Now what?

i'm with 21, why is this even a story you wrote? much less wrote 50 inches? walk away from this.

 

Not to pile on here, but I have to agree, this isn't a story you should have gotten into. But I know the pressure you're probably under, Huntsie. At my place, we're required to run a kiddie sports page and we have a very large coverage area with too many teams to count. People come at us with all kinds of "stories" like this one, or teams that won some tournament, regional event, etc. Learning to say no is an art form. I think the threshold has to be whether the story is of broad enough interest that people not directly involved will read it. Think issues over specific incidents. Those types of stories can be golden at a community paper, because they can keep the kiddie sports people and your management happy at the same time. Do that and run your reader-submitted game roundups and you'll never have to listen to management ordering you to cover U-9 soccer games.

 

can this work without the kid's name or even the dad's name -- without anybody's name? more as an allegory about some of the issues facing youth sports participants?

otherwise ... yeah, this doesn't belong in a newspaper

 

Having lived where he works (I still miss the bean burritos at El Burrito Loco.). I'd argue that it's a story in a "Hey-look-it's-another-wacky-hockey-parent" kind of way. The area has a history with that sort of thing.....

And don’t you have hockey nationals to cover Huntsie....

 

I think I agree with the others but to answer your original question you can go with a yearbook photo for a mug ...

 

I'll certainly try for more parents, but the strategy seems to be to refer everything to the director of minor hockey. Besides, I think the parents comments come in the form of 19 signatures on a two page petitition.
The coaches have chosen not to comment.
I'm inclined at this point to drop it -- I suspect this guy is just using the "I went to the media and there's going to be a story that will embarrass you all" line at the local coffee shop.

Thanks for your input though. That's why I put it up for discussion here.

 

i didn't say without any details. without the names

it's youth sports. write the story -- not 50 inches, maybe 25? -- but use it to work into a balanced story about the kind of politics that are damaging kids sports. could be interesting.

 

12 inches. At most.

Still don't understand the point, though. What's the news peg?

Boy drops out of league? I quit the soccer team when I was 13 ... can't imagine someone writing about it ... especially if it's because of my overbearing dad ... that's even more embarassing.

19 parents sign a petition to force boy out? Better talk to some of those parents or you really don't have a story. You can't just quote overbearing dad and some poorly written petition.

I don't think you got it.

 

The only angle I see here is 19 parents signing a petition to get a kid kicked off a hockey team.

Other than that, kids quit teams all the time. There are plenty of crazy parents to go around. And a kid quitting/being removed from a team at age 11 matters so very little.

The angle is 19 parents get a kid removed from a team. If that's the truth, and there is no good reason (and I can't ever see one) that's the story.

 

What's the director saying?

 

I agree, the story here is why 19 parents would sign a petition to kick a kid off a team. They obviously needed a second goalie. But 50 inches? No way. 15 would be a stretch. And are there other incidents like this in the league, and what's the league's stance? In most youth competitive leagues, once you pay your money, you're on for the season (barring some kind of disciplinary action, like not paying your fees). Once rosters are set beyond a certain deadline, they can't change the roster, short of a kid moving out of the area. Even then, they're on the hook for the fees already paid, in the leagues I've dealt with.

 

I've got to agree here. Walk away from this thing. A 50-inch story without art is a pretty tough sell in a newspaper. A boring 50-inch story about peewee hockey without art is a fucking nightmare. Good luck convincing someone to read that thing.