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Recruiting stories

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by SnarkShark, Feb 7, 2014.

  1. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    With all the recruiting talk on the other thread, I figured it deserved another one. This is one of the worst stories of that type this year. From what I understand, the Register and another local paper ran stories on this kid's made up commitment in December.

    The question is, how would you handle it? Do you publish this story or handle it a different way?

    http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/crenshaw-71648-scholarship-state.html
     
  2. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    I think I'd handle it like they did, just lay everything out there and let it go like that. Once the kid accuses ASU of revoking the offer, I think the school deserves the right to have their side of the story heard. I'm sorry if it makes the kid look bad.

    There's a chance the kid was trying to pump himself up and look like a stud by announcing he was signing with ASU for a scholarship offer he didn't have. But I'd guess it's more likely the kid isn't the brightest kid in the world, isn't very worldly, has some other issues - however you want to put it - and made some tremendous leaps of faith. The way he's backtracking now, saying before that he had an offer, now saying he didn't but was just saying he wants to go there, seems to back up the latter possibility.

    If the Register and other outlets wrote about him committing to ASU in the past, there's every reason to follow up on the story on why he didn't sign with them and the other stuff going on.
     
  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Hey, at least he had the good sense to say his offer got yanked.

    A few years ago, a kid near Reno told everyone he was accepting a scholarship to Cal after taking numerous visits (Oklahoma State was one). School even threw him a big party in the gym.

    http://www.rgj.com/article/20080207/PREPSPORTS/802070361/Fernley-s-Hart-admits-fabricating-story
     
  4. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    I remember that very well and I'll never forget the kid's name, especially now that Kevin Hart the comedian has blown up.
     
  5. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    In a lot early reporting, we're hamstrung because schools and coacges can't comment on a prospect until they get that NLOI in hand. Well done, OCR.
     
  6. SnarkShark

    SnarkShark Well-Known Member

    Another publication's response to the OC Register's story.

    http://www.dailypilot.com/sports/tn-dpt-sp-0209-oronde-crenshaw-register-virgen-20140208,0,1927921,full.story
     
  7. BurnsWhenIPee

    BurnsWhenIPee Well-Known Member

    At some point, does the high school coaching staff deserve any blame for letting things get to the point it got?

    I would think they know if a scholarship offer has actually been made, and if the kid (who has been through so much, according to one of the HS coaches) really is so naive and has no father figure and has all this stuff going on at home, I would expect the coaches to step in and help him through the process.
     
  8. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    I'm having a hard time deciding what this story is actually saying. It starts off lamenting the fact that recruiting stories are news, which to me is asinine. I work in a pretty big football area with a fair amount of Division I signings, and it is still a big deal when a local kid gets a scholarship to a big school. Then the story goes on to say the Pilot first broke the news and will be there to report it when he does go to a big school out of junior college. They also got this information from the kid's Facebook page and it seemed like some of the kids comments got mixed up or he overstated ASU's interest. I guess the lesson is that you need to dig a little deeper, but my guess is that lesson will be forgotten shortly.
    I thought the originally linked story was a bit much. No reason to write such a story to set the record straight. The kid is unfamiliar with the process and mis-stated ASU's interest. It doesn't seem like he was trying to be a big shot. It's not like the Hart kid, who called a news conference and had this big dog-and-pony show that turned out to be a hoax. OCR should have just mentioned it as a couple sentences in a roundup or something for the people who were expecting him to sign with ASU. I thought the story made him look bad.
     
  9. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    So, will the Press-Telegram now do a story reviewing the Daily Pilot's review of the ORC's coverage?
     
  10. MCbamr

    MCbamr Member

    A coach can confirm if a particular athlete is being recruited though.
     
  11. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Yep. I remember back when I was covering Alabama, Mark Gottfried released a statement that they were no longer recruiting Walter Sharpe, a big-time forward from Birmingham.

    Word around the campfire is that Sharpe's AAU coach/handler/uncle/whatever had requested $50,000 for Sharpe's signature. So it was in Gottfried's interest to officially distance himself from Sharpe and his camp.

    Sharpe ultimately signed with Mississippi State, but eventually wound up at UAB. He never amounted to much, other than a couple of run-ins with the law.
     
  12. TheHacker

    TheHacker Member

    If not the college coach, then certainly the high school coach should be a key source on this. I was a prep SE in an area that produces a lot of college football and basketball players, and we never had a coach lead us astray on recruiting news. If they knew Big State U wasn't really recruiting Johnny All-County, they'd tell us. And we had kids tell us all sorts of stuff. We got out-and-out suckered once. That was embarrassing. We had another one where a basketball player told us he had name-brand schools after him, and we did a story that said so because the kid legitimately had one of those "overcoming adversity" back stories. He ended up at a very small D-I program.

    That sort of leads to another point worth discussing. We do these recruiting stories, and even if the kid actually signs where he said, how often do we go back and cover it when it doesn't work out? Like, let's say the kid doesn't qualify academically, or any number of other circumstances arises and the season begins and lo and behold the kid isn't on the roster ... do we cover that? Most of the time we don't. I'm not going to say we never followed up on stuff like that at my place, but most of the time we didn't. And I suspect we're not alone.

    I guess it depends on how significant the recruit and the school are, but if recruiting is news, shouldn't we feel compelled to stay on top of stuff like that no matter what?
     
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