High school sports cliche quotes that should remain on the cutting floor...

It might sound cliched to us, but some high school teams (boys and girls) do get along better than others, and sometimes that is part of their story. If you ask why, occasionally you'll get good stuff. An experience traveling to Alaska for the first time for summer league, or a nucleus that's come up together from the freshmen team that's finally getting a chance to shine. The most compelling story? Probably not, let's face it, sometimes when covering preps you take what you can get, file, and move on.

 

110 percent.

 

You really stepped up with that post.

 

My favorite quote ever:

Q: Could I get your record? Just want to confirm it with what we have.

A: "O and however many games we've played."

Not cliche, but certainly left on the cutting floor.

 

I don't always discount the focus one. In college or pros yeah. They should be focused. If there not the reason should be damn interesting. But in high school, some teams do just lose games becuase they don't focus.

Last year I remember seeing a football team that surprised and should have held the second spot in their league. Instead they bit it to a 0-win team on the last week of the season, becuase they basically didn't give a crap. Now a lot of coaches go focus cliches when their team is just MUCH better than the opposition, but there are a lot of time on the prep level where that really matters.

Also, coaches who don't know their records every goddamn game, that irritates me to no end.

 

I'm surprised even Sports Illustrated allows:
"he (is, could be, will be) a special player."

 

Not exactly a quote, if you ask me.

 

"He's going to be playing on Sundays some day"

 

True... Just one of the better answers I've gotten and felt like sharing.

I also enjoy asking, "Anything else you'd like to add?" Only to get, "No... Just (insert a minute of talking here)."

 

"We just need to play (mascot) football."

"Their record isn't indicative of what they're capable of."

 

"We just need to come together as a team."

Meaningless.

 

I covered one softball team where I did use that quote in a preview. The prior season, the coach told me off the record that he wouldn't be surprised if at some point, he would wind up breaking up a knife fight between a couple of his players. This wasn't a team of misfits, just looking to avoid the slaughter rule, either. They were one of the best in the state regardless of classification, but you could see that they just didn't get along. When he quoted that to me the next spring, after most of them had graduated or had, let's just say moved on, I made sure to use it.

But other than that, I use that quote as an invitation for a follow-up.