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How do you keep up with prep football games?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by spud, May 20, 2009.

  1. topsheep

    topsheep Member

    On the sideline with a camera and notebook. Keep stats, jot down things you hear on the sideline and from the stands. Pay attention to every little thing.
     
  2. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    PBP doesn't seem to vary much from writer to writer. Here's how I keep running stats.

    Rush
    Jersey # 24
    att 1 6/6
    2 7/13
    3 2/15
    4 4/19
    5 24/43

    and so on -- top number is yards on that play, bottom number is cumulative total. I circle touchdowns.

    Passing I use hatch marks for attempts and crosshatch for completions. It looks something like this: / / / X / XXX / (this would be 4 for 9)

    Receiving yards I keep up with the same way I do rushing. At the end, I just add the individual totals.

    For key non-stats points, I'll make notes on the pbp sheets, and I circle scoring plays.

    The biggest thing about all this is staying focused while the game is being played. You can't let your mind wander or get into any involved conversations. Usually, the thing I have the most trouble with is getting the scoreboard time a possession started, but the rest of it I have down to routine.

    Because I'm usually trying to write while I'm doing all this -- I generally have half my story done by halftime -- I always sit in the press box.
     
  3. bigbadeagle

    bigbadeagle Member

    On the sidelines. With Nikon D2H and 200mm-400mm lens. Clipboard with six pages of stat sheets developed more than 20 years ago, columns for penalties, first downs, pass yds, rush yds on the play, who ran or threw/caught, yard line, time — for both teams. Total up the columns when I flip the page for team totals. Have a notebook sheet to total up individuals at half and at the end. Keep first downs, ToP, and have enough room in play line to note kind of play and if there was an INT, sack or significant defensive play. Don't usually keep track of tackles by player but will note sacks.
    Have all that, with quotes and photos, ready to go by 11.
     
  4. PopeDirkBenedict

    PopeDirkBenedict Active Member

    I always brought a legal pad and kept PxP. I had the legal pad on a clipboard and taped a sheet to the back of the clipboard. The sheet was one that someone created way back when and got passed down and it worked like a charm. It had a horizontal line through the middle, so each team used half of the sheet. It had a grid for running, passing, receptions, fumble rec, int, sacks. Going across the top of the grid were blank spaces for you to write in jersey numbers. Going down were the numbers 1-2-3-4-5-.......

    Lets say Joe Blow, No. 32, had carries of 1, 7, 3, 11 and 0 yards. It would look like this in the grid

    32
    1 1
    2 7
    3 3
    4 11
    5 0

    Lets say the first run came on the first play of the game - my PxP would say

    1-10 own20 32 run 1 yard

    I would flip the clipboard around, find the rushing grid for Podunk, put 32 in one of the top squares and 1 underneath it. If a QB threw an incomplete pass, it was an X.

    7
    1 5
    2 X
    3 X
    4 22
    5 3
    6 11
    7 INT
    8 9
    9 5
    10 X

    So you can see No. 7 was 6-for-10 for 55 yards and 1 INT

    This system worked well for me because the PxP pad allowed me to take little notes (juked 2 defenders or nearly intercepted or botched snap) and still have a master sheet that allowed me to tally stats quickly.
     
  5. novelist_wannabe

    novelist_wannabe Well-Known Member

    I can't remember the last time I had a deadline as late as 11. Game starts at 7:30, and I'm done by 10:15 unless I have problems sending. 'Course, that's with the 12-inch gamers my last gig had me writing, and I wasn't taking pictures. I can't imagine doing both photos and writing well.
     
  6. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Would you be developing film also, since we're getting all nostalgia-y here?
     
  7. highlander

    highlander Member

    I use two sheets. One for PBP and one for individual stats. I also obtained a xcel program that I can enter stats in and it adds them up for me.

    Saw someone puts a mark when a team gets a first down. I put 1-10 and circle it on the PBP sheet.

    The PBP sheet has room for Time, Field Position, down and distance, Running play, Passing play, Kick, kick return and a nice note section on each line. Usually need about five of these in the pass-happy DFW Metroplex.
     
  8. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    Yeah, but I sucked at that.
     
  9. Bob Slydell

    Bob Slydell Active Member

    I actually have play by play sheets and running individual stat sheets I use. When I'm shooting, I just keep those on a clipboard and work frantically to keep up with it all. Pretty easy once you do it for a while.

    sheet example: team, down and distance, run play, pass play, kicking stats, notes.

    Got the sheets from my former SE, they are a liifesaver.
     
  10. sportshack06

    sportshack06 Member

    www.FixedIt.com

    works fine if you're in the press box..
     
  11. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    I used FixedIt's baseball version demo for an eight-team tournament a few weeks ago. It was magnificent. You preload the rosters, and then you can just fly around on the play-by-play. Very intuitive software.
     
  12. sportshack06

    sportshack06 Member

    I've used their football and baseball software for several seasons now.

    It has quirks. It does crash occasionally (remember to Auto Save). But its free and works. Call it the poor man's Automated Scorebook/Stat Crew.

    (and if you have to print the box scores on paper, you can always screen cap that into photoshop.)
     
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