Is this really necessary?

Also, can anybody be taken seriously after quoting Scott Van Pelt?

 

The column is a bit much. It's one of those things you bitch about with people in your office or even have polite conversations with coaches about, but that's really it.

As far as it being "a sham" and "a shame" on us, that is really not understanding what a lot of prep sports departments go through. Some of us get lucky have a combination of staff and stringers available to cover the few schools in our coverage beat. Others are out numbered by not a small margin. It becomes triage. You start to prioritize games based on importance of the game, how many people tend to follow that team and/or who has a compelling story. You are not going to skip many games of a team that is on its way to a fourth state title in a row for a team who hasn't won a game in the last three years. But you try to organize yourself so you can get to as many of the schools during the season as possible and try to give as equal coverage to teams as you can. A lot of times you still won't make a dent in things because if you have 30 schools in your coverage area and two staffers available to cover something in an ever shrinking news hole for preps, sorry, there are going to be 10 to 15 of those schools who get mentioned in roundups only and that is only if coaches call in to report the scores. Some parents will never understand that dynamic and others will never be satisfied even if you can show them you did a perfect 50/50 split. You just have to keep going as best you can. Keep organized, make plans to cover teams several weeks out, follow who is doing what as close as you can so you can adjust if a team is playing unexpectedly well, keep on top of coaches to report scores and be sympathetic to parents. And sometimes, yes, make a choice to cover a winning team over a losing team or pick one middle of the road team over another because it gets more readers. It sucks you can't cover everyone, but again, triage.

 

Thank you Gator. At least it's not me. I wondered WTF does Scott Van Pelt's opinion matter to your readers but I assumed maybe he knew them better than me.

 

Are you kidding?

I fully understand what a prep sports department goes through. I've worked at a newspaper for 24+ years and we dedicate 80 percent of our coverage to preps even with a D-I school to cover, too. I totally understand the dynamics and economics of a sports staff stretched thin and I totally understand that coverage cannot be fair and equal for everyone. It's built into the business model. Your coverage is determined by what your subscribers/readers and advertisers want. To say there's no bias in that is ludicrous. It's a shame that some of you cannot recognize it.

 

You should make the first-team defense this year.

 

Maybe it was a really tall hill obscured by the curtain.