Embarrased, but it wasn't my fault

Local high school all-star football game was like that. Despite players and fans traveling from a 10-county area (and Saturday-night deadlines), they stuck to a 7:30 p.m. start for the first 34 years. The guy who had been there to cover every one of those games managed to slip a "Gee, I wish they started earlier" note into his column after each of the last five or six. Last year, they moved it to 7 p.m., and the rest of us thanked the writer in question.

But to directly ask the school, much less beg? Yeah, I don't know about that.

 

Mark2010...if i went to the school administratrators every time games overlapped or there were major "clusters" in the schedules, I would live at their place.
i'll give you kudos for having the gonads to even try that, but that's really out of your responsibility to do so. if i was an administrator, I would have tended to respond to your request with one of those "what the f.....?" lines. or chuckled just a bit.
i feel your pain, though, because I've definitely cussed a lot of times when such things have happened. and it has a lot around our city. but we don't have a whole lotta control on that, friend.

 

perhaps you should be "embarrassed" that "EMBARRASED" has been misspelled for the life of this thread? ;D ;D ;D

 

this doesn't have to do with prep games, but our D-I college had three basketball doubleheaders this year, all on a Saturday night. first game at 6, the second game maybe at 8 if one is lucky. but it's usally closer to 8:30 and makes us push to meet our deadline of 11.
i and other media cohorts have thrown out hints/suggestions of "man, wouldn't it be nice to have 5 and 7 p.m. tipoff times?"
the 6 and 8:30-8:45ers, they're killers.

 

I think that we've learned here that begging and pleading coaches and administrators is wrong, wrong, wrong.

So do what I do. Threats and extortion.

 

our small staff gets particularly stretched during college football season because we have two teams who will invariably play at home at the same time. being a small daily, it's a push to get both properly covered and not to the standard we would like to have, but such is the way it is when they're playing at same time. but it also understand the trials of making out a schedule. i don't envy ADs or coaches who have to do that part of their job.

 

It either gets in or it doesn't. WTF is with the begging or complaining to coaches and administrators? Do you feel your letting the kids down? Damn it! Be a professional! I can't stand prep guys who want to write as if this is the world series. Stop it, and be a professional which means it either gets in rushed but clean, or it doesn't. And don't you ever worry about what others think of the coverage. You did what you did considering the circumstance. GET IT DONE. That's what pro's do. If you can't cover the game, then get a phone or a stat sheet.

And, if you don't know the times of the goal, LEAVE IT OUT. Should have written Joey Numbnuts had three goals in a 4-1 win over Ice High. Don't try and recreate a game that you weren't at.

Serious, if you don't know when they were scored, don't guess, err on the side of caution and make it less specific. You already had two gamers in, do you really need a third and fourth?



Edit: I know it's harsh, but it is the guys fault. You wrote the gamer off a stat sheet and made an assumption. Now, we all have been there and there were reasons that you F'ed up. Understandable and not holding it against you. Still, it's your fault that the game got in with incorrect info.

Sorry about that.

 

I'm actually a little conflicted. I guess the word "begging" in the original post is the problem.

But suggesting that a game time be changed to accommodate better coverage -- and then dropping the matter if it doesn't happen? -- I'm not sure why I should think that's a big ethical OR professional problem. How does such a simple request reflect poorly on a professional news person?

I think it's simply that I don't feel as strongly about that being a really big deal as others apparently do.

 

The venom directed toward this guy is ridiculous. Some people are obviously angry at other things and choose to take it out on him.

 

Or, maybe, it's simply that you're right.

(And so is TSP).

 

Just remember it's our responsibility to get it into the paper.
Yes, it's the scoretaker's fault the info was incorrect on the stat sheet. But it's your fault the info was incorrect in the newspaper. If you dont trust the information and you dont have time to call, just put the score. It's right. It's done.

A lot of this is a juggling act. When things get crazy and deadline is approaching, above all else just keep it simple. If coaches complain about not getting enough in, explain to them your deadline issues. Make suggestions that would make the process easier. Save your sanity.

 

Did all of the games that the OP mentioned have to be in the next day's paper?

And it isn't a reporters job to change a game time. Leave it up to your publisher to see if he/she cares or not.