Complaint calls

Point out that it's not your job to get her kids scholarships, it's her job. Prep coaches often forget that part of their job description, and will use you as a scapegoat to Jr.'s parents

 

Just for once, I want to see a college coach turn his head after seeing "Smith, Joseph 6-7 2-4 14" in the box score. If your kid's not garnering national attention and needs just box scores with mediocre point totals to send off to coaches, you're in the wrong place. The only way I can see this helping is if it said "Smith, Joseph 42-44 22-22 186." But even then, coaches know about those kids.

Unless, of course, it's an NAIA or NJCAA school. Then you might be justified in clipping those little squares.

 

But if the call goes on for 40 minutes and the caller won't let it end until you tell them what they want to hear, what do you do?

 

I don't talk for 40 minutes. If it's going nowhere, say you will transfer her to your supervisor and do it.

 

My editor had a pretty good standard response:

"We try out best, but we know that we're never going to make everyone happy. That's the burden we carry. We simply don't have the staff and the space to cover everything we want."

 

Here's the homepage for the national site. As Art Bell would say, I live "east of the Rockies."

I'm not sure if the commercial was a product of this site or the local station's creation.

http://www.hsgametime.com/

 

I would've been happy as hell if they had that site when I was working preps. I'd give that site out to every swim/XC/softball parent just to get them to leave me alone.

 

thanks. i will check it out.

 

I had a call last week from a 6th/7th grade Gold Crown basketball coach who wanted me to write a story about his team because "they work really hard and don't get any recognition." My response was recognition is the wrong motivation for playing sports for kids that age, and my policy is this: anything below high school is not a sport, it's an activity, and as far as the freshman and jv players go, if they stick with it, they'll have their day. That's not to say there you could never find a story in something like middle school basketball...

The most common complaint I get is that we focus too much on the "stars" -- the kid who will challenge for a state wrestling title, or the swimmers who have already signed D-I scholies and are carrying the team. We consciously try to spread the love around, but it's the ones who are winning, not the ones on their backs counting lights, that give you something to write about on a regular basis.

 

where else in life do losers have the attention focused on them? aside from TO, of course.

 

What's more, the local school district doesn't even want us covering middle school games, or even reporting scores. When the 8th grade girls team was going undefeated last year, there were some parents calling to ask why we were ignoring them. But the AD had told me, Don't write about them, parents are already getting out of control, wait until they get to high school.

 

then gain control over 'em, now.