Football Previews

I know, I was joking. I may just go with a generic cover this time.

 

I put four kids in a convertible like their driving towards a state championship, putting a billboard behind them saying like 125 miles to Orlando (site of state championships).

 

I wouldn't really call ours unique, but our readers seem to like it. A lot of what we do has already been mentioned above with regards to district/region previews, etc.

We usually pick a theme to illustrate for the cover or a standout player in the area to put on the cover and do a feature on them inside. Also features on other significant storylines throughout the area (unique stories, new coaches, top rivalries, etc.).

We do the capsules for each of our teams with a brief story on each one. It gets to be pretty repetitive and boring for the staff, but like I said, the readers like it and I think most of all they like seeing their players' names in print.

We'll highlight obviously the top players in the area and play them up in a photo package.

It's really pretty basic stuff for us. Plus when you're approaching 30 schools and you've got three people, it can be tough to get too crazy with it. Especially with coaches who don't want to cooperate, who don't want to give a depth chart, who don't want their players photographed for fear of "alienating" the rest of the squad (Seriously, coach?), etc.

 

Okay, I have media day envy, too

Honestly, getting the interviews in person is usually best and you can get access to the athletes better that way. Of course, it's also much more time-consuming and depending on the size of your preview it's not always possible. Worthwhile to do that for your main team(s) though.

I thumb through several of the NFL preview mags and steal some ideas out of there to punch up the prep previews...we run graphics with win-loss charts for recent years. We've run features on players in the past, but recently have chosen to pick a sport-related topic to explore such as "When is best to try a two-point conversion"...etc.

The side stories give readers something to engage in besides the basic team breakdowns which can dominate the landscape in late-August/early-September.