Odessa American sports writer

This was posted a couple of days ago on the Texas Press Association job board. The spot is one of two to come open there in the past couple of months. The other was filled rather quickly, but this one was allegedly frozen for a bit by corporate types. The area stuff applies mainly to football season, when you'll have about 20 schools ranging from Class 3A (less than 1,000 students) to Six-Man (less than 100 students) to keep up with.

The rest of the year, beats are assigned by sport so you could be covering a D-II college or a JuCo (neither play football) in addition to local high school basketball and a couple of spring sports like baseball or golf. The football tab tour will take you to such exotic locales as Marfa, Wink, Rankin and Seminole.

Other coverage includes some Midland RockHounds baseball (Double-A affiliate of Oakland), lots of local golf and two PRCA rodeos -- SandHills in January at Ector County Coliseum is one of the first of the year and there's usually a lot of guys coming off NFR appearances; West of the Pecos in Pecos should have just wrapped up as it tends to come the week of/before the Fourth of July and is part of the whole "Cowboy Christmas" scene.

As for the area, Odessa has about 100,000 people and Midland has about 105,000. The "metro" population is roughly 250,000, but that's counting small towns like Andrews and Monahans, which are both more than 30 miles away. The nearest bigger city is Lubbock, about two hours north, and the Metroplex is five hours east on I-20.

You'd better like wide-open spaces and have a tolerance for wind, dust and rural types. This is not the most culturally advanced place on earth (it is the home of Friday Night Lights, after all), but Internet access and cable/satellite TV can help you overcome that.

And though it's been said many times on this board, Gove is good people, even if he does need a hair cut and likes soccer.

 

Gove does need a cut, but will never get one. And that's the way it should be.
And I think the soccer thing goes beyond 'like,' unfortunately. But it says something that he can overcome that, in my mind.

 

pressboxer is correct. This job has been frozen for nearly 2 months. This was my old job. If you have any questions, PM me or ask on the thread.

 

cc ... would the freeze just be a result of the home office trying to save a few bucks before having to bring someone in before football? I would assume, that, anyway ... and if so, is that an indication of attitude toward sports there?

I don't mean to come off as negative, only curious ... because I believe it probably would be a great job for the right person.

 

The freeze was caused by the chain, not the paper.

I'm pretty sure it was pretty much chain-wide, though a few of the shops were still hiring (ie. McAllen).

The paper is still gung-ho about sports, as it should be considering the area it is in.

And yes, it is a great job. While the area beat doesn't feature Permian or Abilene High, it is your best chance to ride a team to a state championship game, and a 16-game season. My first year there I followed a team to the state title, and it is a big-time accomplishment in that state.

Plus, just because you are covering smaller schools, doesn't mean the crowds aren't there.

For example, Class 3A Andrews (less than 1,000 kids in the school) just completed a $15 million fieldhouse and routinely draws 6,000 to 10,000 people, depending on how good the team is that year.

 

So is Permian not in the coverage area of this paper?

Just asking, not really familiar with rural Texas.

 

Permian is in Odessa ... but the opening isn't for that beat. Least that's what I read.

 

The OA has a beat writer for Odessa High and Permian. The area writer covers the other 17 schools.

In some ways it is harder than covering the 5A schools because of the organization involved and having to talk to all the coaches each week, but in some ways it is easier because when you are covering 0-10 Odessa High you have to keep coming up with a column, feature and preview every week.

 

I still remember with great fondness the amusing speed freak at the liquor store near the big football stadium. I think he must have been a drummer in a speed metal band because the tapping on the counter-top never stopped.

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"STANKS LIKE A SUMBITCH OUT THERE TONIGHT DON'T IT?"
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"WHAT ELSE FOR YA?"
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"PRECIATE IT, Y'ALL COME BACK!"
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Maybe I should ask Gove if the OA wants to hire me as a one-man bureau in Presidio. It might be cheaper to keep a staffer down there than pay someone to make the 460-mile round trip. I could cover Alpine, Marfa and Sul Ross State, too.

 

Actually, OHS has never been 0-10 (thanks to having opponents like Big Spring and Lubbock High on the schedule), but did go 0-9-1 in 1967. That program, like many other "old" high schools in similar multi-school towns, got shafted when most of the money and athletes went to the new school.

Of course, being eliminated rather early from playoff contention on a regular basis doesn't make the last month of the season any more enjoyable.

Permian, meanwhile, hasn't been a threat to win state in more than a decade, but that side of town still seems to think all creation should tremble at the mere utterance of "Mojo."

The area schools have been good enough that you should get at least one December playoff game, which means a pretty good run in a 64-team bracket. And if one of them gets on a role like ccraker got to cover, you will achieve celebrity status within that community (as long as they keep winning, of course).

 

And anyone familiar with Texas high school football knows that that book could have been written about many, many a high school football program within the Lone Star State. It ain't just Permian, folks.

 

I'll just say this:

Odessa High has had more D-I softball players (1) in the last two years than the football team (0). Good times had by all covering the Bronchos.

Oh, and Permian had multiple D-I athletes from football each of the last two years.