HS title games

I was wondering what kind of coverage everyone gives HS state title games.
We have the potential of having two games in back to back weeks. Any neat breakout ideas that have worked well for people in the past?

 

Good idea with the front page. Much better than burying it in the back.

Yeah, I was talking gamer, morning-after type stuff.

 

Unfortunately, our state games will be Dec. 23. So if we get that far, I will do a gamer, a sidebar column, and sleep for 4 days till our holiday hoops tourrneys crank up.

 

All righty then.

A series of pullout quotes is something simple to pull off on deadline. Throw up a header (not headline) like "What They Are Saying" or "Quotable" or something like that. If you can add mug shots of the sources, all the better.

An inside-page photo collage is also simple on deadline, if your photogs will give you a dozen photos or so. I wouldn't use more than five or so in the collage, plus you'll use the best shot (and possibly a secondary shot) for the mainbar anyway.

If you get your writers to plan ahead of time, they can write up a "By the Numbers" graphic for the winning team -- include any interesting stat or highlight that's pertinent to that team, or that game, or the whole season.

If you have multiple writers, send one to do the gamer (and sidebar, if possible) and one to do a notebook and/or column. (Or have one writer do all two/three stories, if capable.) Break out a box with "key play of the game," "stat of the game," player of the game," etc., to go along with the gamer.

Just throwin' out ideas here. Maybe one will stick.

 

With our state finals around the corner, we turn out two different four-page wraparound sections -- one for Friday's two games, one for Saturday's two games. But they aren't for general delivery; they are wrapped around the paper and sold at the stadium. They've been very successful.

I try to do a display front, with quick capsules on each game down the left side of the front -- game-by-game scores, three players to watch for each team, statistical leaders. Start a story on each of the two games on the front, jumping inside. More features on 2 and 3, along with plenty of art. (This is where getting help from other papers vis-a-vis file art is really useful.)

The back page includes the full rosters for each of the four teams playing that day, and then a state finals records package which is the same for each day.

 

We do a page called Gimme 5 that breaks down the five keys to the game in short, tight 6-8" siders with a couple of pieces of huge pieces of art. It's a break from the old style traditional boring sidebars that readers only scan. One person can easily handle all 5 keys and the photogs love it because we can give them big play since the siders are so short.

We also do a breakout that runs with the gamer called Beyond The Boxscore that gives a capsule look at the game with 1 graf on why Podunk High won, 1 graf on why the other team lost, 2-3 crucial moments and by the numbers. We added this and revamped our gamers to be more descriptive and featury rather than the old style nuts and bolts gamers. Readers love the change and they can quickly scan the breakout and get the nuts and bolts in a matter of seconds. Plus we cut the gamers to no more than 10-12". Going to this format improved our deadline time by at least 30 minutes on Friday nights.

 

We don't publish on Saturday, so for our 12-page Sunday section, 9 were devoted to our two games we covered.

We had sidebars, a trail to the title game page, columns, photo pages. It was pretty damn good.