high school athletic banquets

I happened to cover a school in North Florida where the coach had ties to Tebow, and he surprised everyone by showing up for the banquet, giving a quick speech, taking a picture with the coach and taking off. This was probably a few months after he won the Heisman and we were in the middle of Gators country, so of course we sold a lot of papers the next day. But, of course, whoever wrote the headline that night had a little slip-up: "Tebow vists Tigers."

 

I wish I could remember how many times I've told an angry parent that they were welcome to call in scores or give us a heads-up on interesting stories when the coaches don't call. I can, however, remember how many parents have ever taken action: None.

 

At my old one-man shop, I arranged with the local AD to get the list of award winners beforehand. Then I showed up for the picture, got the shot of the team MVPs, and left. It usually worked out pretty well.

The big pain in the ass for me was getting the kids lined up. I'd get them together, then some parent would want to shuffle the kids around so they could take a picture too. One time, after spending about 10 minutes getting the kids set up for the pic only to have this one parent keep telling them to move around again, I finally told the mom that I had worked in newspapers for several years, and that I knew what I was doing, so please just let me do my work. Mom shut up, pic was shot, and everyone was happy.

 

I covered one banquet. The team actually gave my wife flowers because I was out covering them all the time instead of at home in the evening.

 

I went to a school's hall of fame dinner a few weeks ago. It was very, very long.
The presenters were supposed to be limited to five minutes each, but most, if not all of them, went well over it (though I suppose if you could tell somebody's story in five minutes, they probably don't belong in the hall of fame).
Then, of course each inductee had to thank everyone under the sun, but I can't really blame them. It's their time, let them say whatever they want.
It does make for a long evening, however. With eight inductees and one team, the ceremony started at 8 p.m. and ended at 11:20. By then, most people had left.

 

I stopped going to sports banquets when I was working at a weekly in the late 80s. The 5-5 football team scheduled theirs on a Monday night (after my deadline) against a Bears-Niners game. With the JV and freshman awards, as well as the coaches giving out gag awards, it took 3-4 hours, and to cap it off, some doofus announced the halftime score!

 

The hall of fame thing reminds me of another story from my one-man shop paper. The big school's AD thought that maybe the school and town should have a sports hall of fame. She called a meeting to gauge interest.

My editor had me attend to write a story on it. No problem. It was summer, and things were slow. Then, at the meeting, the AD asked if I was interested in helping out, doing research on the athletes and stuff like that. I sure as hell didn't want the extra (and unpaid) work, even if I realize that in some small towns, the SE is the main source of everything. So I hemmed and hawed and told her I had to ask my boss because it could be a conflict of interest. AD gave me a nasty look.

So I ask my boss, and he says no because of the conflict of interest. Not only did I agree with him, but, needless to say, I was relieved. I told the AD, and she proceeded to call my boss up to ask directly. To his credit, he stood firm.

The HOF idea had a couple more meetings, and never got off the ground.

 

Me too. In our area few and far between so I don't have a problem with it.

I have never, evah, covered an awards banquet and our paper is tiny.

We will cover major school's hall of fame dinner though. We'll do a special profile story and the dinner. At least we used to.

 

Running league all-stars is one thing, but who cares about who Podunk High votes as it's Most Inspirational Bench Warmer...I'd say it's time to cut ties with this tradition...there has to be something more worthwhile to fill the pages with.

 

Does this ever bring back some bad memories. My county decided to start a sports hall of fame in 2003. The were 14 in the first class. I knew it could be a bad one. Was I ever right. Each presenter went on and on. Each inductee thanked every person they ever knew in their entire lives. The emcee kept getting on the mic and just would not shut up. The meal was quite good, which helped contribute to me fighting to stay awake. The whole thing lasted nearly six hours. What a miserable evening.

 

I'm at a small weekly and I have one tonight. We have always ran the pictures of every athletic award winner. We snap a photo as they receive the award. This year we are only running photos of the two major award winners which is what we do for FFA, band and academic banquets.

I expect my phone to be ringing continuously after we publish. This is going to give people something to complain about until two-a-days start.

 

I got an email from a woman involved in a private school in our area that I never knew existed. She took the kind of photos you'd expect to see at a charity ball on the society page. Kids sitting around posing with cold drinks, and there were like 30 photos of that...along with a list of awards that was some of the most ridiculous "why in the hell would you want this in print?" awards...example: "Closest thing to a Slam Dunk" "Michael Jordan Wannabe" "He drank more from the water cooler than anyone." I ignored this completely and have to this point survived it, proving to me that there is a God.