JV coverage

Of course, this isn't a black-and-white answer.

If you're a 100K, a line with the JV score at the end of the varsity box is probably all you would want.

If you're a 10K with three schools, not a damn thing wrong with getting more names in the paper. Or with the ninth-grade team. Or with the seventh-graders.

Don't forget, in some places it's OK to open the Pandora's box, because it can only release so many names.

 

just got this e-mail today:

>Why does the Sports page not not cover
> all the athletic teams. I have never seen a write
> up of the JV Football or the Freshmen football
> games. These boys work just as hard as varsity
> players. For that matter Furlough Middle School has
> not gotten much coverage either. They practice the
> same amount of time, play the same amount of games
> but do not get coverage in the Sports page. They
> also do not have the advantage of band or
> cheerleaders. Does someone have to write the games
> up and submit them? Our coaches are too busy to do
> that and what is a sports writer for? This is not a
> letter to the editor but a complaint against the
> paper. You have done a much better job lately of
> covering things kids do in school and other various
> community events but you still have a way to go. I
> did notice that the Sports editor didn't fail to
> mention the Kennedy guy who had a DUI ( I think it
> was) and even ran a picture of him. Was this really
> news? This man was responsible for
> football camps for the boys. He is young and
> everyone does something stupid once in a while. I
> do not think it merited the attention it got when
> the man has done so many good things for the
> community.

by the way, we run jv, freshman and middle school shorts IF the coaches e-mail the info. i e-mailed back that the person should complain to the athletic director, superintendent or school board because we get zilch in cooperation from the douchebag coaches. and incidentally, the dui was an nfl player and i told the person maybe they should be disappointed in him for driving drunk, not the paper for covering it, which by the way, was a freakin year ago. and i love the part where the coaches are too busy.

 

NEVER good to get in a pissing match with a parent. Say thanks and move on.

 

I usually get the "There's a JV/freshman/middle school team that's having a great season, why don't you cover them?" call once a season.
If they leave a name and a number or they e-mail, I give them my reasons: It's all I can do just to cover all the varsity teams each week; if I covered one, I'd have to cover them all; I don't have the staff to cover them.
Even though it's only four high schools there are between 32 and 39 varsity teams between the four of them in a given season. Though it's my goal every week to get some acknowledgement of how each varsity team is doing in the paper, more often than not, for various reasons, I don't quite reach that objective (Coaches don't return calls, etc.). I can't even think about covering subvarsity until I can take care of all the varsity teams every week.
Once I explain that, I've yet to hear anyone wish to continue the argument.
I tell them if they wish to send in an article, I'll publish it. Of course, I did that once and I got a call from somebody wondering why we covered one JV team and not another one. Apparently, he couldn't quite figure out that we didn't cover JV, we just published submitted copy.
Then I told him he was welcome to send an article if he wished.

 

I work for two weeklies and am seriously about to quit and move back to South Carolina to live with my old college roommate. Why? Check this out:

The woman who had my job before wouldn't cover JV. She had been there for about two years (an eternity at such a small place). She emailed back a parent about why JV wasn't covered and bam – sacked. Nobody told me why she wasn't there, but I was able to put the two together. One of the first things I was told when I got there was to do more JV coverage (nevermind that I have three high schools about 35 miles equidistant from each other to cover, by myself). I did a little with basketball because it was easy, but tried to stay away. I was also told to mix in middle school coverage. I mean, WTF?

I would be covering JV football right now if we didn't have someone's grandfather sending in 7-inch stories. It's a total joke. I have 12 different varsity teams to cover in any given week and they want JV and middle school thrown in? Right. Not to mention they act like Pavlov's dog whenever a parent complains.

 

We've got a 20K around here that handles this, I think, quite well. And the big reason is they've been consistent for as long as I can remember -- some 30 years.

They have a city high school and about 10 other high schools. They run a JV box and notes on the city high school's games. They run notes on the city middle school's results. And that's it. None other.

Well established and met without complaint.

 

I put a note in my section every day I have room that spells out the policy, which is essentially "JV, freshman, middle school and club team results are welcome via e-mail to xxxx@newspaper.com. Results will be edited for style and will run as space allows."

It's important to communicate your policy to the right people. I have thankfully gotten the backing of the high school and middle school athletic directors, and they have informed their non-varisty coaches to e-mail results.

Of course, this doesn't stop the parental whining. But at least I have a firm, written, regularly published policy to point to. The "edited for style" is important, because that allows you to take out all the extraneous information like "Kevin, Michael, Bobby, Randy, Edward, Tommy and Joe also played good."

 

PEE WEE FOOTBALL! RAH RAH RAH!!!!!


(BTW, I heard this chant while patrolling the sidelines at a JV game one day giving them a damn picture and score, which is more than they deserve)....
"Let's hear it for the JV. They count too!"

For what, I ask?

 

That's fine. Have the coaches e-mail them in, and when there's time and space, run 'em.

But no, you will not take them dropped off by hand or mailed in (so that you have to re-type them from scratch), no, you will never take them over the phone (you have more important things to do, like taking a dump), and no no no no no, you will NEVER go out of the building and cover any of them in person. And no, you don't care if they have a 13-0 record, and they work really, really hard.

 

In a small town, where community news sells the paper, you are almost forced to run JV swill. The larger the market, the more you can ignore it.
The problem I have with small town coverage is where do you draw the line? Pee Wee? Junior High? Elementary?

 

There is a weekly that is a sister paper to Shot's aforementioned daily that runs middle school, Pop Warner/youth football and everything else ... written by a staffer. And they're bitching and moaning about lack of resources on staff now.

 

I started out covering midget basketball, covering it like it was the only sport in the world. It's a great training ground.