Home-school athletics

OK, let me see -- considering there are (1) age and (2) academic eligibility requirements to play in high school athletics, I'd say point one might be the most asinine thing I've read on these threads and if you can't understand why you are beyond hope.

And saying that most public schools suck is merely stating an idea with as much evidence to prove it as any crackpot scientific theory we've been told to accept as fact........

 

There is nothing sexist about saying that nobody gives two shits about high school softball, especially since the same can be said about wrestling, boys and girls swimming, boys and girls soccer, field hockey and lacrosse and far less people give two shits about football, boys and girls basketball and baseball than most of our editors would like to believe......

 

So if our readers don't care at all about some sports and "far less" about football, basketball and baseball, how should we be filling our sections?

 

Well we certainly shouldn't waste time and energy and resources and precious space writing round-ups and summaries of games that nobody outside of the families of the athletes -- and even many of them don't care either -- gives a rat's ass about.

I've always said -- if coverage of high school sports goes beyond writing compelling and interesting and OCCASSIONAL enterprise/features stories as well as running the daily scores in the agate section -- it is way too much.

 

Problem is, the high school sports fanatics are the first one to jump into Mr. Publisher's ear about it, and as soon as he gets three phone calls, he fires you a memo to the effect that "everybody wants more high school sports coverage."

 

That all depends on the size of the paper doesn't it?

 

And the area you're in. I imagine that in Indiana prep sports might be a much bigger deal than in some other states.

 

SC is right. You want to know how the kid down the street is doing, or if anyone from your area has a shot at DI.

You have a high school in Texas of 2,000 students and probably 3-4,000 parents of those students. Even if only 10 percent of them read the story, I'm guessing that is more than read a story about UK playing UT.

Good high school coverage, IMHO, should be a backbone of any paper not located in NYC or having a circulation under 1,000,000.

 

hey simpleton: it's a shame your grandkids have to attend school with my godless children, isn't it?

i know what you did last summer, la douche.

 

To a degree, yes, but I always go back to my days as a beginner at podunk press when I was told how much local high school crap we had to have every day -- yet my observations was this -- the same three or four whiners complained about missing high school stuff all the time -- and very few others even noticed or cared.

If, however, God forbid the game of the NFL or major league baseball team that was about an hour away went late and thus we couldn't get AP story or score into the morning paper the phone would ring off the hook with people bitching at us.

High school sports coverage is the most over rated thing we do.

 

Zaggy,

I get on your inclusive bandwagon -- high school sports for everyone who pays taxes! -- and you get all snotty.

So rules are OK if they are excluding folks who are too old and such, but not OK when excluding kids who don't even go to the school?

Have some consistency for a change, will ya?

 

That close to a pro city, I can understand it.

But for those of us a few hours from the nearest pro sports city, high school coverage is our No. 1 priority. Or, at least, No. 2 behind coverage of State U.