High school dance

I've been asked to cover high school dance for a radio station. What kind of can of worms is this opening? First drill team, next battle of the bands. When does the madness end?

 

Cover a high school dance?? What the fuck for??

 

I think it's a high school dance team competition, not an actual high school prom or something.

 

C'mon, take a big chance . . .

 

You're covering it for a radio station? Really? Dance/cheer competitions are pretty much impossible to cover anyway, and without images, exactly how does that work?

This seems like the sort of thing that happens when some kid's mom is buddies with the people who run your station and call them up and trot out the, "they work just as hard as the football players" line.

Treat it like a feature, let them talk about how hard they work to prepare. If it's cheer, ask them about how dangerous the stunts are, because that's a real issue that's come up nationally with kids getting hurt because they're doing all this elaborate stuff. And say where they finished in the competition. End of report.

 

Whoops, sorry.

Given the choice, though, I think I'd rather cover the prom.

 

Just don't hit on the hot ones.

 

when they play Mony, Mony and the DJ turns the vocals down you know what to yell, right?

 

Dance team, drill team, same thing right? Luckily, it's just results, I am not actually covering the event. I do a morning sports report that includes high school and local college results.
As for the pay, it's not horrible. In this economy, I feel fortunate to have a regular gig in sports journalism right now.

 

I actually had to cover a prom at my first small-town weekly. I understood why, since it was a big thing in the town.

What I didn't understand was why they had the juniors, instead of the seniors, be the king, queen and the court. I also thought it was nutty that halfway through the prom, to announce the court, all the parents came to the school and filed in the auditorium to watch the crowning.

 

They do that at the start of prom in my city. I covered a prom in my first week at my first newspaper job and haven't covered one since.