Should JV results be included?

Exactly. If we're going on the "gatekeeper" argument, then you shouldn't cover sports in most communities.

 

It depends on what you and your bosses want to do. I remember the Arizona Republic used to include JV and freshman scores.

 

This works well if you have the space...we've toyed with it in the past, but usually when the onus is on the coaches to report scores you'll get little response. I reiterate...if you have space (and the time to throw it together).

We've tried several times with this approach to our smaller weekly and never get a consistent enough response to bother with it. But you definitely shouldn't feel the need to cover JV in person — at all.

 

Do the JV or freshmen teams play for a title? I'm not talking some made-up thing. Does the state association award a JV championship?

If not, then JV games are nothing but glorified practices. And as such, don't really need to be covered.

That said, put the scores in agate if the coaches will provide them. But don't waste column inches in your story on it.

 

I'm at about a 10K daily, been here for five or so years, and they did JV, freshman and middle school results when I got here. It's the epitome of community. Like most have said, we won't go looking for the results, just put them in when we get them, which is mostly via email or phone message.

And, in my own opinion, it is what the reader wants. If this were 10 years ago, I would come in here with guns a blazing saying, "Screw that," to JV or lower results. But now, we no longer hold the keys to the car. I'm trying to please as many people in my circulation area as possible, and if that means taking another 15 column inches a day to type up some middle school results, so be it. I enjoy getting a paycheck.

 

Agreed. When I was in high school, as a freshman, our freshman football team went 8-2, losing 19-14 to one of our district rivals.

Three years later as seniors, we came up against that same school midway through the season. The final was 63-0 only because we spent the entire fourth quarter running straight ahead on every play with our JV guys (and usually gained 10 yards out of it). During our coaches' pregame picks, one of the assistants actually had us winning 84-0.

I've always remembered that for this topic. I don't put in JV games because they don't matter.

 

If someone submits a JV piece, I'll publish it, but I don't cover the games or write anything about the teams myself.
It's all I can do to cover the varsity. Inevitably, some varsity parents are going to feel their kids' team is being shortchanged. Covering JV, freshman or middle school stuff will just give them more ammunition.
Every season, I get at least one call about a subvarsity team that's having a great season. No matter how great a season, that team may be having, when you start writing about subvarsity, the bar for what qualifies as a great season will eventually be lowered and lowered to the point where you have to cover all subvarsity teams.
You start out writing about an undefeated JV team, then somebody comes along and makes a good case for writing about a team that isn't undefeated but won its league. Then it's a team that's over .500. Then it's a team that works hard and is a bunch of great kids.

 

Here's my thinking:

If someone brings me the info, does it really take any more effort or sully my gamer to make the last line "Johny Jenkins scored 15 to lead the Home Town JVs to a 65-59 win over The Visitors." ?

The answer is is no. It's a lot easier to type that at the end of a story than it is to have a conversation with someone why I don't want to do it because I'm a gatekeeper by god and their information doesn't get past the velvet rope.

 

It hardly hurts anything to put a sentence or two about the JV team. But you should only put in what you get from coaches. I know some papers that hardly put in the varsity because there are just too many schools to cover. It's really up to what you have time for and how willing the coaches are to work with you. I've had coaches who are very good about calling me with a sentence or two about the game and getting a couple of names in the paper. There have been a couple of sports where the JV coach was better about getting me information than the varsity coach. Don't go out of your way to get JV and if you need something to cut for varsity, cut the JV news. If you have the space to put it in, why not?

 

What he said.

You can't be the gatekeeper when the floodgates have opened.

 

Funny how some people equate "including JV results" with "covering JV games."

 

I used to do that my first few years. And it was only because the guy before me did it. It was after about three years of covering JV games that I figured it out: I keep doing this, I'll burn out, because I'm going to varsity, JV or juco games six days a week.

So I started phasing out JV and freshmen coverage. Now, 15 years later, I don't go to any JV unless it's the tail end of the girls' JV basketball game just before the varsity games start. And if they send something in, great. If they don't, no great loss.