Did I mess up in any way?

I gotta agree with the DP. I've written some tough columns at the D3 level, but never going after a particular player. Plus, at that level, they don't have to talk to you and the administration probably isn't accustomed to a lot of media attention.
I figure statements about a team are OK, maybe even the senior leadership. But that's about it.IMO.

 

Why would you EVER cover community college sports? Unless someone did something that warrants coverage in the news section (ex/a crime or overly philantropical deed), I wouldn't go anywhere near the CC's. And I that case, I'd leave a metro writer to do it.

 

Permit me to play the part of advocatus diaboli for a minute.

If you're covering a team as a beat -- gamers, features, notebooks, the usual -- why would you also write opinion pieces about them too? Particuarly ones where you "call them out", as you apparently did? It's kind of hard to look objective when you're writing a critical column on Monday and doing a straight game story on Tuesday. How do the players, coaches or -- most importantly -- the readers know you're going to be fair in the game story if you've established your thoughts in print? If they lost on Tuesday, do readers look at your story and think "hmmm, he talked about how he thinks the team is soft, and would you look at that, he's implying that's why they lost last night"? Seems more trouble than it's worth.

 

If that's the big deal in your coverage area, you cover it, even if you think it's below you.:

 

You answered your own question.

 

this is part of the life of a beat writer/columnist. nothing wrong with what you did.

it sounds like you wear both hats, which isn't ideal, as mystery meat said, which is why in the majors, the beat writer doesn't write columns (at least not about the team he covers).

but you have to write columns, too. you can't let the fact that you're also the beat hack get in the way. this column and ensuing story - and how you come out of it - will be a good clip and story to tell in your next job interview.

 

junior college sports are massive in many parts of the country

 

That's kind of what I thought. Sure, it's fun to write columns that offer strong opinions, but something I learned at my first stop was you also have to remember you cover these people. Sure, you might have an opinion, but that doesn't mean you should offers it.

I think back to when I was the SE at a small daily and I covered a local high school that was a powerhouse both in the state and, in the past, nationally. The coach and I had a disagreement about something I wrote in the offseason and I told him: "Look, I'm not going to tell you how to coach your team and you don't tell me how to cover it in the newspaper." I covered the team all year and in the last game, because of a coaching mistake, the team lost in the semifinals of the state playoffs. I wrote a column. But the column wasn't ripping the coaching staff, it was basically a "Don't blame the kicker" column, because the kicker had been rushed out there and missed a field goal in the last few seconds. The coach called me the next day wondering why I didn't crucify him. "Coach, I told you that I wasn't going to tell you how to coach, and you're not going to tell me how to run my sports section."

Maybe I look at sports from a different perspective than some in the profession. I'm not going to rip a high school or college kid for not playing "tough enough." I'm not going to tell a coach, who obviously has more experience in coaching than I do, how to run their team. I'll question them on anything but their coaching strategy. Hindsight, kids.

Just because you have the power of the pen doesn't mean you should abuse it.

 

It's a mistake to look at this as how a metro would handle it. The metros are the minority. There are a LOT more newspapers where you don't have the luxury of separating the roles.

 

But is it absolutely essential to have columns on the community college basketball team? I've worked at small papers for the last six years, and I tread VERY lightly in the rare times where I write a column about a team that I also cover. Having local column presence would be nice, but if the paper is so small that the person doing the straight coverage is also the person making editorial comment on them, then maybe the columns themselves are a luxury.

 

You mean, a subject(s) of a column -- in which you were critical -- took exception to what you wrote?
I've never heard of anything like this.

 

Why not? They're in the public eye just as much. If we write good things about high school players, we should have every right to say when they didn't live up to their potential. Sure, you might not key on mistakes like professionals, but you still hold them to the degree of account readers and fans would.

As for beat writers writing objective gamers and critical analysis, I think that is going to happen, especially at smaller shops - and again, if you're objective about your coverage, I don't see a problem with that column now and again.