How did THIS make it to print?

Rick Stain is correct; 19,000 isn't exactly a shopper. That's about what my paper runs daily, and we're one of the bigger papers in an admittedly small state. Most of the criticism here falls on the editor. The writer, be it a stringer or a staffer, would have probably called the desk as soon as he or she found out what happened, and his instructions should have been to forget the game, concentrate on the coach's death for either a 1A or strip-lede story on the sports front. As it was, the writer actually got the basics in his story, which shows some initiative, but it was poorly written and it is then the editor's job to clean it up and make it presentable. I know it's Friday night on deadline, but you have to forget about that and do what you have to do to avoid what appears to be a sloppy presentation of a big story.

 

Someone posted that the coach essentially ducked into an ambulance and the team didn't find out until the fourth quarter. Most of the posts say he collapsed. Which one is accurate? Makes a difference to the story because if the stringer also didn't know how serious coach's condition was until the fourth quarter he'd have had a lot less time to triangulate possible coverages with the SE, the desk, the night cops reporter, etc.

 

But since it's not in that paper's coverage area, would it still warrant a breakout, a sidebar, or should it be incorporated into the mainbar, since the paper was there for Lincoln's opponent?

At my first paper, a school from about 90 minutes away played up here and we had a first-time stringer cover it. The coach of the visiting team took a heart attack in the middle of the game and was taken to a local hospital. He turned out to be OK (at least while he was in the area), and the SE had to scramble to help the stringer make it work. I'm pretty sure we didn't break it out.

A coach dying is a little different, but he also died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and didn't keel over on the sideline (based off what I've been reading). That might make a difference, as well, because once in the public eye, it becomes a huge deal.

Another ghoulish anecdote: I covered a softball playoff game where a fan sitting near me collapsed, and they stopped play for around an hour while medics revived him. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died a few hours later. My story, as per the directions of the desk chief, didn't mention his passing until the last graf, though there was also a brief in the local news section.

So there's a lot of ways to attack this. I don't necessarily blame the paper for not breaking out the coach if it's not a local guy and/or it wasn't a public death. But they could have done a better job finessing the story if they were going to keep it to the mainbar, that's for sure.

 

That's because you shouldn't be playing football in the heat of August.

 

From The Anniston Star:

http://tinyurl.com/lkak3h

Most everyone on the Lincoln sideline knew Howard wasn't there. But if the Gadsden stringer was on the Etowah sideline, he might not have noticed. At the very least, he found out when everyone else did in the fourth quarter.

But it's not like the guy fell out at the 50-yard line and the reporter just ignored it. I agree that someone above him should have told him to write a separate if he couldn't figure that out for himself.

And Mystery, it doesn't matter that the coach/opponent wasn't from Gadsden's coverage area. He fell ill at an event in Gadsden's coverage area and died at a hospital in Gadsden, and thus it warrants an A1 story in The Gadsden Times.

 

This is all on the editor, i.e. management. Don't expect much from stringers, especially at a 19K. Editors should have stepped in right away and adjust accordingly.

 

So the teams and presumably fans were informed the head coach died, and the game continued? I'm as amazed by that fact as this story.

 

Vince McMahon doesn't find it that amazing.

 

Again, it wasn't until the fourth quarter that they found out he died. What purpose would it have served to stop the game at that point?

 

They're losing anyway and their coach died. Can't imagine the proper focus was in place. And a chance to show them "perspective" on what's important.

 

The winning team's coach died.

 

Didn't this board just go nuts when a pr person forwarded a cover letter to some blog?

How is this different?