How would you handle this?

This. And to make matters worse, this particular AD, who is also the boys basketball coach, is owned by the parents.

 

Ahhh, I assumed when you said they were pissed, that meant the coach/AD actually did handle it. My bad. And apologies if my initial post in the thread was overly pissy.

I'd probably press to find out if there is an apology coming or if they are taking the word of a group of 15-year-olds who knew they were facing discipline, or an adult like you who has no reason at all to lie. Maybe an e-mail with some cc's attached over their heads, specifying (if you noticed) the exact players from that school/team, who were doing this, would help things happen.

Beyond that, I'd probably let it lie. But ... if the coach/AD calls and needs a favor, like getting some camp information or something like that in the paper, I wouldn't be tripping over myself to help them. If there are coverage decisions that could go either way and this team/school is one of the options, I wouldn't have a problem with taking the "other" option every single time. And if the coach/AD/parents notice this and ask, I wouldn't lie about your reasoning.

Finally, does this school have a press box? If so, I'd tell them anyone from your paper covering a game there needs a spot in the press box and not in the stands to avoid issues in the future.

 

No apology necessary.

That last communication I've seen between the SE (who has taken control of the situation) and AD was the one where the AD brought up the kids from the other school. I told the SE that there were 5 kids in question and 4 were in the uniform of the school in question. There is no doubt in my mind. He said he would email the AD back and let me know of the outcome. The executive editor is behind us and said if there is no satisfactory outcome that it may result in a change in how we cover that school. I'm not sure that's the right way to go, but like I said earlier, this is not the first run-in (including everyone on staff) at this school and it certainly won't be the last.

 

I had a similar thing happen to me this year.

A local football player said some pretty terrible things about me and it got back to the coach through another journalist from the area. Kid was forced to write an insincere apology letter and the coach reached out and told me that the kid would be punished. I never followed up on the punishment because I didn't care. Kids are dumb and I'm a big boy.

If you want to dig around to see if the kid has been punished, I'm not going to judge you. But I'd let it be. Now, I certainly wouldn't be eager to write up a story about some summer camp that this school is hosting or some D3 signee that they are hosting but I also wouldn't be holding a huge grudge against them either.

And, as so many people have said, never play the "Do you know who I am?" card. Because chances are that they don't and if they do, they don't care.

 

Oh man...don't get me started.

We had a worse one 7-8 years back...thankfully it didn't happen to me...it's my fellow sports staffer's experience.

Sent him to cover the state water polo tournament, so he unloads his camera bag, finds a corner of the pool to stash it and goes about his day covering the tourney. He returns only to find his bag soaking wet. Yes, it was at a pool...but this was definitely not water.

Turns out some kids on the team he had covered all season took the bag into the locker room, peed all over it and put it back in place. Of course, he didn't get to the bottom of the story until he spent a week of relentless effort on it.

He ended up talking heatedly with the team's coach...nothing. Talked with various parents...nothing. Talked with the AD...bingo. After a week, the story is revealed, and our staffer gets called in where the kids are forced to apologize and the school (A.D) gave him a new camera bag.

Most douche thing I've ever encountered in 16 years doing this, and I was so proud that my fellow staffer didn't let it slide. He stayed on that thing nonstop until he got results.

 

On a similar note to this scenario...one of my first years on the job, I'm covering summer baseball and the team is doing this sunflower spit thing to the opposing coach in the third-base box. I watch it go on for 3-4 innings, nothing but giggles and ha-has, even from the team's coach.

So I write a column to accompany the gamer, basically saying how out of the line the behavior was.

The result, the coach for that team gets super pissed, calls in ranting, does some more ranting at me the next game I cover. Just ridiculous. I still see the guy around at times (assistant now), and he won't talk to me...won't even look at me.

Your reporter has every right to demand respect in a spot like that, and I would encourage him to do that...probably even make some calls demanding it myself.