Policies on athlete signings?

Our policy, which was created long before I got here and to which I thankfully defer all complaints or suggestions for change:

1) We cover all signings. Even if I can't get to one because of another event, I'll set up a phone interview to get a quote and put together a 12-inch story.

2) Photos of DI kids only. We try to get a picture of the kid in the act of signing.

3) We usually just run info on the local DII/JUCO signing out-of-town kids in the briefs.

Covering all the JUCO signings gets pretty boring and the creativity really gets drained after a while, but it's an important part of the community and prep sports scene.

 

If the signing warrants a photo, why not find a quality shot on file of the kid playing the sport or perhaps a fresh profile pic of the kid it it warrants a feature-size piece.

I just don't get the allure of the cheesy table shot, pen in hand, parents on each shoulder.

 

Because those cheesy table shot, pen in hand, parents on each shoulder, coaches in the background, etc. shots are what grandmas want to cut out and save and what the schools want to post on the hall bulletin board.

Yeah, I don't give a hoot really, and they certainly don't carry any design weight, but the sell newspapers.

It's not about us.

 

Agreed, Shoeless. Having spend most of my career in smaller, rural towns, it's still a big deal for someone to be going away to college. I was thinking we'd have readers ready to burn down the building since we've had to cut the number of box scores we run by about two-thirds, but instead its when does the photo that was turned in of the kid wrestling champs run? And it's always in the back of my head, when a team goes on to sectional or regional, that this page is gonna be saved in yearbooks and family scrapbooks for ages, so get it right and make it good.

 

Exactly get it right and make it good...the parents/school isn't going to clip out a well-designed feature package with a quality photo???

 

We had a lady get pissed and take it to our publisher because her girl didn't get a full write up and photo on her commitment to an NAIA school. We have one and a juco in our area that they both promote the hell out of. What we do below D1 is mug shot and brief. We run the signing photos online for any level.

Oh, back to the NAIA girl. She was astounded that she started school and "owed so much money." She's now out of school and a mom. All within a year's time.

 

A dime for every kid that leaves the state with big college sports dreams and is out within a year, and I could afford to stay in this biz

 

ya know, you have to know your market on this stuff.
we try to shoot feature shots of the kids when they sign, not the sitting at a table signing shot.
There's no right way and wrong way to do it.

 

Our policy is thus, and it's pretty cut-and-dried with only a few isolated exceptions:

We send photogs and reporters out to cover signings on the first Wednesday in February (football signing day), and then only for the D1s.

Because we have a D1 program in town, we sometimes have stories and features on signees in other sports to the university, but that's not an absolute.

Everyone else gets a brief and a small signing photo (the kid only, no parents and coaches) if it is submitted to us. That includes everyone from out-of-town D1s to jucos to NAIA. And speaking of jucos, they're a big deal here and we treat them accordingly.

Like I said, there are occasional exceptions. For example, 2-3 years ago, I did a signing story and photo on a baseball player from a fairly new school who was their first D1 signee in any sport. I also did one last year on a girl from the same school who signed a D1 basketball scholarship with an out-of-state college. She was a four-year starter and a three-time All-Area selection, so we felt she deserved more than just a brief. But those exceptions are pretty rare.

 

I get, maybe, one or two of these signings every year, so I let them do the classic picture with the fake NLI. When I first arrived at my shop, I thought it would be neat to keep one sheet of paper for all signings, but forgot about it.

 

Our space has been whacked a few times so it's changed, but here's what we try to do.

1) D1 signings are daily-worthy. There must be a headshot of some type (usually if the athlete is all-conference, this works). For some minor sports, our preps editor has a blog she posts on and she may mention it there.

2) D2 signings aren't always covered in daily, but one of the biggest D2 schools is in our backyard so a lot of times they'll get "national signing day" stories or if a big-time minor sport athlete goes there, he or she may get something more.

3) D3, NAIA, JUCO are one paragraph only in college briefs.

 

At my old shop we would list D-I signings in a 2-column chart with name, sport, HS, college, then under that we would run small college signings in agate type (LB Joe Smith of Podunk High to Podunk State; QB John Brown of Boondocks High to Boondocks State; etc.) for space reasons. Top it with a feature on the biggest/most compelling signing. Nobody complained.