Any sport you don't enjoy covering???

I don't care much for good softball either because it tends to go extra innings and it's usually decided by some sort of freak play.
I don't know if there are any sports I truly hate. Maybe cockfighting.

 

Anything at the high school level other than football and soccer.

Don't really care for softball or volleyball at any level.

 

I'm covering this sectional wrestling meet yesterday. This writer from another paper comes up to me and says "Hey Slappy."
I look up from typing in my agate and he says "Rose Bowl."
I asked myself, "hmmm, we're at a wrestling meet, not the Rose Bowl. While I lived in Michigan, I didn't go to Michigan and I've never liked USC." So I shake my head and wonder, "what is this fat fuck talking about?"
So, wrestling.

 

soccer's great. You have almost no notes to take, no stats to speaks of. They give you minimal space because it's soccer, you quote both coaches, maybe the guy who scores the game's only goal, and you've got 8-10 inches. There's no struggle on what to leave out.

Can't stand swimming. Big regional meets in a large loud place full of shrieking high school kids, the air smelling of chlorine. You call the boss to find out just what you did to piss him off.

 

Auto racing.

 

I can honestly say that, when I was a scribe, there was nothing I didn't enjoy covering. Seriously. With one notable exception.

I hate, hate, hate covering anything below the level of varsity high school sports. Covering just ONE of these things (sport doesn't matter) involving younger-than-high-schoolers gives parents the sense of entitlement regarding event coverage we all have lamented on this board. No one here agrees with me that coverage of these events should be exclusive to state championships and any event other than that can be summed up with two grafs in the weekly community sports notebook or agate.

Plus, little kids giggling as ground balls roll through their legs are not the least bit cute if:
A: The kid is not yours and,
B: You're covering the event.
I like to see sports played well, with definite strategy and an attempt to win rather than just playing to play (per Herm Edwards/youth sports where no score is kept). That pretty much starts about age 14.

Yes, I know the future of newspapers rests on our willingness to cover these events so we can put people, places and faces of every error-scored-as-a-hit in our pages. Tough shit. I hate covering these things and no editor will ever get my best effort from a 12-and-under softball tournament.

 

Good call. Small threadjack...For years I went to great lengths to try name every contributor when it came to ;overing little league sports (nope, this was not my idea). Of course, by mistake, I'd leave out someone's two out, nobody on, third inning walk, and I would hear about it the next day. I loathed LL sports for that reason. Last year, I decided to approach the games like I would any other. Not one complaint.


As for my least favorite sport...Private school girls basketball.

 

Agreed.

When I was at my weekly and thrice-weekly papers, I had a "policy" of not covering any team, kid or sport group that did have kids above the age of 14 involved.

I figure by 14 or 15, kids - and coaches and parents - are taking the sport seriously, have talent, and aren't doing it for recreation. You know, the same way I feel about my job.

Anyway, least favourite to cover: Volleyball
Least favourite to photograph: Volleyball - you have about three photos to choose from: Kill, block or dig.

Favourite to cover: Baseball
Favourite to shoot: Baseball

 

I have walked around our office for a month saying the same thing over and over and over. "Wake me up when baseball season starts." I hate high school basketball. The coaches are always the least cooperative, the games are the least interesting and the weather is the coldest. Please, let me sit outside in shorts and a polo shirt and watch seven innings of baseball.

P.S. While I'm not a big fan of soccer, I do find that I can catch up my reading and/or phone calls while watching it. I covered the state championship soccer matches last year (four games) that were all played in one day. I might have watched 20 minutes of soccer the entire day.

 

I would say soccer, but with games starting at 4 p.m. and ending by 6 p.m., I love it for deadline purposes. So I'll go with cross country, because typing in the agate is a zillion times more annoying.

 

Cross country is way easier than track. It's like covering two track events instead of 30. And no matter how many teams are involved, you're pretty much guaranteed a short day.

 

Never covered cross country, but I can imagine it would be boring. Girls hoops is the worst for me. Why is it that these girls always find themselves on the ground scrambling for a loose ball? I hate it.