Help! What's the bigger story?

Ok, tennis playoffs this weekend and surprisingly two of the teams in the coverage area of one of our weekly papers have reached the state finals.

The first team won the Division I state title this afternoon, their 10th straight championship in the sport. They're also likely to have the state's individual champion when the individual tournament takes place Sunday.

Problem is, the second team, a D-III squad, had no business in the championship game of their division and made a remarkable run down the stretch. This team picked up upsets in both of their last two matches, vaulted from a six seed to third seed in the bracket and then won their first two playoff games in eight years to reach the title finals.

That second team plays tomorrow and can capture it's first state title in 21 years if it wins.

If it does, which story should be the focus of our next edition (Wednesday). Potentially, we could have two state championship winning teams and the solo champion.

I'm writing both team stories and art isn't likely to be a problem. What would you lead with?

 

Are you asking which story to make dominant? If so, why not just package them together?

 

Well, problem is I really want to tie the team and individual titles of team 1 together as one package and if team 2 wins, put that as it's own piece of info. I don't really mind which is played up as the bigger story, I just wonder what you guys would do.

 

The D-III team is going to lose. Trust me. Lead with the first.

 

Did this decision come up in a Saved by the Bell episode I missed?

 

There were no underdogs in Saved By The Bell; well, just when Screech led Zack's team of uncoordinated souls past Slater's athletes in the Corps' obstacle course.

That prediction is a gut prediction.

 

If anything, comparing and contrasting the two schools sounds like a good column idea.

I think you can find a neat way to feature both in your presentation ...

 

You could package all three together pretty easily.

 

IMO, I think you should make the D-III the lead. More underdog feels, which the readers eat up. It's got the wow factor to it. The other team should be played up pretty well too, but the team that wasn't expected to win and does is a bigger story.

 

I have always thought high school trumps D-III.

How many people were at the high school matches and how many were at the college matches?

How many of the D-III players are from the area?

You could package it though.

 

Both teams are high school teams. The first is in Division I (or the 'top league') and the second is in Division III (or, shall we say a lesser league?).

Turns out this is no longer an issue since, as Mikey predicted, the D-III team went and lost 6-1. I'll play the D-I title up big, the individual champion story below it and the D-III story to the side.

 

My bad.

You know, wouldn't it be nice if there was a universal high school classification system?