Spring sports tab is off to the printer

There are no rules about getting in a certain number of practices before playing?
Here you have to something like two weeks of practice time before you are allowed to play. So you can't go from the state football championship game on Satyurday to starting forward Tuesday night.

 

My paper only covers eight schools (six have football).
While I work on a tab, the other reporter handles more of the regular news; we're a weekly with two full-time reporters.
We sold the vast majority of our ads as a package deal for all three tabs before the fall tab, so the ad people had little to do with the tabs after that. We only missed the ad goal for the spring tab by $300.
Each tab has a feature story, bylined previews on the teams from the two schools in town (one public, one Catholic) and capsules (letterwinners, others, coach, record last season, short preview, etc.) on the teams from the other six schools. All have team pictures.
There is a bit of a time constraint for each tab, but it's not as bad as you think. Before practices begin, I send each coach at each school a packet of info sheets to fill out and return, as well as a sheet to fax in for results. Some are very good at returning them, others aren't. That's when the telephone gets a workout.
The most trying part is hoping the photo day is: 1] scheduled (there have been times I've called and called and been told the yearbook person hasn't set one yet, or that it's after the tab runs), or 2] doesn't overlap with another school's (it happens occasionally, so the other reporter gets it for me or we share with another paper or the yearbook people).
Unlike in the fall and winter, our baseball, softball, track and tennis seasons all start within a period of a couple days, usually after the state boys basketball finals.
It's no cakewalk, but it's workable.

 

Exactly what's happened for us...we opted to limit tabs to schedules/team photos, while running our season previews in the regular paper. It helps the transition time between seasons.

 

We had that happen to a small school up here a few years back. Hoops practice in the morning, football under the lights after school.

 

Whenever football or volleyball post-season runs look to conflict with basketball, our area teams (small schools in northwest Ohio) reschedule the basketball games since most of the kids play at least two sports.