a day and I'd get back to him with a solution. Fortunately, he gave me a day.
The next day, I called him and said we'd like to do a feature on his program and we'd include the upcoming tryouts. He was ecstatic. Asked a couple of easy questions, then asked how much he personally clears as coach. Then asked why he gave up coaching at Podunk High. Asked if the two were related. Followed with how much the player and their family would have to generate to truly be on the team (cover travel costs, etc.). Asked about kickbacks for using certain hotels and being in certain tournaments.
He finally hung up on me. Never asked for another freebie, and made for a great story when I spoke to some other sources.