Last night was the first Friday in seven years I had no calls to take . . . . .

Year 2 for me w/o Friday night calls.

 

Friday night calls are one of the biggest challenges in journalism. Rivaled only by putting together election returns from a multi-county, hundreds-of-precincts coverage area, and even that pales in comparison, because reporters are at most of those precincts, and you aren't relying on vote counts being called in.

 

Well, I worked the desk during high school season for the first time in ...

I can't even remember the last time I worked the desk on a Friday night.

I covered a Friday afternoon game, came back and wrote my story, then chased night scores. Even though some coaches can't get cell phones that work -- it's 2007; suburbia should not have horrible cell phone service -- it was a rush.

Before I knew it, it was 10 p.m. And I didn't even eat all that much junk food.

I enjoyed the 10-hour day, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

 

great post.
bravo.

 

Friday night is a rush. It's a great feeling to get that score after countless calls to fire houses and mayor's homes.
But what ticks you off is when the coach gives you the wrong score. It turns all of your efforts vain.

 

I don't know if I'll revive this thread every year . . . . .

But once again, the first post captures my thoughts pretty well.

 

Re: Last night was the first Friday in seven years I had no calls to take . . .

So what did you and the lovely geisha do instead — bastard?

 

Our brand new and improved web-based prep tool crashed and exploded like the Challenger... I hope you slept well tonight you plick...

 

We had a new system for taking boxes online. It didn't work.

We had a snafu with photo filenames that caused game photos to overwrite each other in the system.

Thirty minutes before first-edition deadline, we had two of 27 boxes, both from games we staffed.

I would not have missed it for the world.

 

This was my first Friday to cover football. Ever.

Let me just say, (and not to insult those who have done this for years) this beats the shit out of showing up to an accident or house fire and trying to get a straight answer out of cops. I showed up, got a program with both teams rosters, kept stats, did interviews and wrote a story. I don't see what so many people bitch about. What is there to fuck up? I'm sure the novelty may wear off, but I really liked it.

 

straightedge, i'd like to know your opinion once you work a full desk shift on a friday, taking calls from clueless sobs who don't know how to add a box and when you ask them the score they say "27-6," refusing to tell you which teams played or at where they played. a wonderful exercise in mental gymnastics, no doubt. but some of those foofs...

 

Re: Last night was the first Friday in seven years I had no calls to take . . .

I'm on the rotation to do a desk shift in a few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

As for the guys who refuse to tell you the teams or where they played, can't you just talk to their supervisor? I kid. ;D

But coaches who call in scores but won't say which teams played? Really? "Got a score. 27-6. [click]"

That's a little difficult to believe.